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“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” states Alesandra Seutin. Known as Mama Africa, the iconic artist also spent time in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person sent to work to support her family in the city, she later served as an envoy for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. Her rich story and impact motivate Seutin’s new production, the performance, set for its British debut.

The Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen combines movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a simple biography but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to the city in 1959, Makeba was prohibited from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, part celebration, part provocation – with a exceptional vocalist the performer at the centre reviving her music to vibrant life.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, usually presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, taking her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life began – just one of the things Seutin discovered when researching Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” exclaims she, when we meet in Brussels after a performance. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she established her dance group the ensemble. Her parent would perform her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and move along in the living room.

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

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for a quarter to take care of her and she was constantly asking for the singer. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “There was ample time to kill at the hospital so I started researching.” As well as reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), Seutin found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi died in childbirth in 1985, and that due to her exile she hadn’t been able to be present at her own mother’s memorial. “You see people and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” states Seutin.

Development and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the production (first staged in Brussels in 2023). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, Seutin highlights elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more generally to the theme of uprooting and loss today. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of characters connected to Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s local drink, the skilled dancers appear possessed by beat, in harmony with the players on the platform. Her choreography incorporates various forms of movement she has absorbed over the years, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

She was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba passed away in the year after having a cardiac event on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “I think she would inspire young people to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “However she did it very gracefully. She expressed something meaningful and then sing a lovely melody.” She aimed to adopt the similar method in this work. “Audiences observe dancing and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with powerful ideas and instances that hit. This is what I admire about Miriam. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They retreat. Yet she achieved it in a manner that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is showing in the city, 22-24 October