Miriam Makeba speaks African 'click' language, sings 'Baxabene Oxamu'

Miriam Makeba pronounces the alphabet in click sounds! Click consonants are frequent in her native Xhosa language, and she sings a song that uses them, 'Baxabene Oxamu'. From Wikipedia: "Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8.2 million people and by another 11 million as a second language in South Africa. It has perhaps the heaviest functional load of click consonants in a Bantu language, with one count finding that 10% of basic vocabulary items contained a click." It's a written language that uses the Roman alphabet! Continues: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language Miriam Biography from her Youtube channel:- Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award-winning South African singer and civil rights activist. In the 1960s, she was the first artist from Africa to popularize African music around the world. She is best known for the song "Pata Pata", first recorded in 1957 and released in the U.S. in 1967. She recorded and toured with many popular artists, such as Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, and her former husband Hugh Masekela. Makeba campaigned against the South African system of apartheid. The South African government responded by revoking her passport in 1960 and her citizenship and right of return in 1963. As the apartheid system crumbled she returned home for the first time in 1990. Makeba died of a heart attack on 9 November 2008 after performing in a concert in Italy organised to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation local to the region of Campania. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Makeba If you want to explore more of Miriam Makeba, be sure to hear her live version of 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'; aka 'Mbube':-    • Miriam Makeba - Mbube (Live, 1963)   At the Miriam Makeba Official Youtube Channel, there's this Live in Stockholm show from 1966:    • Miriam Makeba - Live At Berns Salonge...   - and much, much more: youtube.com/MiriamMakebaOfficial Official Miriam Makeba website: www.miriammakeba.co.za/ A couple of articles for Westerners exploring the Xhosa click language: www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0304/Miriam-Make… www.discovermagazine.com/mind/why-do-african-and-e… Miriam was interviewed by Denise Glaser for the French INA TV, broadcast June 20 1971. Thanks to Katherine Elizabeth Saunders in the comments for identifying this song. There's different song famous as 'The Click Song', 'Qongqothwane'. #MiriamMakeba #ClickLanguage #Xhosa @Gazely Gaze

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