Miriam Makeba Quotes

my thoughts are like quick little fish that swim out of my grasp.

You are damned and praised, or encouraged or discouraged by those who listen to you, and those who come to applaud you. And to me, those people are very important.

I have to go and say farewell to all the countries that I have been to, if I can. I am 73 now, it is taxing on me.

In New York I heard A Piece of Ground, written by a white South African, Jeremy Taylor. I modified it a little and sang it myself. That song is very special to me because it deals with the land question in southern Africa. We were dispossessed of our land.

And I believe that it becomes a troubled continent because there are those who must always cause confusion so that we do not keep these natural resources.

Age is getting to know all the ways the world turns, so that if you cannot turn the world the way you want, you can at least get out of the way so you won't get run over.

There are three things I was born with in this world, and there are three things I will have until the day I die-hope, determination, and song.

In the mind, in the heart, I was always home. I always imagined, really, going back home.

If given a choice, I would have certainly selected to be what I am: one of the oppressed instead of one of the oppressors.

I titled the album Reflections because I am reflecting on my music career.

But if you are going to wear blinders then you do not know the world.

Be careful, think about the effect of what you say. Your words should be constructive, bring people together, not pull them apart.

I do not sing politics. I merely sing the truth.

It's a really unfair world because life is, where I am; all day long we listen to American music. So I don't see why the radios in the U.S. cannot even put aside one hour a day just to play music that is not American.

I have one thing in common with the emerging black nations of Africa: We both have voices, and we are discovering what we can do with them.

And why is our music called world music? I think people are being polite. What they want to say is that it's third world music. Like they use to call us under developed countries, now it has changed to developing countries, it's much more polite.

The conqueror writes history, they came, they conquered and they write. You don't expect the people who came to invade us to tell the truth about us.

African music, though very old, is always being rediscovered in the West.

I'm not a politician; I am a singer. Long ago, they said, 'That one, she sings politics.' I don't sing politics; I merely sing the truth.

Girls are the future mothers of our society, and it is important that we focus on their well-being.

People in the United States still have a 'Tarzan' movie view of Africa. That's because in the movies all you see are jungles and animals . . . We [too] watch television and listen to the radio and go to dances and fall in love.

Age is wisdom if one has lived ones life properly.

For instance, we're always fighting amongst each other. Who gives us the arms? And then we become indebted to wherever we are buying them from - with what? The very resources we need to keep there.

In the West the past is like a dead animal. It is a carcass picked at by the flies that call themselves historians and biographers. But in my culture the past lives. My people feel this way in part because death does not separate us from our ancestors.

Everybody now admits that apartheid was wrong, and all I did was tell the people who wanted to know where I come from how we lived in South Africa. I just told the world the truth. And if my truth then becomes political, I can't do anything about that.

I ask you and all the leaders of the world: Would you act differently, would you keep silent and do nothing if you were in our place? Would you not resist if you were allowed no rights in your own country because the color of your skin is different to that of the rulers, and if you were punished for even asking for equality? I appeal to you, and through you to all the countries of the world, to do everything you can to stop the coming tragedy. I appeal to you to save the lives of our leaders, to empty the prisons of all those who should never have been there.

I look at an ant and I see myself: a native South African, endowed by nature with a strength much greater than my size so I might cope with the weight of a racism that crushes my spirit.

Africa has her mysteries, and even a wise man cannot understand them. But a wise man respects them

I look at the past and I see myself.

I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa and the people without even realising.

I see other black women imitate my style, which is no style at all, but just letting our hair be itself. They call it the Afro Look.

I look at a stream and I see myself: a native South African, flowing irresistibly over hard obstacles until they become smooth and, one day, disappear - flowing from an origin that has been forgotten toward an end that will never be.