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“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” states Alesandra Seutin. Called Mama Africa, the iconic artist also spent time in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a teenager dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in the city, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the United Nations. An vocal anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a Black Panther. This rich story and impact motivate Seutin’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its British debut.

A Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen combines dance, live music, and spoken word in a theatrical piece that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after relocating to the city in 1959, Makeba was prohibited from her homeland for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the United States after wedding activist her spouse. The show is like a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, part provocation – with the fabulous vocalist Tutu Puoane leading reviving Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a shebeen is an under-the-radar venue for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, often managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, Christina went to prison for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the details Seutin discovered when researching Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says she, when we meet in the city after a show. Seutin’s father is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before relocating to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her dance group the ensemble. Her South African mother would sing her music, such as the tunes, when she was a youngster, and move along in the home.

Songs of freedom … the artist performs at the venue in the year.

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in the city. “I paused my career for three months to look after her and she was constantly asking for Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were singing together,” Seutin remembers. “There was ample time to pass at the facility so I began investigating.” As well as learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the era), Seutin found that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that her child Bongi passed away in labor in 1985, and that due to her exile she could not be present at her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you focus on their success and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Creation and Themes

All these thoughts went into the creation of the show (premiered in the city in 2023). Thankfully, her parent’s treatment was effective, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, Seutin pulls out elements of her life story like flashbacks, and nods more generally to the idea of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of characters linked with the icon to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s local drink, the skilled performers appear taken over by rhythm, in synthesis with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s dance composition incorporates various forms of dance she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including street styles like the form.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a cardiac event on the platform in the country.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “In my view she would inspire the youth to advocate what they are, expressing honesty,” says Seutin. “However she did it very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then perform a lovely melody.” Seutin aimed to take the similar method in this work. “We see movement and listen to melodies, an element of enjoyment, but intertwined with strong messages and moments that hit. This is what I respect about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. But she did it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• The performance is showing in the city, the dates