''Welela'' is an album by the South African musician

Miriam Makeba Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including African popular music, Afropop, jazz, a ...

, released in 1989. It was produced primarily by Sipho Mabuse.

Critical reception

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote that "Makeba mixes old and new on ''Welela'', using a polished modern production to carry recent and traditional songs," and deemed "A Luta Continua" "one of the most infectious agitprop songs of the decade."

Track listing

# "Amampondo" (

) – 5:20 # "African Sunset" (

Sipho Mabuse Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse (born in Johannesburg, 2 November 1951) is a South African singer. Sipho grew up in Soweto. His mother was Zulu and his father was Tswana. Sipho and his band used to be managed by Solly Nkuta, After dropping out of scho ...

) – 5:49 # "Djiu De Galinha" (

José Carlos Schwarz José Carlos Schwarz ( Bissau, December 6, 1949 – Havana, May 27, 1977) was a Bissau-Guinean poet and musician. Biography José Carlos Schwarz was born in Bissau (Portuguese Guinea) from well-to-do parents of Cape Verdean, Portuguese Guinean ...

) – 4:08 # " A luta continua" (Makeba) – 4:40 # "

Soweto Blues "Soweto Blues" is a protest song written by Hugh Masekela and performed by Miriam Makeba. The song is about the Soweto uprising that occurred in 1976, following the decision by the apartheid government of South Africa to make Afrikaans a medium ...

" (

Hugh Masekela Hugh Ramapolo Masekela (4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018) was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for ...

, S. Todd) – 4:18 # "Welela" (Nelson Lee) – 3:18 # "Hapo Zamani" (Makeba,

Dorothy Masuka Dorothy Masuka (3 September 1935, in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) – 23 February 2019, in Johannesburg, South AfricaPata Pata "Pata Pata" is an Afro-pop dance song popularized internationally by South African singer Miriam Makeba. "Pata Pata" is credited to Makeba and Jerry Ragovoy. Her most popular recording of "Pata Pata" was recorded and released in the United Stat ...

" (Makeba, Jerry Ragovoy) – 3:53 # "Saduva" (Makeba) – 4:43 # "Africa" (Keith Mathela) – 4:33

Personnel

— Lead vocal *Sipho Mabuse, Dorothy Masuka, Doreen Webster — Backing vocals *Keith Mathela —

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

s *Claude Deppa —

Trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

*Claudio Pascoli, Michael "Bami" Rose — Sax *Emmanuel "Chulo" Gatewood — Bass *Damon Duewhite —

Drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Smith Ailar —

Percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

*Loulou Laguerre —

Keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Production

*Produced By Sipho Mabuse & Roberto Meglioli *Post-Production By Allan Goldberg *Recorded & Engineered By Toby Alington & Jean Trenchant *Mixed By Sipho Mabuse & Allan Goldberg

References

{{Authority control Miriam Makeba albums 1989 albums Mercury Records albums