Famous Quotes & Sayings

Gregory Hines

I grew up in the '50s, a tough time for African Americans. I had friends whose fathers would openly say, 'Just bite your tongu;, don't cause any problems.' My father was not like that. Even in the toughest times racially, if somebody disrespected his family, they were in trouble.

Win Butler

The music in Haiti is all tied up in voodoo and African rhythm, and so there's this funny thing: go to a voodoo ceremony, and then go to a Catholic church and tell me which music you liked better, to which one the music is more integral.

Ving Rhames

'Mission: Impossible' is fun. But for myself as an artist, I'm really more concerned with the human condition, the human experience, especially from an African American point of view.

Athol Fugard

The toughest challenge I faced came right at the beginning of my career with 'Blood Knot,' which was trying to convince South African audiences that South African stories also had a place on the stage.

Timothy Garton Ash

No country in Europe has a larger proportion of men and women of immigrant descent, mainly from the African continent and mainly Muslim: an estimated six to seven million of them, or more than 10% of the population.

Quincy Jones

Few rappers realize the genre sprang from West African griots through Delta slave songs to jazz poetry and the comedic trash talk of 'the dozens.'

Wadah Khanfar

I started, actually, as an analyst on African affairs, mainly on Al Jazeera. I remember the first few series were about Saudi students, and the negotiations between the government and the Sudanese rebels in the south. And then, slowly, I was speaking about Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and a few other places.

Wadah Khanfar

I started as an engineer. I migrated to philosophy and international politics. And I did my studies about African - Africa democracy and democratization in Africa, taking Kenya as a model. And then, while I was doing so in 1996 in South Africa, Al Jazeera was established. So they requested me to be an analyst on African affairs.

Daniel H. Wilson

The poster boy for our superabled future is Oscar Pistorius, an increasingly famous South African sprinter who happens to have had both of his legs amputated below the knee. Using upside down question mark-shaped carbon fiber sprinting prosthetics, called Cheetah blades, Mr. Pistorius can challenge the fastest sprinters in the world.

The projects in Oakland that we've built have been the most diverse projects of any place in the Bay Area. At our Durant project, 35 percent of the buyers were African American, about 30 percent were Asian, and the rest were white and Latino.

Those were the most flourishing times. The population of Parsons at that time was about 15,000, and of that African Americans represented about 12 percent, or 1,284 people.

Jacques Chirac

tireless champion of the emancipation and unity of the African continent.

Trade deficits in the final quarter of last year, as measured by the South African Revenue Service, suggest that the Bank's trade reporting will reflect a similar trend of rising deficits.

This store that we're standing in front of, The Gap, was really Kress five and ten cent store and it was the hub of downtown for African Americans. The only restroom that was available to us was in the basement of this store.

Michael Ignatieff

For every African state, like Ghana, where democratic institutions seem secure, there is a Mali, a Cote d'Ivoire, and a Zimbabwe, where democracy is in trouble.

Cory Hardrict

I'm just trying to touch the world and touch the people and just get good material. And show them that we can get it done. Just because you're African American, you still can touch the masses. And that's my goal. I won't stop until that goal is continued to push it hard to the world that we are the universal person as well.

Corrine Brown

Southern states in the confederacy were not ready to give up their fight to secede or give up their way of life, which was made possible in large part through the blood, sweat and tears of African slaves.

Dinaw Mengestu

When I think of my work, I'm aware that I'm American and African at all points and times. And without a doubt, my experience and understanding of America was shaped by having immigrant parents.

Dinaw Mengestu

'The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears' is very much about America - it just happens to have African and Ethiopian characters, and in fact, it happens to have more characters who are not Ethiopian than who are.

Bernice Johnson Reagon

One of the biggest things I understood in a program like that was that it allowed more young African American scholars to do field research in the Caribbean and in Africa than had ever happened before in the history of the country and since.

I thought that it was important visually to say it's a new day ? a new day ? for African women.

Javier Solana

I think we need to give President Konare and the African Union all the support that they need. It is true that sometimes we promise things to the African Union and then we don't give what the promises are. We have to commit ourselves, within our capacities, of course.

Wilbur Smith

The whole structure of African government, as far back as we know, was based on tyranny. One guy ran the show. Chiefs like Chaka and Mzilikazi committed terrible atrocities. That is the tradition from which modern African rulers spring. It won't change easily overnight.

Bernie Sanders

The history of American democracy, to say the least, has been checkered. Our nation was founded at a time when people of African descent were held in bondage. After slavery was abolished, they were forced to endure legal discrimination for another 100 years.

Daymond John

I think African Americans are resilient and hustlers by nature. I think they need to understand that you can take that hustle to the boardroom, but it has to be an education process.

We should provide incentives to poor African farmers to report immediately if they suspect an outbreak among poultry, and discourage them from rushing to sell birds on the market.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

In Nigeria, along with its West African neighbor Ghana, women are now starting businesses in greater numbers than men.

Colin Cooper

We've got the South African teams now, in a row, and we just can't give the South Africans that much ball.

Dikembe Mutombo

My foundation was created so I can find a way to improve the living conditions of my people in the African continent, not just in Congo.

Dikembe Mutombo

I always felt that I had to leave a legacy on the African continent. As I was only the third player to come to the NBA from Africa, I felt I had to do my best to recruit more young Africans to come and play in the NBA - and also find a way to bring the NBA to Africa.

We need to look at the same thing in African American and Hispanic populations.

We will comply with the consent decree because it is the legal thing to do. We will increase the participation of women, African Americans, Latinos and Hispanics in our graduate assistance programs because it is the right thing to do.

Uzo Aduba

I loved 'Ghana Must Go' by Taiye Selasi. It's about a first-generation African family living in America that has to return home to Nigeria when their estranged father passes away.