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.

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

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.

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 look at the past and I see myself.

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.

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.