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All Quotes by author - Hugh Masekela

" Africa has been troubled for a long time - well, the world has been troubled ever since I was born. "

" Apartheid didn't impinge on music. It impinged on people's freedoms. "

" Corruption is everywhere, man. "

" For me to want to play the trumpet was a very, very odd thing for my clan as a whole. One of my uncles was a high school principal, and he referred to my trumpet as a bugle, which really hurt me. "

" I always make the joke that I go home, to one of my homes, to go and do laundry so I can go on the road again. "

" I am a forward-looking person and live in the moment to build for the future. "

" I couldn't get away from the gramophone. It was the only thing that I ever really liked, and I was singing along by the time I was five years old - to the Modernaires and Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. "

" I don't criticise anybody, but I just don't understand religion. Like I don't understand nationalism. These are the two things that cause wars. I don't understand why they are supposed to be good things. "

" I don't think anybody has ever been able to live up to what they promised. I don't know a government that has ever been successful at that because once they get into power, things change and the world is controlled also by business now. "

" I don't think any musician ever thinks about making a statement. I think everybody goes into music loving it. "

" I don't think I have the power to forgive. "

" I don't think what I do is influenced by suffering. I come from a talented people who are prolific in music and dance. "

" If I don't make heritage visible and the strength of mother tongue important for my grandchildren, it scares me that they might say in 20 years from now, 'Well, it is rumoured that we used to be Africans long ago.' And in many urban areas, it's already happening. "

" I got possessed by music as an infant. "

" I grew up with protests, marches, demonstrations, struggle. But I come from a clan of community workers. "

" I have a major respect for nature. I'm an environmentalist. "

Environmentalist

" I just came from South Africa, a place that had been in a perpetual uprising since 1653, so the uprising had become a way of life in our culture and we grew up with rallies and strikes and marches and boycotts. "

" I live a very enjoyable life. I understand what moderation is. "

" I lived for music since I could think. "

" I'm not a Christian. My participation in music is so full blast, 24 hours a day. And that's my religion. I think I'm as spiritual as the pope, because I spend as much time in my spirituality as he does. "

" I'm travelling more than ever. I don't have the answer as to why, but the demand seems to have grown as I've got older. "

" I'm very interested in heritage restoration, and I'm working with a group of people to create a number of academies and performance spaces to encourage native arts and crafts and to explore African history. "

" In my view, Africa's real problems are cultural. "

" In some townships, political parties are run by thugs financed from Cape Town. If we don't have support of the police, we can not have the ability to organize and to gain even a slight semblance of power. "

" I started playing the piano when I was 6 years old 'cause my folks tried to get me away from the gramophone. And I just - I lived for music since I could think. And they got me piano lessons. So by the time I was 13, I was quite an accomplished piano player and musician. "

" I think it is incumbent on all human beings to oppose injustice in every form. "

" I think the most difficult thing that has had to happen in South Africa for the previously disadvantaged communities is they had to reconcile that the oppressor has been enriched and the establishment is now making five or 10 times more profit than they were during the time the economic embargo was on them. "

" It's obvious that the rest of the world loves high African culture - African culture, period. "

" I've always stood on one fact - that all over the world, there are only two things, the Establishment and the poor people. The poor people are a massive majority and across the world they are exploited in different kinds of ways. The Establishment depends on exploiting raw materials and the poor. "

" I've got to where am in life not because of something I brought to the world but through something I found - the wealth of African culture. "

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