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
hands people pick-me-up
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!
country thinking people
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.
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.
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.
writing people telling-the-truth
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...
voice roots people
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,
thinking people together
Be careful, think about the effect of what you say. Your words should be constructive, bring people together, not pull them apart.
orchestra
I was so scared. Such a big orchestra
cannot change goes laws
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.
affair greedy honor invaders land love nurture ours powerful rich saw
Ours was a marriage, a love affair -- the land would nurture us, and we would honor the land. But the land was too rich and too good. The powerful and greedy invaders saw this at once.
america died holiday missed passed year
The one I missed is Billie Holiday because she died the year before I arrived. I was in America in 1959 and she had passed away before that.
angeles asked band cd contribute group los orleans played ready recently sang songs
I sang in Los Angeles recently and a band that had managed to get out of New Orleans played there. They asked me for one or to songs for a CD being recorded. My group and I said yes, we were ready to contribute in that way, the only way we have.
ant cope crushes greater might native nature racism size south strength weight
I look at an ant and l 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.