Miriam Makeba, the South African singer affectionately known as "Mama Africa" by her fans around the world, died Monday in Italy at 76.

A performer of her stature could not have asked for a better way to leave this life. The Grammy Award winner suffered a heart attack after finishing a 30-minute stage performance that included "Pata Pata," her most popular song.

The concert was a benefit honoring six Ghanaian immigrants who were murdered near Naples recently. Music and politics were inextricably linked in Ms. Makeba's life.

The singer and human-rights activist was exiled from South Africa in 1960 after starring in the anti-apartheid documentary "Come Back, Africa." Ms. Makeba wasn't welcome in her native land again until Nelson Mandela invited her back in 1990, after he emerged from nearly three decades in prison.

Her own three decades in exile were productive and included collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone and Hugh Masekela, whom she married in 1963. Ms. Makeba won a Grammy three years later for an anti-apartheid album she recorded with Harry Belafonte. After her divorce from Mr. Masekela, her 10-year marriage to black power activist Stokely Carmichael made her a pariah in the United States for a brief time, so they immigrated to Guinea.

There was a resurgence of interest in Ms. Makeba's music in the 1980s when Paul Simon's "Graceland" album triggered interest in African pop. She last performed in Pittsburgh at Hartwood Acres in July 2000.

American listeners have compared her voice to Joan Baez and Sarah Vaughn, but her South African culture, including use in some songs of the distinctive "click" sound of her native Xhosa language, put her in a musical category all by herself.

Miriam Makeba was "Mama Africa" on countless stages around the world, and she'll be missed by everyone who appreciates world music and humane politics.