African music, though very old, is always being rediscovered in the West. — Miriam Makeba
The traditional face of Africa includes an attitude towards man which can only be described as being socialist — Kwame Nkrumah
What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star or jungle track, Strong bronzed men, or regal black Women from whose loins I sprang When the birds of Eden sang? — Countee Cullen
I've got to where I am in life not because of something I brought to the world but through something I found - the wealth of African culture. — Hugh Masekela
The great powers of the world may have done wonders in giving the world an industrial and military look but the great gift still has to come from Africa - giving the world a more human face. — Steven Biko
Art is the signature of civilizations. — Beverly Sills
No artifact is a work of art if it does not help to humanize us. Without art...our world would have remained a jungle. — Bernard Berenson
The black artist is dangerous. Black art controls the 'Negro's' reality, negates negative influences, and creates positive images. — Sonia Sanchez
Africa is our center of gravity, our cultural and spiritual mother and father, our beating heart, no matter where we live on the face of this earth. — John Henrik Clarke
Africa is one continent, one people and one nation — Kwame Nkrumah
For us Africans, literature must serve a purpose: to expose, embarrass, and fight corruption and authoritarianism. It is understandable why the African artist is utilitarian. — Ama Ata Aidoo
If Africa wasn't beautiful the white man wouldn't want it. — Malcolm X
Black art has always existed. It just hasn't been looked for in the right places. — Romare Bearden
The African is not 'Communistic' in his thinking; he is -- if I may coin an expression - 'communitary'. — Julius Nyerere
Creating something that is universally beautiful. That is art. — Shu Uemura
African American Art Quotes
Fighting is a sport; if you're not humble it's going to bring humbleness to you. — Mike Tyson
You should always respect what you are and your culture because if your art is going to mean anything, that is where it comes from. — Romare Bearden
I dance not to entertain but to help people better understand each other. Because through dance I have experienced the wordless joy of freedom, I seek it more fully now for my people and for all people everywhere. — Pearl Primus
You're a work of art. Not everyone will understand you, but the ones who do, will never forget about you.
The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible — Toni Cade Bambara
I wanted to show that an African-American artist could make it in this country on a national level in the graphic arts. I want to be a strong role model for my family and for other African Americans. — Jerry Pinkney
Take the time to discover how African-Americans have had a great impact on this country. In science, education, literature, art, and politics. — Lynn Swann
The art of knowing is knowing what to ignore.
I feel like because black Cuban artists don't have the kind of pressure to thematize race in the way that African-American artists do, there's more space for them to do their art without having to discuss it in terms of racial identity. — Rachael Price
My audience went, 'Wait, why is she singing jazz? What's going on?' And then they went, 'Oh, because she can. Because she loves it.' And jazz, a music invented by the African-American community, is the greatest art form, I believe, to have ever come out of this country. — Lady Gaga
I think that when Riccardo Tisci wanted to bring more attention to the lack of African American presence on the runway, he also wanted to bring attention to the lack of a sensibility of African and Asian art. — Erykah Badu
African Culture Quotes
Violence is black children going to school for 12 years and receiving 6 years' worth of education. — Julian Bond
The equilibrium you admire in me is an unstable one, difficult to maintain. My inner life was split early between the call of the Ancestors and the call of Europe, between the exigencies of black-African culture and those of modern life. — Leopold Sedar Senghor
We have to realize our black heritage in order to give us strength to move on and progress. But as far as returning to the old African culture, it's unnecessary and it's not advantageous in many respects. We believe that culture itself will not liberate us. We're going to need some stronger stuff. — Huey Newton
Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.
There's an African proverb: 'When death finds you, may it find you alive.' Alive means living your own damned life, not the life that your parents wanted, or the life some cultural group or political party wanted, but the life that your own soul wants to live. — Michael Meade
Thousands of years ago, civilizations flourished in Africa which suffer not at all by comparison with those of other continents. In those centuries, Africans were politically free and economically independent. Their social patterns were their own and their cultures truly indigenous. — Haile Selassie
There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.
