KemetLeads

Their words

Quotes from the great leaders of Africa & its diaspora

500 quotes — every one from a profile in the collection. Click a quote for the shareable card.

FreedomUnityCourageJusticeEducationLeadershipHope
“It always seems impossible until it's done.”
Nelson Mandela South Africa
“Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa.”
Kwame Nkrumah Ghana
“It's true, you cannot kill ideas. Ideas do not die.”
Thomas Sankara Burkina Faso
“It can be done, play your part.”
Julius Nyerere Tanzania
“The day will come when history will speak. […] Africa will write its own history and in both north and south it will be a history of glory and dignity.”
Patrice Lumumba DR Congo
“Our liberty is meaningless unless all Africans are free.”
Haile Selassie Ethiopia
“Emotion is African, as reason is Hellenic.”
Léopold Sédar Senghor Senegal
“It's the little things citizens do. That's what will make the difference.”
Wangari Maathai Kenya
“With my music I create a change. I see it. So really I am using my music as a weapon.”
Fela Kuti Nigeria
“Enemies have come who would ruin our country and change our religion. Today, you who are strong, give me of your strength.”
Menelik II Ethiopia
“Raise your head, my brother; the days of servitude are over.”
Gamal Abdel Nasser Egypt
“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”
Steve Biko South Africa
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Desmond Tutu South Africa
“Tell no lies, claim no easy victories.”
Amílcar Cabral Guinea-Bissau & Cabo Verde
“If yesterday I fought as an enemy, today you have become a friend and ally with the same national interest, loyalty, rights and duties as myself.”
Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe
“If you, the men of Ashanti, will not go forward, then we, the women, will.”
Yaa Asantewaa Ghana
“Africa should have one identity, one nationality, one people, one currency, one army.”
Muammar Gaddafi Libya
“The branch will not break in the arms of the chameleon.”
Mathieu Kérékou Benin
“Our children may learn about the heroes of the past. Our task is to make ourselves the architects of the future.”
Jomo Kenyatta Kenya
“We prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré Guinea
“Peace is not a word, it is a behaviour.”
Félix Houphouët-Boigny Côte d'Ivoire
“Man must be at the centre of all our activity.”
Kenneth Kaunda Zambia
“A luta continua — the struggle continues.”
Samora Machel Mozambique
“A nation cannot advance while half its people remain in the shadows.”
Habib Bourguiba Tunisia
“Independence is not given; it is wrested from the oppressor.”
Ahmed Ben Bella Algeria
“The road to freedom is via the cross.”
Albert Luthuli South Africa
“The history of Black Africa will remain suspended in air and cannot be written correctly until African historians dare to connect it with the history of Egypt.”
Cheikh Anta Diop Senegal
“I look at an ant and see myself: a native South African, endowed with a strength much greater than my size…”
Miriam Makeba South Africa
“The choice of language is central to a people's definition of themselves.”
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Kenya
“I have restored that which was ruins, I have raised up that which was unfinished.”
Hatshepsut Egypt
“The king who was my predecessor did not believe that it was impossible to discover the furthest limit of the Atlantic Ocean and wished vehemently to do so.”
Mansa Musa Mali
“I would rather die free than live as a subject of the colonizer.”
Samori Touré Guinea
“I am the shark that troubles the bar.”
Béhanzin Benin
“I shall make the Two Lands one again, for it is the command of Amun.”
Piye Sudan
“I will treat with the governor only as an equal — never as his subject.”
Queen Nzinga Angola
“No keener weapon has been put into men's hands by the immortal gods than a contempt for death.”
Hannibal Barca Tunisia
“It is the Portuguese themselves who, by their oppression, are forging us into one nation.”
Eduardo Mondlane Mozambique
“It is our responsibility to build a country where there are neither whites nor blacks, just South Africans.”
Oliver Tambo South Africa
“It is better to die on our feet than to live forever on our knees.”
Dedan Kimathi Kenya
“We will not be silenced; the women of Africa will claim their rightful place.”
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti Nigeria
“Zo kwe zo — every human being is a person.”
Barthélemy Boganda Central African Republic
“Every day we learn to forgive. But we do not want to forget.”
Paul Kagame Rwanda
“…that which unites us is far, far more powerful and enduring than that which divides us.”
Cyril Ramaphosa South Africa
“It is not the time to point fingers at one another, but the time to hold hands and move forward.”
Samia Suluhu Hassan Tanzania
“…we share the same mission: to drive local capacity, eliminate our dependence on imports, and ensure Africa's industrial growth is led by Africans.”
