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“When you speak about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a sovereign,” remarks the choreographer. Called Mama Africa, Makeba also spent time in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in the city, she later became a diplomat for Ghana, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was married to a Black Panther. Her rich story and impact motivate Seutin’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen combines dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her experience of banishment: after relocating to New York in 1959, she was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was excluded from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with the fabulous South African singer the performer leading reviving Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a shebeen is an under-the-radar gathering place for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, usually presided over by a host. Her parent the matriarch was a proprietress who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was a newborn. Incapable of covering the penalty, Christina went to prison for half a year, taking her infant with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the details Seutin discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” says she, when we meet in Brussels after a performance. Seutin’s parent is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before moving to learn and labor in the UK, where she founded her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform her music, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and dance to them in the home.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba performs at the venue in the year.

A decade ago, her parent had the illness and was in hospital in London. “I paused my career for three months to look after her and she was constantly asking for the singer. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” Seutin recalls. “There was ample time to kill at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to learning of her victorious homecoming to the nation in the year, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she found that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi passed away in childbirth in 1985, and that because of her banishment she could not be present at her parent’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their success and you forget that they are facing challenges like everyone,” says Seutin.

Development and Concepts

These reflections went into the creation of the show (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was effective, but the concept for the work was to honor “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more broadly to the theme of displacement and dispossession nowadays. Although it’s not overt in the show, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in the show.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented performers appear possessed by beat, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition includes various forms of dance she has learned over the time, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the artist. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a cardiac event on stage in the country.) Why should younger generations learn about Mama Africa? “In my view she would inspire young people to stand for what they are, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “However she accomplished this very elegantly. She expressed something meaningful and then perform a lovely melody.” Seutin aimed to adopt the same approach in this work. “We see dancing and listen to melodies, an element of enjoyment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that hit. This is what I respect about her. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. Yet she did it in a manner that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at the city, 22-24 October