South African singer and voice of the anti-apartheid movement Miriam Makeba has died. The musician passed away after suffering a heart attack following a performance in Italy yesterday. She was 76.

Makeba's publicist Mark Lechat told Reuters the singer had suffered from arthritis and had been unwell for some time. At the time of her death, Makeba was in Castel Volturno, Italy, having just performed at a concert held against organised crime. The event was held in support of writer Roberto Saviano, who is currently in hiding after receiving death threats from the Neopolitan "mafia" following the publication of his book Gomorrah.

Makeba, whose famous hits include the songs Pata Pata and the Click Song, was known for her winning fusion of jazz with elements of traditional South African music and her native language, Xhosa. She began performing with the Manhattan Brothers in 1954, before going on to play the female lead in the internationally successful jazz musical King Kong in 1959.

Makeba, affectionately known as "Mama Africa", spent much of her life in exile after being denied re-entry to South Africa in 1960. She was a vocal supporter of Nelson Mandela and testified against apartheid for the United Nations. She also appeared in the 1961 anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which showed at the Venice Film Festival that year.

Mekaba caused some controversy by marrying the Trinidadian Black Panthers leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968, resulting in the cancellation of her tour in America. She spent much of the 1970s touring in Europe and South America, and appeared on the bill of entertainers at the 1975 Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire. However, she was invited to return to South Africa by Nelson Mandela in 1990.

Her death has led to a national outpouring of grief in her native country. South Africa's foreign affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma released a statement that said: "One of the greatest songstresses of our time has ceased to sing," while a spokesman for the ministry of arts and culture said her death was "a monumental loss not only to South African society in general but for humanity."