Bongi Makeba (20 December 1950 – 17 March 1985) was a South African singer-songwriter. She was the only child of singer

Miriam Makeba Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she w ...

with her first husband, James Kubay.

Biography

Angela Sibongile Makeba was born in South Africa in 1950, when her mother was 18 years old. The name Bongi by which she became known is a shortened version of her middle name Sibongile, which means "We are grateful". In 1959 her mother's career took her to New York, where she remained in exile after being barred from returning to South Africa, and in 1960 was joined by Bongi, who stayed with friends while her mother toured the world.Samantha Weinberg
Called Home: Children South African Exiles Return to Their Native Land"
, ''Southwest Digest'', 12–18 October 1995. In 1967 she and Judy White, daughter of

Josh White Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s. White grew up in the Sout ...

, signed to

Buddha Records Buddah Records (later known as Buddha Records) was an American record label founded in 1967 in New York City. The label was born out of Kama Sutra Records, an MGM Records-distributed label, which remained a key imprint following Buddah's foundin ...

as "Bongi and Judy", their first release being "Runnin' Out" and "Let's Get Together". At the age of 17, Makeba met her American husband Harold Nelson Lee, with whom in the early to mid-1970s she made two 7" records as "Bongi and Nelson", featuring two soul tracks arranged by George Butcher: "That's the Kind of Love" backed by "I Was So Glad" (France: Syliphone SYL 533), and "Everything, For My Love" with "Do You Remember, Malcolm?" (France: Syliphone SYL 532). She recorded only one solo album, ''Bongi Makeba, Blow On Wind''Bongi Makeba discography.
/ref> (pläne-records), in 1980. Some of her songs could be heard years later in her mother's repertoire. Two of them, "Malcolm X" (1965, 1972) and "Lumumba" (1970), extol assassinated black leaders. Makeba had three children: Nelson Lumumba Lee (born 1968), Zenzi Monique Lee (born 1971), and a son, Themba, who died as a young child. She died aged 34 in 1985 of complications following childbirth and was buried in Conakry, Guinea, where her mother had moved after her 1968 marriage to

Stokely Carmichael Kwame Ture (; born Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael; June 29, 1941November 15, 1998) was a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in Trinidad, he grew up in the Unite ...

Discography

* ''Blow On Wind'' (1980; Germany: pläne – 88234) * ''Miriam Makeba & Bongi'' (1975; LP with Miriam Makeba; Guinea: Editions Syliphone Conakry SLP 48)

References

External links

Mention in Miriam Makeba's biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Makeba, Bongi 1950 births 1985 deaths 20th-century South African women singers Xhosa people Deaths in childbirth South African singer-songwriters