Quotes from Miriam Makeba

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

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.

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.

African music, though very old, is always being rediscovered in the West.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Be careful, think about the effect of what you say. Your words should be constructive, bring people together, not pull them apart.

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

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.

I do not sing politics. I merely sing the truth.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Africa has her mysteries, and even a wise man cannot understand them. But a wise man respects them