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" Apartheid didn't impinge on music. It impinged on people's freedoms. "
Hugh Masekela
Freedoms
Apartheid
Music
Related Quotes:
" 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 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
" 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
" It's obvious that the rest of the world loves high African culture - African culture, period. "
Hugh Masekela
Culture
High
Obvious
" I have a major respect for nature. I'm an environmentalist. "
Hugh Masekela
Respect
Major
Environmentalist
" I got possessed by music as an infant. "
Hugh Masekela
Infant
Possessed
Music
" I don't think what I do is influenced by suffering. I come from a talented people who are prolific in music and dance. "
Hugh Masekela
Dance
Think
Suffering
" Whatever you go into, you have to go in there to be the best. There's no formulas. It's all about passion and honesty and hard work. It might look glamorous, but it takes a lot of hard work. The blessing with the arts is that you can do it forever. "
Hugh Masekela
Passion
Hard Work
Best
" I think it is incumbent on all human beings to oppose injustice in every form. "
Hugh Masekela
Human
Injustice
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. "
Hugh Masekela
Time
Now
Africa
" When people campaign for positions, they promise people all kinds of things. "
Hugh Masekela
Kinds
Things
Promise
" 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 grew up with protests, marches, demonstrations, struggle. But I come from a clan of community workers. "
Hugh Masekela
Community
Up
Come
" Watching a Kirk Douglas movie, 'Young Man With A Horn,' made me want to be a trumpet player. "
Hugh Masekela
Young Man
Young
Want
" What people don't know about oppression is that the oppressor works much harder. You always grew up being told you were not smart enough or not fast enough, but we all lived from the time we were children to beat the system. "
Hugh Masekela
Time
Smart
People
" When I left South Africa there were 10 million people - when I came back there were more than 40 million. I had to learn how to get to the highways because when I left where there were no highways. "
Hugh Masekela
Left
Back
Africa
" 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. "
Hugh Masekela
World
Poor
People
" 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
" 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 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. "
Hugh Masekela
Performance
History
Group
" Once in a while, I treat myself to a cheesecake or carrot cake. "
Hugh Masekela
Cake
Treat
Carrot
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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. "
Hugh Masekela
World
Wealth
Through
" I don't think I have the power to forgive. "
Hugh Masekela
Think
Forgive
Power
" In my view, Africa's real problems are cultural. "
Hugh Masekela
Cultural
View
Real
" 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. "
Hugh Masekela
Always
Laundry
Go
" 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