Aliko Dangote Nigeria
“Building Cameroon is up to each one of us, not to one single person.”
Samuel Eto'o Cameroon
“Africa is not a problem to be avoided nor is it to be pitied. Africa is nothing less than the key to the world's future.”
Bola Tinubu Nigeria
“Blood should never be the price tag for democracy.”
George Weah Liberia
“It is not enough to speak of human rights in the formal sense of freedom of speech, freedom from arrest and that sort of thing. We must also speak of freedom from hunger, freedom from disease, freedom from living under a leaking roof.”
Yoweri Museveni Uganda
“I am the happiest man in the world to be the first human to run under two hours and I can tell people that no human is limited.”
Eliud Kipchoge Kenya
“This is a big win for my generation of Africans all over the world. This should be a lesson to every African out there, no matter where you are, no matter what you plan to do, you can achieve it.”
Burna Boy Nigeria
“…no matter where you're from, your dreams are valid.”
Lupita Nyong'o Kenya
“The one country in Africa with so many riches must not descend into war like this. Please, lay down all weapons. Hold elections. All will be better.”
Didier Drogba Côte d'Ivoire
“I think we need to change the way we treat women in our culture. It's not optional.”
Mohamed Salah Egypt
“I remember my sister was also born at home because there is no hospital in our village. It was a really, really sad situation for everyone. I wanted to build one to give people hope.”
Sadio Mané Senegal
“"Never leave an enemy behind, or it will rise again to fly at your throat."”
Shaka Zulu South Africa
“She is remembered in Hausa praise as "Amina, a woman as capable as a man."”
Queen Amina of Zazzau Nigeria
“"I am the lion who has caught his prey; the world is mine."”
Sundiata Keïta Mali
“Of his Nile-flood year he declared the harvest "more beautiful than anything," a reign blessed by the gods.”
Taharqa Sudan
“"I will not be triumphed over." (attributed by ancient tradition to her refusal to be paraded through Rome)”
Cleopatra VII Egypt
“"I know the tactics of European governments when they desire to acquire an Eastern state; first they send out missionaries, then consuls, and then battalions."”
Tewodros II Ethiopia
“"Peace is like the rain which makes the grass grow; war is like the wind which dries it up."”
Moshoeshoe I Lesotho
“"It is better to die a free man than to live as a slave."”
Nnamdi Azikiwe Nigeria
“"The free education programme is the best legacy any government can bequeath to its people."”
Obafemi Awolowo Nigeria
“We belong neither to the East nor to the West; we are Africans.”
Sylvanus Olympio Togo
“The most important is to solve the problems of the people.”
Agostinho Neto Angola
“A people united, striving to achieve a common good for all members of society, will always emerge victorious.”
Sam Nujoma Namibia
“The hardest lesson of my life has come to me late. It is that a nation can win freedom without its people becoming free.”
Joshua Nkomo Zimbabwe
“Any life lost in war is a human life, irrespective of its being that of an Israeli or an Arab.”
Anwar Sadat Egypt
“"Women are the people who are going to relieve us from all this oppression and depression."”
Albertina Sisulu South Africa
“"There is only one race, the human race."”
Robert Sobukwe South Africa
“"We do not want to choose between East and West. We want to be left alone to develop our own destiny."”
Tom Mboya Kenya
“"We have chosen the socialist path because it is the only road that can lead our country out of underdevelopment."”
Modibo Keïta Mali
“"Everything is my business. Everything. The state of education, the state of our economy, the state of our agriculture, the state of our transport, everything is my business."”
Hastings Banda Malawi
“"Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter."”
Chinua Achebe Nigeria
“"They said, 'You are a savage and dangerous woman.' I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous."”
Nawal El Saadawi Egypt
“I jumped off the cliff. I didn't know whether I would get wings. I didn't know whether anybody would pick me up. I just jumped.”
Tems Nigeria
“A nation without a past is a lost nation, and a people without a past is a people without a soul.”
Seretse Khama Botswana
“Never will we say to the people: elect this Tutsi because he is Tutsi, or elect this Hutu because he is Hutu!”
Prince Louis Rwagasore Burundi
“To play the game is to trample on prejudice, every prejudice, and to learn to base the scale of values solely on the criteria of the mind.”
Félix Éboué Chad / French Guiana
“Each time a country seizes its independence through revolution, that independence does not rest on traditional and customary foundations.”
Ali Soilih Comoros
“I belong to a generation of writers who break down barriers and refuse the compartmentalisation of the imagination.”
Alain Mabanckou Republic of the Congo
“My heart is filled with pride as I contemplate my nation reconciled, its memory rebuilt and its history freed of its resentments.”
