Miriam Makeba story beautifully told by Sima and Ramon

The gifted and talented Sima Mashazi and Ramon Alexander captivated the audience with their performance of My Miriam Makeba Story, this past weekend during Aardklop, at Roots Intimate Theatre.

With the use of her charming smile, humour, beautiful voice, Sima grabbed the attention of the audience. Throughout the performance, she would tell of her experiences of Mama Miriam that she learned of when she played the role of Miriam Makeba in Mama Africa. She shared the similarities between herself and Makeba and explained the history behind each song she performed. She sang popular Makeba songs such as Back of the moon, Click Song (Qongqothwane), Suliram, Malaika, Khawuleza and several others. She also included some of her own songs such as Bashadile and I still miss you.

The songs that were my personal favourites from her performance were Suliram and I still miss you. During her performances, she spoke about the losses that she and Miriam Makeba experienced in their life journeys, also that loss is a universal experience for all. Those two songs evoked so much emotion from the audience where at least two people shed tears as she performed, particularly during I still miss you.

In her performance, Sima gave the audience a deeper look into the life of Miriam Makeba, but did so with the help of Ramon Alexander, the pianist. During their performance, Sima would always acknowledge him. He used his knowledge, talent, skills, and passion for piano and jazz, to create the atmosphere and ambience. The duo allowed the audience to learn more about Miriam Makeba, and about the losses and triumphs in life.

To end off the show, she sang Miriam’s famous Pata Pata and encouraged the audience to stand up, sing and dance along to the song. People left with smiles on their faces and a couple stayed behind and further shared their experience of the performance and personal encounter that one of them had with Miriam Makeba before she passed on.