Families were living separately from the fathers. And so although, according to African culture, men were the head of the household, the truth is women were the ones who were raising everybody, including men. And growing up with my mother, that was something I really learned to appreciate. — Trevor Noah
My dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he's always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He has a certain rootlessness, a deracination. — Cornel West
To reaffirm the statement on the choosing of my identity, I come from two beautiful cultures which I have embraced, bridged, balanced, and identify with. I am proud to be who I am as a Dine' (Navajo) and Nahilii (African American) woman. Hozho', , & blessings — Radmilla Cody
As players of instruments, it is our duty to reach out and give light to those in the dark in whatever way that we can. All my actions are a fulfilment of all the African music genres - I'm only trying to maintain the culture and the tradition. I am a musician. — Sizzla
African Quotes
I have written a song that says: If you ever lose someone dear to you, never say the words, "They're gone," and they'll come back. — Prince
History teaches us that unity is strength, and cautions us to submerge and overcome our differences in the quest for common goals, to strive, with all our combined strength, for the path to true African brotherhood and unity. — Haile Selassie
If you can be the best, then why not try to be the best? — Garrett Morgan
It is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems, and that this can only be found in African unity. Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world. — Kwame Nkrumah
It doesn't matter how strong your opinions are. If you don't use your power for positive change, you are, indeed, part of the problem. — Coretta Scott King
I am an African. I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land. — Thabo Mbeki
What we need in South Africa is for egos to be suppressed in favour of peace. We need to create a new breed of South Africans who love their country and love everybody, irrespective of their colour. — Chris Hani
We must learn to live the African way. It's the only way to live in freedom and with dignity — Thomas Sankara
Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live. — Mae Jemison
Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else. — Maya Angelou
African Music Quotes
You cannot sing African music in proper English — Fela Kuti
Gospel music rhythms are not African in origin, although I know that's what the jazz experts say. — Mahalia Jackson
I have this ability to find this hidden talent in people that sometimes even they didn't know they had. — Berry Gordy
There's a category for me. I like to be referred to as a good singer of good songs in good taste. — Sarah Vaughan
Regardless of what you play, the biggest thing is keeping the feel going. — Wes Montgomery
First of all, the music that people call Latin or Spanish is really African. So Black people need to get the credit for that. — Carlos Santana
It's a great thing about being a musician; you don't stop until the day you die, you can improve. So it's a wonderful thing to do. — Marcus Miller
People called rock & roll 'African music.' They called it 'voodoo music.' They said that it would drive the kids insane. They said that it was just a flash in the pan - the same thing that they always used to say about hip-hop. — Little Richard
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. — Duke Ellington
African Women Quotes
Deal with yourself as a individual, worthy of respect and make everyone else deal with you the same way. — Nikki Giovanni
Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations. — Mae Jemison
I believe unconditionally in the ability of people to respond when they are told the truth. We need to be taught to study rather than believe, to inquire rather than to affirm. — Septima Poinsette Clark
Don't settle for average. Bring your best to the moment. Then, whether it fails or succeeds, at least you know you gave all you had. We need to live the best that's in us. — Angela Bassett
In the dark times, if you have something to hold on to, which is yourself, you'll survive. — Whoopi Goldberg
You are on the eve of a complete victory. You can't go wrong. The world is behind you. — Josephine Baker
My father was a slave and my people died to build this country and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you. — Paul Robeson
WOMEN must be at the forefront of nation-building to bring the South African citizenry together and, therefore, develop a whole new ethos of human co-existence — Steven Biko
African women in general need to know that it's OK for them to be the way they are - to see the way they are as a strength, and to be liberated from fear and from silence. — Wangari Maathai
I've always believed that I could do whatever I set my mind to do. — Alice Coachman
African American Culture Quotes
The Afro-American experience is the only real culture that America has. Basically, every American tries to walk, talk, dress and behave like African Americans. — Hugh Masekela
The African-American community still needs to come together as one and stand up for rights of the people and of what's happening in their culture, their community. — Ziggy Marley
The treatment of African and African American culture in our education was no different from their treatment in Tarzan movies. — Ishmael Reed
Coming up in the African-American culture, we were taught that we belonged to the universe and society was wrong in the way it dealt with us. We had to learn to express and affirm values not from the winning position. — Bernice Johnson Reagon
People ask me if I miss the States. I miss African Americans. But not the U.S. government or all the things they put me through. I miss African American culture, our speech, dance and cooking. — Assata Shakur
Jamestown changed the world in many ways, but perhaps it shaped our nation most profoundly the day Africans arrived. I can't think of a more relevant place to talk about the issues facing our community today than the place where African culture became American culture. — Tavis Smiley
