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" 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

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

" 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'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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

Hugh Masekela

Community

Come

" 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. "

" I want to see Nelson walking down the streets of South Africa; I want to see him walking hand-in-hand with Winnie Mandela. "

" 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. "

" I got possessed by music as an infant. "

" Watching a Kirk Douglas movie, 'Young Man With A Horn,' made me want to be a trumpet player. "

" Corruption is everywhere, man. "

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

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

" 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. "

" When people campaign for positions, they promise people all kinds of things. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

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

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

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

" 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