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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.