African Quotes
Quotes from African writers, leaders and thinkers — cited to a published source wherever one is known. 269 in the archive.
- The damage done in one year can sometimes take ten or twenty years to repair.Nigeria
- Every morning when I wake up, I make up my mind to solve as many problems, before retiring home.Nigeria
- Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul, and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.South Africa
- A functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership.Nigeria
- Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again.Nigeria
- Having travelled to some 20 African countries, I find myself, like so many other visitors to Africa before me, intoxicated with the continent. And I am not referring to the animals, as much as I have been enthralled by them during safaris in Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Rather, I am referring to the African peoples.United States
- To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.South Africa
- In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime.South Africa
- For all its problems, I found South Africa a beautiful country, interesting and inspiring.United Kingdom
- No matter what vision one has of South Africa, the first thing that must be done is to destroy racism.South Africa
- People wonder why I love Africa so much. I say this is where I was born and raised. My roots are in Africa; that's were I developed.Congo
- People say that if you find water rising up to your ankle, that's the time to do something about it, not when it's around your neck.Nigeria
- Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.South Africa
- My father always used to say, "Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument." Good sense does not always lie with the loudest shouters, nor can we say that a large, unruly crowd is always the best arbiter of what is right.South Africa
- An allegory is not meant to be taken literally. There is a great lack of comprehension on the part of some readers.Egypt
- The drums of Africa still beat in my heart. They will not let me rest while there is a single Negro boy or girl without a chance to prove his worth.United States
- Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.South Africa
- My people have a country of their own to go to if they choose... Africa... but, this America belongs to them just as much as it does to any of the white race... in some ways even more so, because they gave the sweat of their brow and their blood in slavery so that many parts of America could become prosperous and recognized in the world.France
- Even if you have a terminal disease, you don't have to sit down and mope. Enjoy life and challenge the illness that you have.South Africa
- The last four or five hundred years of European contact with Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in a very bad light and Africans in very lurid terms. The reason for this had to do with the need to justify the slave trade and slavery.Nigeria
- Events at home, at work, in the street - these are the bases for a story.Egypt
- Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.United States
- There's a general culture in this country to cut all the trees. It makes me so angry because everyone is cutting and no one is planting.Kenya
- I think there are a lot of people with family connections but who are actually nowhere. If you are hardworking and determined, you will make it and that's the bottom line. I don't believe in an easy way through.Angola