South African singer Miriam Makeba is to undertake a world tour to bring an official end to her performing career and to give her the chance to say goodbye to countries all over the world. 73 year old Makeba, known as Mama Africa, says "I have to go and say farewell to all the countries that I have been to, if I can. I am 73 now, it is taxing on me. I don't want to travel as much as I have been. But as long as I'll have my voice, I'll keep on recording." She added that she is working on a new album and will record new tracks and rework some of her earlier songs when the tour is over sometime next year.
Makeba, who won a Grammy in 1966 for the album 'An Evening with Belafonte and Makeba' and performed at Paul Simon's Graceland tour in the eighties, spent 31 years in exile for her commitment to human rights and condemnation of apartheid in her home country, and did not return to Johannesburg until the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990.