The body of singing legend and activist "Mama Africa" Miriam Makeba, who died in Italy aged 76, will return home to South Africa on Wednesday, a foreign affairs spokesman said.

"The mortal remains of South Africa’s Goodwill Ambassador Miriam Makeba will return to South Africa on Wednesday 12 November 2008," spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said in a statement.

The Grammy Award winner's family had decided to bring Makeba back to South Africa for a funeral service and cremation, he said.

South African media on Tuesday praised Makeba as an anti-apartheid icon and musical giant who got millions dancing worldwide, but also highlighted the complex relationship she had with the country of her birth.

"She was a trailblazer who used her musical gifts and charisma to tell the world what was going on in apartheid South Africa," wrote the daily Citizen newspaper in its editorial.

"Yet, although she has often been feted since her return, she probably did not receive all the recognition here she deserved. Because of her long exile, she was better known abroad than at home. Mama Africa belonged to the whole world."

South Africa's apartheid regime revoked Makeba's citizenship in 1960 and even refused to let her return for her mother's funeral. The singer spent more than three decades in exile, living in the United States, Guinea and Europe.

On her return home in apartheid's dying years, she struggled to find a worthy record deal, said an obituary in the Star newspaper.

"The silence from South African recording companies thundered while she was still booked abroad, performing with greats like Dizzy Gillespie," the newspaper said.

The media accolades followed tributes from across the globe for Makeba who collapsed as she left the stage at a benefit concert in Castel Volturno on Sunday and died in a Naples hospital.

Born in Johannesburg on 4 March 1932, Makeba was one of Africa's best known singers and famed for hits such as 'Pata Pata' and 'The Click Song' and for highlighting the abuses of the white apartheid regime.

"From humble beginnings, Makeba rose to become a beacon of light for the downtrodden back home in South Africa," an editorial in the Star said of the former domestic worker who became one of the country's best exports.

"She was also an ambassador for African music and the struggle on the continent for emancipation from colonialism."

"Her music instilled hope in the parched souls of Africa," said the Sowetan newspaper. "Mama Africa will have come to her motherland to rest for good — something she would hardly countenance throughout her long journey in life because singing was her lifelong calling.

"She loved her people and land dearly — a sentiment she sometimes felt sadly unrequited by her fellow South Africans. Mama Africa, we love you."

AFP