Miriam Makeba Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• 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

  Falling In Love, Animal, Views

  21 Copy quote

• 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

  Country, Real, War

  Al-Ahram Weekly interview, 2001.

  54 Copy quote

• I look at the past and I see myself.

  Miriam Makeba

  Past, Looks

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  Play, Long, World

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  Brother, Player, White

  "Miriam Makeba: Mama Africa Goes Home". J. Poet, Crawdaddy! Magazine, February 11, 2009.

  15 Copy quote

• In the mind, in the heart, I was always home. I always imagined, really, going back home.

  Miriam Makeba

  Home, Heart, Back Home

  9 Copy quote

• my thoughts are like quick little fish that swim out of my grasp.

  Miriam Makeba

  Swim, Littles, My Thoughts

  6 Copy quote

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

  Miriam Makeba

  Girl, Home, Boys

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  Passion, Working Together, Trying

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  Song, New York, Land

  "Mama Africa" by Gamal Nkrumah. Profile. Al-Ahram Weekly, November, 2001.

  4 Copy quote

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

  Miriam Makeba

  Home, Away From Home, Glad

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Country, Thinking, People

  66 Copy quote

• 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

  Funny, Country, Farewell

  8 Copy quote

• [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

  Kings, Citizens, Causes

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Country, Grateful, Years

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  New York, Doors, Cities

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Hands, People, Pick Me Up

  "The long goodbye" by Robin Denselow, www.theguardian.com. May 15, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• I titled the album Reflections because I am reflecting on my music career.

  Miriam Makeba

  Reflection, Careers, Albums

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Artist, Musician, Ministry

  7 Copy quote

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