From blood banking to the modern subway, from jazz to social justice, the contributions of African Americans have shaped and molded and influenced our national culture and our national character. — Bill Frist
It is my hope that as we commemorate Black History Month in the future, we will continue to celebrate the many achievements and rich culture of African-Americans. — Eliot Engel
It's unfortunate that [Louis] Brandeis was not able to translate or abstract his devotion to cultural pluralism and racial equality as he put it for Jews to enslave people and their descendants and to African Americans. — Jeffrey Rosen
It's depressing to see blacks wanting to dive into the mainstream of American commercial life. They come from a magnificent African culture based on aesthetics, and they all want to become fort builders like the vicious people who originally enslaved them. — George Carlin
Africa Quotes
During my term in AU, I will initiate an organised compensation claim for Africa and I will fight for a greater voice for Africa in the United Nations Security Council. If they (Western nations) do not want to live with us fairly, it is our planet and they can go to other planet. — Muammar al-Gaddafi
As far as i am concerned, i am in the knowledge that death can never extinguish the torch which i have lit in Ghana and Africa. Long after i am dead and gone, the light will continue to burn and be borne aloft, giving light and guidance to all people — Kwame Nkrumah
His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular. — Idi Amin
What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead. — Nelson Mandela
In view of my services in Africa, I have the chance of dying by poison. Two generals have brought it with them. It is fatal in three seconds. If I take the poison, none of the usual steps will be taken against my family; that is, against you. They will also leave my staff alone. — Erwin Rommel
People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. — David Livingstone
No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid — Michelle Alexander
A new era will dawn in Africa, when the impoverished masses of a nation rise up to rescue their right to a decent life from the hands of the ruling oligarchies. — Che Guevara
We have a vision of South Africa in which black and white shall live and work together as equals in conditions of peace and prosperity. — Oliver Tambo
In my world, a woman was the most powerful thing that I knew. Still is. A woman made the money in my house; a woman made my food. A woman beat my ass when I wasn't a good kid. Women were behind a lot of what spurred South Africa toward democracy. — Trevor Noah
African Continent Quotes
The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked-up with the total liberation of the African Continent — Kwame Nkrumah
The African Union has to act in order to put an end to armed conflicts that undermine the continent, to fight against the devastation caused by AIDS and other contagious diseases, to promote sustainable development of its member states. — Omar Bongo
Until all Africans stand and speak as free human beings, equal in the eyes of the Almighty; until that day, the African continent shall not know peace. — Haile Selassie
From the world wars of Europe to the jungles of the Far East, from the deserts of the Middle East to the African continent, and even here in our own hemisphere, our veterans have made the world a better place and America the great country we are today. — John Hoeven
Happily, there's a reversal of the brain drain occurring in Ghana now. We're seeing a lot of - actually in Africa - we're seeing a lot of African professionals, you know, returning to the continent to contribute their quota. — John Dramani Mahama
Africa does not have an uncle abroad who will come to bail it out of its political and economic woes. It is important that African countries wake up and pool whatever resources they have and jointly deal elements pulling our continent down a death blow. — Bernard Membe
I'll be the first US president to not only visit Kenya and Ethiopia, but also to address the continent as a whole, building off the African summit that we did here which was historic and has, I think, deepened the kinds of already strong relationships that we have across the continent. — Barack Obama
Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete. — Matthew Parris
It is quite easy to understand what China would need from the African continent with regards to its own economy, raw materials, oil and a market for manufactured goods. As I say it is not difficulty to understand and perfectly legitimate. There is nothing wrong with that. — Thabo Mbeki
It is not a problem. I had been nominated by my country Uganda and the African continent had endorsed me... No matter how much noise the frogs make, they cannot stop a cow from drinking water. — Sam Kutesa
Africa Continent Quotes
I'd move to Los Angeles if New Zealand and Australia were swallowed up by a tidal wave, if there was a bubonic plague in England and if the continent of Africa disappeared from some Martian attack. — Russell Crowe
I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses. — Nelson Mandela
Africa is a continent of people who as yet have no voice. — Tim Marshall
If you want to bet on the future, bet on the continent [Africa] that has the youngest people, and bet on the continent that has the highest desire to change. — Charles Hoskinson
Those new regions [America] which we found and explored with the fleet . . . we may rightly call a New World . . . a continent more densely peopled and abounding in animals than our Europe or Asia or Africa; and, in addition, a climate milder than in any other region known to us. — Amerigo Vespucci
The fact is that ours is the first generation that can look disease and extreme poverty in the eye, look across the ocean to Africa, and say this, and mean it. We do not have to stand for this. A whole continent written off - we do not have to stand for this. — Bono
