Miriam Makeba Quotes

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

The tragedy of civil wars in countries like Angola and Mozambique is that they left many civilians maimed. Poverty is the reason HIV/AIDS spread so rapidly in the African townships and slums. Poverty is the real killer.

Belafonte sent his people to pick me up and I went back and shook his hand, then went back to my little flat. I was very happy to have met a president of the United States - little me!

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.

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,

There are a lot of homes for boys, but very few for girls, that is why I chose to do for girls.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I believe I can sing anything.

It is very much the theme of our President, President Thabo Mbeki, whose passion is for Africa to work together, and for Africans to get up and do things for us. We are trying as women to do things for ourselves.

In those years, when I came to the States, people were always asking me why I didn't sing anymore. I'd tell them, 'I sing all around the world-Asia, Africa, Europe-but if you don't sing in the US, then you haven't really made it.' That's why I'll always be grateful to Paul Simon. He allowed me to bring my music back to my friends in this country.

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.

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.

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.

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

I look at the past and I see myself.

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.

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.

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 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 will probably die singing.

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

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 ...

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

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

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

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

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

[Belafonte] was a good teacher and looked after me. He said, 'You have such great talent, you must try not to be a tornado - be like a submarine. It was good advice when I found myself speaking at the UN Committee Against Apartheid and then the UN General Assembly.

Which goes to show you, you can make all the laws you want, but you cannot change people's ways. If you must change them, you have to understand that it will take a long time.