Miriam Makeba Quotes
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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There are a lot of homes for boys, but very few for girls, that is why I chose to do for girls.
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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.
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Girls are the future mothers of our society, and it is important that we focus on their well-being.
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I do not sing politics. I merely sing the truth.
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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.
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Well there is a lot of work here for younger and older musicians now. Our Ministry of Culture has now really embarked on changing things for artists, and it is getting much better. We just have to organize ourselves as artists, and then things will be better.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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In the mind, in the heart, I was always home. I always imagined, really, going back home.
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I didn't have much, but I was always happy to share what I did have. It seemed like every African that came to New York City would show up at my apartment door at dinnertime, and I couldn't turn them away. I wasn't much older than any of them, but they started calling me 'Mama Africa' and the name stuck.
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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
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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.
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It was hard to be away from home, but I am glad that I am home now.