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.”
”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.”
“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.”
“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.
“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.”
Happy 81st Birthday to South African-born singer & civil rights activist, Miriam Makeba also known as ‘Mama Africa’ and the ‘Empress of African Song’. (b. March 4, 1932 – d. November 9, 2008)
