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“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” states Alesandra Seutin. Known as Mama Africa, Makeba also spent time in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Starting as a teenager sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s official delegate to the UN. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a Black Panther. This remarkable life and legacy motivate Seutin’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show combines dance, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a simple biography but draws on her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after relocating to New York in 1959, she was barred from South Africa for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was excluded from the United States after marrying activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, part celebration, part provocation – with the exceptional vocalist Tutu Puoane leading reviving her music to vibrant life.

Power and poise … the production.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was a newborn. Unable to pay the fine, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, bringing her infant with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the details Seutin discovered when researching Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” says she, when we meet in the city after a show. Her parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her company Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would sing her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a child, and move along in the home.

Songs of freedom … Miriam Makeba performs at the venue in 1988.

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in the city. “I paused my career for a quarter to look after her and she was always asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she recalls. “I had so much time to pass at the facility so I began investigating.” As well as reading about her victorious homecoming to the nation in 1990, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the era), she discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that her child the girl passed away in childbirth in the year, and that due to her banishment she could not be present at her own mother’s funeral. “You see people and you focus on their success and you overlook that they are struggling like everyone,” says the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the production (first staged in the city in the year). Thankfully, her parent’s treatment was effective, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, she pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more generally to the theme of uprooting and loss today. While it’s not overt in the show, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “And we gather as these other selves of characters connected to the icon to greet this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the multi-talented performers appear possessed by beat, in harmony with the players on the platform. Her choreography incorporates various forms of dance she has learned over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including urban dances like the form.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group were unaware about the artist. (She died in 2008 after having a cardiac event on stage in the country.) Why should younger generations discover Mama Africa? “I think she would inspire the youth to advocate what they are, expressing honesty,” says Seutin. “However she accomplished this very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then sing a beautiful song.” She wanted to take the similar method in this work. “We see dancing and listen to melodies, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with strong messages and instances that hit. This is what I respect about Miriam. Since if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They back away. But she did it in a way that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• The performance is at London, 22-24 October