Miriam Makeba – Malaisha

Was hipped to this fantastic Instagram account documenting women of the African Diaspora in photographs. I found one of Miriam Makeba!

Story Time™️

I arrived at college in the summer of 1982. I wanted a school radio show but they did not give them to Freshman. I told them I had my own records and I wanted to play strictly reggae and African music. At the time, no college radio stations on the entire East Coast had a reggae show. I believe I scored a spot as a lark because they thought it would never take off. I got the Sunday morning from 11am until 1pm slot. By the time I graduated in 1987, a couple of other colleges had given reggae a chance and mine was one of the most popular shows at my school.

For the first visit to the station, WSRN, I pulled every single reggae and African album they had. I wish I had a picture of my paltry score. I found less than a dozen records out of the over 2,000 in their library. Fortunately, I had a few hundred of my own to mine. (My school supported nothing Black. We had to fight for everything we achieved. Everything.)

One of the records they had, which I believe had never even been opened, was Miriam Makeba’s – “comme una syphonie dé amour”.

I simply adored this album and it led me to all manner of wonderful discoveries. One song stood out and I aired it a few times before I left school for a year in 1984.

Malaisha (Bring The Axe)


 
I didn’t know what the words meant, but I could tell the song had power and intention. During my year off, I ended up on the Steve Biko Steps at UC Berkeley and learned about the struggle against Apartheid and the true meaning of the song. When I returned to school and was part of the group of 6 Black students who took over the President’s Office and shut down our school over our investments in South Africa and the lack of Black students and lack of Black tenured professors, we played this song frequently.

Miriam Makeba has always been a hero to me. Her words inspire me to work harder and do better.

Zembe malaisha
Zembe sigawule
Zembe malaisha
Zembe sigawule
Zembe malaisha
Zembe sigawule

Yiza nezembe malaisha (Zembe malaisha)
Yiza nezembe sigawul…

Bring a hoe
Let’s cut it down

Bring an axe
Let’s cut it down

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