The only way for us to come out of poverty is to work hard. Poverty means begging throughout the world.

I think what we need is goodwill because now our struggle is harder because it is an economic struggle. And now Europe is organising itself. So I think there needs to be a rupture between Africa and Europe, and all the international laws being conceived here in the west have to be revisited and changed.

Nobody can deny that we have a lot of wars going on; brothers killing brothers; we have a lot of diseases and catastrophes. But on the other hand, we have a majority of individuals, both men and women, who are struggling on a daily basis in a heroic way and the outcome of whose struggle leaves no doubt. This is a struggle whose purpose is not to seize power, and I think the strength of our entire society rests on that struggle.

I am really unable to talk about my life - I don't know my life. I've travelled a lot and this is the life that I have lived, but that doesn't mean that I know myself.

The development of Africa will not happen without the effective participation of women. Our forefathers' image of women must be buried once for all.

However long it stays in the river the tree-trunk will never turn into a crocodile.

It isn't those who are taken by force, put in chains, and sold as slaves who are the real slaves; it is those who will accept it, morally and physically.