Miriam Makeba Quotes & Sayings

“Girls are the future mothers of our society, and it is important that we focus on their well-being.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“But if you are going to wear blinders then you do not know the 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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“And I believe that it becomes a troubled continent because there are those who must always cause confusion so that we do not keep these natural resources.”