Miriam Makeba was a leading light

South Africa's singer Miriam Makeba, who recently died was not just an extraordinary musician. She was a larger than life figure whose influence reached out from the entertainment scene to the political arena. In the then apartheid South Africa, she was a leading light who used her musical talents to speak out against racial injustices visited upon fellow blacks by the minority white regime. The musical icon was later forced to flee into and live in exile for her singing out against the oppressive regime in Pretoria.