Miriam Makeba Quotes & Sayings

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. — Miriam Makeba

Age is wisdom if one has lived ones life properly. — Miriam Makeba

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. — Miriam Makeba

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

I do not sing politics. I merely sing the truth. — Miriam Makeba

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

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 ... — Miriam Makeba

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. — Miriam Makeba

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. — Miriam Makeba

[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

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

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

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

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

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

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

African music, though very old, is always being rediscovered in the West. — Miriam Makeba

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. — Miriam Makeba

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. — Miriam Makeba

I will probably die singing. — Miriam Makeba

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

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

I look at the past and I see myself. — Miriam Makeba

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. — Miriam Makeba

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

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

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

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

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. — Miriam Makeba

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. — Miriam Makeba

It was hard to be away from home, but I am glad that I am home now. — Miriam Makeba

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

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

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

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

People in the United States still have a 'Tarzan' movie view of Africa. That's because in the movies all you see are jungles and animals ... We [too] watch television and listen to the radio and go to dances and fall in love. — Miriam Makeba

I believe I can sing anything. — Miriam Makeba

You are damned and praised, or encouraged or discouraged by those who listen to you, and those who come to applaud you. And to me, those people are very important. — Miriam Makeba

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. — Miriam Makeba

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. — Miriam Makeba

[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

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

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

When I was young, I never bought records because my brother Joseph played saxophone and had a record player. I loved listening to his records: The Dorsey Brothers, Duke Ellington, all the big American jazz bands, and vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, Ernestine Anderson, and Kitty White, a singer from the US who was a friend of Nina Simone. Nobody in America seems to know about her, but she was quite popular in South Africa. — Miriam Makeba

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