Zenzile Miriam Makeba nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer and civil rights activist. She was born in Johannesburg on March 4, 1932. In the 1960s, she was the first artist from Africa to popularize African music around the world. Makeba campaigned against the South African system of apartheid. 

She testified against apartheid before the United Nations, and her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked. She was a woman without a country, but the world came to her aid, and Guinea, Belgium and Ghana issued her international passports, and she became, in effect, a citizen of the world.

In her life, she held nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship in ten countries. On 16 October 1999, Miriam Makeba was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). She worked closely with Graça Machel Mandela, who at the time was the South African first lady, to support children suffering from HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, and the physically handicapped. Makeba died of heart attack on November 9, 2008 after performing at a concert in Italy.