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" 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
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" 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
" 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 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
" 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. "
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Africa
Me
Education
" It's obvious that the rest of the world loves high African culture - African culture, period. "
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Culture
High
Obvious
" 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. "
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World
Africa
Business
" 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
" Corruption is everywhere, man. "
Hugh Masekela
Man
Corruption
Everywhere
" In my view, Africa's real problems are cultural. "
Hugh Masekela
Cultural
View
Real
" I am a forward-looking person and live in the moment to build for the future. "
Hugh Masekela
Build
Future
I Am
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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 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
" Once in a while, I treat myself to a cheesecake or carrot cake. "
Hugh Masekela
Cake
Treat
Carrot
" Watching a Kirk Douglas movie, 'Young Man With A Horn,' made me want to be a trumpet player. "
Hugh Masekela
Young Man
Young
Want
" 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
" When people campaign for positions, they promise people all kinds of things. "
Hugh Masekela
Kinds
Things
Promise
" I lived for music since I could think. "
Hugh Masekela
Could
Think
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
" 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
" 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'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
" 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'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 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