Quote

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.

Miriam Makeba

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Miriam Makeba
Age: 76 †
Born: 1932
Born: March 4
Died: 2008
Died: November 9
Actor
Recording Artist
Singer
Johannesburg
Gauteng
South Africa
Mama Africa
Zenzile Miriam Makeba
Miriam Zenzi Makeba
Zensile Makeba Qgwashu Nguvama Yiketheli Nxgowa Bantana Balomzi Xa Ufnu Ubajabulisa Ubaphekeli Mbiza Yotshwala Sithi Xa Saku Qgiba Ukutja Sithathe Izitsha Sizi Khabe Singama Lawu Singama Qgwashu Singama Nqamla Nqgithi
Mirjam Makeba
Common
Voice
Black
Thing
Emerging
Discovering
Voices
Africa
Nations

More quotes by Miriam Makeba

Image
I look at the past and I see myself.
Miriam Makeba
Image
But if you are going to wear blinders then you do not know the world.
Miriam Makeba
Image
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.
Miriam Makeba
Image
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.
Miriam Makeba
Image
If given a choice, I would have certainly selected to be what I am: one of the oppressed instead of one of the oppressors.
Miriam Makeba
Image
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!
Miriam Makeba
Image
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.
Miriam Makeba
Image
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.
Miriam Makeba
Image
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.
Miriam Makeba
Image
[Belafonte]'d take me to perform for Martin Luther King's cause. But when they were marching I did not take part, because I was not a citizen
Miriam Makeba
Image
Age is wisdom if one has lived ones life properly.
Miriam Makeba
Image
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.
Miriam Makeba
Image
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.
Miriam Makeba
Image
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.
Miriam Makeba
Image
He [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.
Miriam Makeba
Image
Be careful, think about the effect of what you say. Your words should be constructive, bring people together, not pull them apart.
Miriam Makeba
Image
I do not sing politics. I merely sing the truth.
Miriam Makeba
Image
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.
Miriam Makeba
Image
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.
Miriam Makeba
Image
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.
Miriam Makeba