Quotes by 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 wont get run over”

“I look at a stream and I see myself: a native South African, flowing irresistibly over hard obstacles until they become smooth and, one day, disappear -- flowing from an origin that has been forgotten toward an end that will never be.”

“People in the United States still have a Tarzan movie view of Africa. Thats 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.”

“Age is…wisdom, if one has lived ones life properly.”

“Ours was a marriage, a love affair -- the land would nurture us, and we would honor the land. But the land was too rich and too good. The powerful and greedy invaders saw this at once.”

“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 was so scared. Such a big orchestra”

“Mama Africa.”

“I sang in Los Angeles recently and a band that had managed to get out of New Orleans played there. They asked me for one or to songs for a CD being recorded. My group and I said yes, we were ready to contribute in that way, the only way we have.”

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

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.

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 wont get run over.

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 cant do anything about that.

Which goes to show you, you can make all the laws you want, but you cannot change peoples ways. If you must change them, you have to understand that it will take a long time.

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