Africa the continent is not just what we see on the news. It's... not AIDS, and it's not just war and poverty. It's so much more. It's an abundant continent, and Botswana is an abundant place. — Jill Scott
The continent is too large to describe. It is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a varied, immensely rich cosmos. Only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say 'Africa'. In reality, except as a geographical appellation, Africa does not exist. — Ryszard Kapuscinski
We will continue to count on your unwavering support and commitment to working with leaders of our continent in bringing about the desired renaissance of Africa. — Thabo Mbeki
Sport has the power to inspire and unite people. In Africa, soccer enjoys great popularity and has a particular place in the hearts of people. — Nelson Mandela
African Race Quotes
It's time we become comfortable with the uncomfortable conversations about race...Instead of being color blind, we need to be color brave. — Mellody Hobson
At no time within the last five-hundred years can one point to a single instance of the Negro as a race of haters. — Marcus Garvey
No white American ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilized until he wears the white man’s clothes, eats the white man’s food, speaks the white man’s language, and professes the white man’s religion. — Booker T. Washington
I am of the African race, and in the colour which is natural to them of the deepest dye; and it is under a sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. — Benjamin Banneker
The hearts of Afro-American women are too warm and too large for race hatred. Long suffering has so chastened them that they are developing a special sense of sympathy for all who suffer and fail of justice. — Fannie Barrier Williams
The history of a movement, the history of a nation, the history of a race is the guide-post of that movement's destiny, that nation's destiny, that race's destiny. — Marcus Garvey
Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so. — Brigham Young
People of color, particularly African Americans, feel the stigma more keenly. In a race-conscious society, some don't want to be perceived as having yet another deficit. — Bebe Moore Campbell
Crime is fast destroying the moral fabric of South African cities, and is becoming a major threat to South African democracy as well as the prominent manifestation of a "class war" that is largely a continuation of the "race war" of yesterday. — Achille Mbembe
I saw all races, all colors, blue eyed blonds to black skinned Africans in true brotherhood! In unity! Living as one! Worshiping as one! No segregationists, no liberals; they would not have known how to interpret the meaning of those words — Malcolm X
The Europeans who went to Africa came back with “modern' art. What is more African than a Picasso? — Sayings
When I think of the Harlem Renaissance, I think of bright colors, and bold, dynamic art. African American artists of the period were, in large measure, breaking out of the constrictions white society had set for them. They were claiming and remaking their own images, and doing so in bold and striking ways. — Nikki Grimes
African art is functional, it serves a purpose. It's not a dormant. It's not a means to collect the largest cheering section. It should be healing, a source a joy. Spreading positive vibrations. — Mos Def
I don't believe in the clash of cultures. The culture is one. The culture is a ring off the same chain. Picasso was very much influenced by the African arts, and he influenced a whole other generation of artists. So everything influences everything. — Marjane Satrapi
I was in Paris last year, where there's a great appreciation of many different aspects of African culture and of black culture. The music... the art... whatever... And I kind of went with that. — Lenny Kravitz
The process of creating art allows me to learn about the subject I'm illustrating. So, if I want to learn more about plantation life and slavery, I try to find clients that will give me an opportunity to work on projects that will visualize those experiences of the enslaved African and people of color. I get to learn about my roots, and my artwork allows the reader into that world by creating images that are accessible. — Jerry Pinkney
It was a revelation for me, in a practical sense, that you could write in an African language and still reach an audience beyond that language through the art of translation. — Ngugi wa Thiong'o
In the USA, we learn "art history" as Western art history, and the history of Asian, or African art is a special case; we learn politics by examining our own government system, and consider other systems special cases, and the same is true of philosophy. — Jay L. Garfield
Most of the more celebrated names among African-American authors, poets, and artists are known to the world because of their association with specific cultural arts movements. — Aberjhani
In the last 20 years of collecting contemporary African art, I have been bombarded by incredible shapes and colors that I now want to translate into clothes. — Jean Pigozzi
Before I started LimoLand, I mainly bought my clothes in Harlem, where I found clothing my size in fun colors. I still like to go there and see the vibrancy and colors of the neighborhood. I am also very influenced by the colors of my contemporary African and Japanese art collections. — Jean Pigozzi
Black painters have done all kinds of work. It's the treatment of forms they engage in-that's what determines the value of the work, not whether you call them a black artist or not. — Kerry James Marshall
My belief is that it is most important for an artist to develop an approach and philosophy about life - if he has developed this philosophy, he does not put paint on canvas, he puts himself on canvas. — Jacob Lawrence
Michael Jackson National African American Art Examiner Series — Aberjhani
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