Sunshine Band

"Pata Pata" by Miriam Makeba

This is Miriam Makeba. She sang a song called "Pata, Pata" that I heard a lot when I was younger. My father was in my imaginary band and we sang and we danced all the time in our parlor in Madison, Wisconsin.

My Daddy is the reason for my love of music. He used to sing to me a lot and those songs were the soundtrack to our small immediate family. Our music also is what first taught me the difference between African-Americans and Africans. It was what taught me that I was African but it is also what connected me to Americans.

I cannot recall exactly where or when I first heard Miriam Makeba's song, but it sounds like home everytime I hear it: like the home you have always known, as long as you have known yourself.

Funnily, I never knew who sang this song. I never even wondered what language she sang it in because it was happy so it didn't matter what she was actually saying. The song made me happy.

Miriam Makeba died on November 10th. She died after suffering a heart attack following the performance of "Pata Pata", which I think speaks highly of art. I hope to die after a long life of performing my art, whatever that arts ends up being.

Miriam Makeba...4 March 1932 to 10 November 2008