Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba
Zenzile Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer and civil rights activist...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionWorld Music Singer
Date of Birth4 March 1932
CityJohannesburg, South Africa
people important discouraged
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.
falling-in-love animal views
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.
country real war
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.
long-ago singing singers
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.
voice speaking-up black
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.
fighting giving arms
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.
music west african-music
African music, though very old, is always being rediscovered in the West.
age aging ifs
Age is wisdom if one has lived ones life properly.
people political world
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.
past animal people
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.
country rights color
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.
choices oppression given
If given a choice, I would have certainly selected to be what I am: one of the oppressed instead of one of the oppressors.
crush nature racism
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.
music song determination
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.