Miatta Fahnbulleh is a
Liberia
Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
n singer and social activist.
As of May 2017, she was the interim coordinator of Concerned Citizens to Protect the Constitution.
Early life
Born and raised in
Monrovia,
Fahnbulleh is the daughter of Liberian politician and diplomat
H. Boimah Fahnbulleh, Sr. and women's advocate and one-time Liberia's Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal and Child Health
Mary Brownell.
She is the elder sister to
Henry Boimah Fahnbulleh, Jr., a former Foreign Minister and National Security Adviser.
Fahnbulleh graduated from high school in
Sierra Leone, where her father was ambassador from Liberia.
She wanted to be a singer, but social obstacles in her home country against women performing in public venues led her to seek opportunities elsewhere.
She attended junior college in Kenya, returning to Liberia after dropping out.
After singing for a time in Monrovia,
she then left for the United States in 1968 to study journalism.
Career
While in the United States, Fahnbulleh studied at the
American Musical and Dramatic Academy.
She also performed, singing at the
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a not ...
in
Harlem and working with the
Negro Ensemble Company of New York.
In 1973, she visited Liberia to sing at the inauguration of President
William R. Tolbert Jr.
William Richard Tolbert Jr. (13 May 1913 – 12 April 1980) was a Liberian politician who served as the 20th president of Liberia from 1971 until 1980.
Tolbert was an Americo-Liberian and trained as a civil servant before entering the House ...
,
and moved back altogether in 1974.
She toured Europe and West Africa and worked with
Hugh Masekela, touring the United States with him in 1976.
In 1977, she performed at the World Black Festival of Arts and Culture,
FESTAC 77, in
Lagos,
Nigeria.
Fahnbulleh moved to England in 1977, where she remained, and performed, for seven years
until returning again to Liberia. Since then, she has become a strong advocate for women's and children's issues.
She has advocated for greater inclusion of women in high government positions, and in 2005 she founded the school Obaa's Girls Educational Outreach (OGEO), which "offers more than 180 scholarships to girls whom she hopes will become Liberia’s next generation of leaders."
She made a bid for the Liberian senate in 2014.
She has represented the
Ministry of Health Ministry of Health may refer to:
Note: Italics indicate now-defunct ministries.
* Ministry of Health (Argentina)
* Ministry of Health (Armenia)
* Australia:
** Ministry of Health (New South Wales)
* Ministry of Health (The Bahamas)
* Ministry of ...
as Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal Mortality Reduction and Child Health. As of May 2017, she was the interim coordinator of Concerned Citizens to Protect the Constitution.
She features as narrator of the 2016 documentary ''The Land Beneath Our Feet'', on land issues in Liberia.
"The Land Beneath Our Feet (2016)"
at IMDb.
Selected discography
* ''In Kokolioko'' (1979)
* ''Miatta'' (1979)
* ''Just 4-U'' (1989)
* ''The Message Of The Revolution'' (1981)
See also
* List of Liberian musicians
References
External links
* Hamilton, Andrew
"Miatta Fahnbulleh , Biography"
AllMusic.
* Nevin, Timothy D.
"Politics and Popular Culture: The Renaissance in Liberian Music, 1970–89"
(dissertation), University of Florida, 2010.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fahnbulleh, Miatta
20th-century women singers
Liberian human rights activists
Liberian singers
Liberian women activists
Liberian women musicians
Living people
Musicians from Monrovia
Women human rights activists
Year of birth missing (living people)