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" Africa has been troubled for a long time - well, the world has been troubled ever since I was born. "
Hugh Masekela
Well
Born
Long Time
Related Quotes:
" In my view, Africa's real problems are cultural. "
Hugh Masekela
Cultural
View
Real
" I grew up with protests, marches, demonstrations, struggle. But I come from a clan of community workers. "
Hugh Masekela
Community
Up
Come
" When people campaign for positions, they promise people all kinds of things. "
Hugh Masekela
Kinds
Things
Promise
" Apartheid didn't impinge on music. It impinged on people's freedoms. "
Hugh Masekela
Freedoms
Apartheid
Music
" I want to see Nelson walking down the streets of South Africa; I want to see him walking hand-in-hand with Winnie Mandela. "
Hugh Masekela
Africa
See
Down
" I don't think I have the power to forgive. "
Hugh Masekela
Think
Forgive
Power
" Twenty years ago, I was part of a movement of millions of people who were going after freedom. But today, they look and they say, 'What are the advantages of freedom?' So far, it's the vote and maybe, in certain places, lack of police harassment. You can live anywhere you want and do anything you want - if you have the means. "
Hugh Masekela
Vote
Live
Freedom
" The apartheid people were actors, and they had to act out their part in their beliefs every day. That's why we always saw them as being comedic. "
Hugh Masekela
Act
Why
People
" I have a major respect for nature. I'm an environmentalist. "
Hugh Masekela
Respect
Major
Environmentalist
" 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. "
Hugh Masekela
Good Things
Religion
Understand
" Watching a Kirk Douglas movie, 'Young Man With A Horn,' made me want to be a trumpet player. "
Hugh Masekela
Young Man
Young
Want
" Just because Nelson has been released doesn't mean the government has done us any favors. We have nothing to be grateful for. The government destroyed our country, destroyed our people. If anybody needs amnesty, it is the government. "
Hugh Masekela
Grateful
Done
Mean
" The thing that is being lost is heritage. In Africa, religion and advertisement and television and media hype have gotten Africans to where they are convinced psychologically that their own heritage is heathen, pagan, barbaric, savage, primitive. "
Hugh Masekela
Heritage
Lost
Media
" When I left South Africa in 1960 I was 20 years old. I wanted to try to get an education, and music education was not available for me in South Africa. "
Hugh Masekela
Africa
Me
Education
" I live a very enjoyable life. I understand what moderation is. "
Hugh Masekela
Life
Live
Moderation
" 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. "
Hugh Masekela
Police
Run
Support
" 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. "
Hugh Masekela
Mother
Say
Grandchildren
" 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. "
Hugh Masekela
Think
Lived
Music
" 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. "
Hugh Masekela
Live
Think
Business
" To tell you the truth, man, we spend most of the time travelling in hotels, in festivals, in concert halls, clubs, airports. The most unenjoyable part is all the security at airports. "
Hugh Masekela
Time
Security
Concert
" 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. "
Hugh Masekela
Older
More
Got
" 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. "
Hugh Masekela
Play
School
Odd
" Not only in Africa but in much of the world, most leaders' pockets are lined by industrial business. And industrial business is never going to stop aiming at profit. "
Hugh Masekela
World
Africa
Business
" 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. "
Hugh Masekela
Culture
Africa
Way
" I think it is incumbent on all human beings to oppose injustice in every form. "
Hugh Masekela
Human
Injustice
Form
" I got possessed by music as an infant. "
Hugh Masekela
Infant
Possessed
Music
" One of the greatest things that could really happen to Africa is for us to get rid of the borders and for the leadership not to think that the countries belong to them... We didn't create the borders to start with. "
Hugh Masekela
Think
Start
Leadership
" 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. "
Hugh Masekela
Music
Day
Time
" Mandela was chosen as a symbol of the South African struggle, and he did that great. But I wasn't just happy for him. I was happy for the people. "
Hugh Masekela
He
Great
Happy
" 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. "
Hugh Masekela
Singing
King
Holiday