Miriam Makeba, the renowned South African singer and anti-apartheid campaigner who was forced into exile for more than three decades, died early this morning after collapsing at a performance in Italy. She was 76.
Known as "Mama Africa" to her many fans worldwide, Makeba was at a protest concert against organised criminals when she suffered a heart attack as she was leaving the stage. She died soon afterwards at a clinic in the southern Italian town of Castel Volturno.

As the first black South African to win international stardom, Makeba performed alongside the likes of Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie in the US. Fusing township melodies with jazz ballads, she sang for world leaders from President John F Kennedy to Nelson Mandela, who led the tributes today, describing Makeba as "South Africa's first lady of song".

"She was a mother to our struggle and to the young nation of ours," Mandela said in a statement. "Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."

It was "fitting", Mandela, said, that Makeba died supporting a good cause. Sunday night's concert was to support Robert Saviano, the Italian author who has lived in hiding since publishing Gomorrah, a best-selling expose of the Camorra mafia group who, among many other crimes, are blamed for killing six African immigrants in Castel Volturno in September.

Makeba's family, who noted in a statement that she had performed one of greatest hits, Pata Pata - Xhosa for Touch, Touch - shortly before collapsing as the crowd called for an encore, said: "Whilst this great lady was alive she would say: 'I will sing until the last day of my life'."

Born in a township in 1932, Makeba started performing in the fifties in Sophiatown, then the heart of black culture in Johannesburg, whose residents were soon to be evicted by the white government. She then collaborated with trumpeter Hugh Masakela, one of her four future husbands, in the hit musical King Kong, which went on to run in the West End for two years.

An appearance in the anti-apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa, saw Makeba travel to the Venice Film Festival in 1959. But when she tried to return home for her mother's funeral she found that her passport had been revoked.

In London, Makeba met Belafonte, who helped her gain entry to the US where she quickly recorded several of her biggest hits, including Malaika and The Click Song.

She testified against apartheid at the United Nations in 1963 - losing her South African citizenship in the process - and won a Grammy with Belafonte three years later for an album describing black people's plight under minority rule.

But marrying Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael cost Makeba her record and touring deal. The pair moved to Guinea, where they became friendly with President Ahmed Sekou Toure.

While she continued to perform in Africa and Europe, Makeba never had much money, having unwittingly signed away her royalty rights. In 1985 she could not afford to buy a coffin when her only daughter Bondi died.

Makeba returned to South Africa in 1990 following a personal request from Nelson Mandela. She starred in the film Safafina, about the 1976 Soweto riots, and in 2000 her album Homeland was nominated for a Grammy. At home, she was revered both as a singer and hero of the struggle. Radio talkshows were today flooded with calls from fans wanting to pay tribute to her.

But Makeba played down her activism, telling the Guardian in an interview last May that she was "not a political singer".

"No! I was singing about my life, and in South Africa we always sang about what was happening to us - especially the things that hurt us."

Makeba announced three years ago that she was retiring. But, despite suffering from osteoarthritis, she found it impossible to stop performing. In the interview she talked about being unable to breathe properly during a concert in April.

"But I'd rather cancel a show than go on stage and sit in a chair, or walk on with a stick," she said.