Pata Pata would be the last song that Makeba ever sang on stage; she suffered a fatal heart attack shortly after performing at a charity concert for anti-Camorra writer Roberto Saviano, on 9 November, 2008.
She was 76 when she died, with Nelson Mandela (who had eventually persuaded Makeba, a long-time campaigner for his freedom, to return to post-apartheid South Africa) leading the tributes to an artist now revered as ‘Mama Africa’.
She was 76 when she died, with Nelson Mandela (who had eventually persuaded Makeba, a long-time campaigner for his freedom, to return to post-apartheid South Africa) leading the tributes to an artist now revered as ‘Mama Africa’.
It is slightly surreal to consider the sheer range of cover versions that Pata Pata has inspired, from the Nuyorican big band blast of Tito Puente (1969) to a 1980 reworking of the tune by French yeye singer Sylvie Vartan and a recent version created for the soundtrack to a dancing videogame.
A brilliant rendition still warrants a standing ovation – as Benin-born star Angelique Kidjo recently proved, when she closed her London Proms show with a vivacious homage to Pata Pata–but it always brings us back to the original.
Makeba would write in her autobiography: “I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa and the people without even realising.
”Pata Pata may not have been her own favourite anthem, but it somehow embodies her grace and strength, and that of the culture she kept with her.
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