I think that you're just as close to Jesus if you use the equipment he gave you other than to call on him to do for you what you can do for yourself.

You walk out in the street, we don't know if we're going to get across. It's a test.

You should not bear insults.

Eat bread. You don't know if it's been polluted. Drink water, you don't know whether it's been polluted. So living is a test.

In the African matrilineal society, the lineage of the bloodline comes down through the female side. The Arabs who invaded East Africa and other parts of Africa reversed it to the patrilineal where everything comes down through the male side and the woman has no basic rights except that which the male is willing to grant her.

This kind of collective society - giving to each according to his need - existed in Africa not only before Karl Marx, but also before Europe.

There has been a struggle to reclaim the African self. That struggle has been on the part of a minority of dedicated African-Americans who never gave up our African identity at no time during our stay here.