Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba
Zenzile Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer and civil rights activist...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionWorld Music Singer
Date of Birth4 March 1932
CityJohannesburg, South Africa
country thinking people
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.
swim littles my-thoughts
my thoughts are like quick little fish that swim out of my grasp.
home away-from-home glad
It was hard to be away from home, but I am glad that I am home now.
world blinders ifs
But if you are going to wear blinders then you do not know the world.
believe confusion causes
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.
singing dies
I will probably die singing.
play long world
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.
past looks
I look at the past and I see myself.
heart home back-home
In the mind, in the heart, I was always home. I always imagined, really, going back home.
passion trying president
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.
people important discouraged
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.
falling-in-love animal views
People in the United States still have a 'Tarzan' movie view of Africa. That's 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.
country real war
The tragedy of civil wars in countries like Angola and Mozambique is that they left many civilians maimed. Poverty is the reason HIV/AIDS spread so rapidly in the African townships and slums. Poverty is the real killer.
hair style black
I see other black women imitate my style, which is no style at all, but just letting our hair be itself. They call it the Afro Look.