May 21
2 min read
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- My music has never been a failure.
- My mother wasn’t any better than my father.
- When I do things, I do things honestly.
- Music must awaken people to do their duty as citizens and act.
- I’ve suffered quite a lot, to the point where I’ve experienced death. Years before I wasn’t fit to die, but I understand life better now. Death is nice, death is beauty.
- My ideas are threatening to the government.
- My country will be a symbol of free human society.
- I would never run away from my country. Even at the point of death, I doubt I would move out, because what is the point of leaving your own country?
- People thought I was trying to say that women had no say, no rights. I was not saying that. I was saying that women had a role, a duty. When they want to have a say in government — though in Africa they are not expected to do that — they are not discouraged. They can do what they want to do.
- I’m playing deep African music.
- I think I’m going to lead my people one day. I’m sure of it.
- Art itself is knowledge of the spiritual world. Art is information from higher forces, by those who are talented. I’m not jiving.
- In America we talk about South Africa, but I tell people that apartheid is nothing compared to what is happening in my country where black oppresses black.
- A police uniform is just a piece of clothing sewn by the same tailors who sew your clothes.
- I’ve studied my culture deeply and I’m very aware of my tradition.
- Being African didn’t mean anything to me until later in my life.
- I’m not your average politician. I believe in higher forces.
- America needs to hear some good sounds from Africa, man. The sanity of the world is going to be generated from Africa through art.
- When I was young we weren’t even allowed to speak our own languages in school. They called it ‘vernacular,’ as if only English was the real tongue.
- If I became president now I would immediately pass a law that makes every citizen a policeman or a soldier.
