Miriam Makeba is one of the world's musical treasures, having gained international renown as a recording and performing artist and an important figure in the human rights movements in Africa and beyond. She was forced to spend most of her career away from her homeland after giving an impassioned anti-apartheid speech before the United Nations in 1963. Makeba was allowed to return to South Africa in 1990, and was embraced by Nelson Mandela and other leaders of the anti-apartheid movement for her struggles in exile.