Title: Miriam Makeba
Medium: Oil and Collage on Canvas
Date: 2017
Unframed: 101cm x 76cm
Jazz has always been music that thrived in adversary. In its very nature it asserts a kind of freedom. The first series focused on jazz made by Sam was his “musicians” series exhibited in 1994 just as South Africa was entering democracy. He wanted to create a tribute to all the jazz musicians like Miriam Makeba that suffered under the Apartheid government with their restrictions on this genre of music during the time of the Sharpeville massacre and the forced removals of District Six and Sophiatown (Smith 2006:80). He often revisits this theme in his later work as seen in these two paintings, titled: Keith Jarrett and Miriam Makeba created in 2011.
Jazz for Nhlengethwa is both political and spiritual. Alex Dodd (Smith 2006:80) explained it perfectly: “for him, [it is] political and spiritual at once. Spiritual in the sense that the music links the artist to his much-loved oldest brother (Ranki), political in the sense that it engages the black diaspora and a trans-Atlantic history of Black Consciosness.”
Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, United Nations goodwill ambassador, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid in South Africa.
