And in South Africa, over 2,000 people gathered on Saturday to hold a public memorial for Miriam Makeba, one of Africa’s best-known singers and a champion of the fight against apartheid during three decades in exile. Makeba died at the age of seventy-six on November 9th. Makeba, who was known as Mama Africa, was the first black South African musician to gain international fame and was a longtime critic of the apartheid system.

South African Deputy President Baleka Mbete: “We have come together to pay tribute to a soul that loomed larger than life. We are here to commiserate with the family, relatives and friends of Mama Africa and to share in the loss of this beloved African heroine, about whom we can say she was an outstanding patriot and a Pan-Africanist. We take this moment to say to the Makeba family, your pain is our pain, your loss is the loss of the entire world. I am sure we can agree that we are here to pay homage and celebrate a life lived to the fullest. It is for this reason that the tears we shed are not tears of pain but are tears of joy, for Mama Makeba left us a legacy that will be in our historical memory for generations to come.”