MAKEBA: I’D CHOOSE OPPRESSED, ALWAYS

On this day in 2008, the world lost an extraordinary voice. Miriam Makeba wasn’t just an amazing singer, she spoke up for Africans and championed their cause at the highest level - including at the UN, where she exposed the cruelties of the apartheid regime in her native South Africa. The regime repaid her by revoking her citizenship, but even in exile, she continued to defend Africans, using her music to raise awareness of the plight of people in Cameroon, Congo, Guinea, Mozambique, South Africa and Black communities in America. In this clip, she eloquently explains why she would always choose the side of the oppressed over that of the oppressor. Rest in peace, Mama.