Iconic African political activists who lost their nationality due to their beliefs

Miriam Makeba

One of Africa’s biggest musicians lost her nationality days after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960. She was in the United States at the time and upon discovering the death of her mother she made plans to go back to South Africa.

She was shocked to discover that her South African passport had been cancelled by the Apartheid government.

When in the U.S. she was not overtly political in her music but her popularity rubbed the apartheid government the wrong way because it caused awareness about the situation in South Africa at the time.

The incident and her concern for her family back in South Africa made Makeba a loud critic of the apartheid and the white-minority government.

She received passports from Ghana, Guinea, Tanzania, Cuba and five other countries.