Thursday, November 20, 2008

Tribute: Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba died of a heart attack while performing on stage in southern Italy last week.  It was almost a month after my grandmother Mariam Wangui Mathenge was felled as she fed cows on her farm in Nyeri. They were age mates but Mariam never flew on a plane or received a Grammy Award.  She was a member of P.C.E.A. Mukuri Church Woman's Guild which on the day of her funeral sang for her and carried her to the grave.  Many hundreds of eulogies will be written for Makeba; only a few speeches were said for cucu.  But no matter the differing numbers, the essential question all of them try answering is whether the life that has ended was a good one.