Hassan Gouled Aptidon Djibouti
“Oil can be linked to honey. Honey attracts many bees but some of those bees are the bad ones.”
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Equatorial Guinea
“We will wait about three or four decades until we see genuine, natural situations emerge. Maybe more, maybe more — who knows.”
Isaias Afwerki Eritrea
“I have assumed supreme power in the Kingdom of Swaziland and … all Legislative, Executive and Judicial power is vested in myself.”
King Sobhuza II Eswatini
“Gabon without France is like a car with no driver. France without Gabon is like a car with no fuel.”
Omar Bongo Ondimba Gabon
“I will not change the customs and rites of our ancestors.”
Queen Ranavalona I Madagascar
“I solemnly proclaim the independence of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.”
Moktar Ould Daddah Mauritania
“We have passed from the battle of the lesser jihad to that of the greater jihad.”
King Mohammed V Morocco
“Swayed by an overmastering impulse within me, and a long-cherished desire to visit those glorious sanctuaries, I resolved to quit all my friends and tear myself away from my home.”
Ibn Battuta Morocco
“It is not just perpetrators of violence who are responsible for their crimes, it is also those who choose to look the other way.”
Denis Mukwege DR Congo
“I am not a politician but a professional soldier. I am therefore a man of few words and I have been brief throughout my professional career.”
Idi Amin Uganda
“I am the product of the masses of my country and the product of my enemy.”
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela South Africa
“What we did for the Christians, we did to be faithful to Islamic law and out of respect for human rights.”
Emir Abdelkader Algeria
“Government is an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself.”
Ibn Khaldun Tunisia
“I never submitted to the Italian government: I only had conversations with it.”
Omar Mukhtar Libya
“Our predecessors taught us one thing: the slave who is not capable of assuming his own revolt does not deserve to be pitied.”
Ibrahim Traoré Burkina Faso
“We must work together as a united people with one heart and one mind.”
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah Namibia
“I have no forts, no houses, no country — all you can get from me is war, nothing else.”
Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan Somalia
“I and those who joined me in the bush and fought for more than twenty years, have brought to you CPA in a golden plate.”
John Garang South Sudan
“What is this, father Amun? Is it right for a father to ignore his son?”
Ramesses II Egypt
“You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.”
Naguib Mahfouz Egypt
“We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race.”
Kofi Annan Ghana
“Lord, take my soul, but the struggle continues.”
Ken Saro-Wiwa Nigeria
“Cinema is the people's night school.”
Ousmane Sembène Senegal
“For authenticity not only implies a profound knowledge of one's own culture, but also a respect for the cultural heritage of others.”
Mobutu Sese Seko DR Congo
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Martin Luther King Jr. United States
“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people who prepare for it today.”
Malcolm X United States
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
Frederick Douglass United States
“I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land.”
Harriet Tubman United States
“I had decided that I would have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen, even in Montgomery, Alabama.”
Rosa Parks United States
“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.”
W. E. B. Du Bois United States
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”
Booker T. Washington United States
“If you have no confidence in self you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence you have won even before you have started.”
Marcus Garvey United States
“Truth is powerful and it prevails.”
Sojourner Truth United States
“In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.”
Thurgood Marshall United States
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time.”
Barack Obama United States
“I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be who I want.”
Muhammad Ali United States
“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
Ida B. Wells United States
“Nobody's free until everybody's free.”
Fannie Lou Hamer United States
“Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble.”
John Lewis United States
“If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
Shirley Chisholm United States
“No change is possible without hope. No movement is possible without hope.”
Angela Davis United States
“The only way we gonna stop them white men from whuppin' us is to take over. We been saying freedom for six years — what we are going to start saying now is Black Power.”
Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) United States
“There is an urgent need for dedicated and courageous leadership… This is no time for faint-hearted men…”
Medgar Evers United States
“Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted.”
A. Philip Randolph United States
“We need in every community a group of angelic troublemakers.”
Bayard Rustin United States
“Keep hope alive.”
Jesse Jackson United States
“You may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.”
Kamala Harris United States
“Never let the dying hand of racism rest on your shoulder, weighing you down. Let racism always be someone else's burden to carry.”
Colin Powell United States
“Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough.”
Mary McLeod Bethune United States
“Give people light and they will find a way.”
Ella Baker United States
“The revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution.”
Huey P. Newton United States
“I was ordained for some great purpose in the hands of the Almighty.”
Nat Turner United States
“The talk of winning our share is not the easy one of disengagement and flight, but the hard one of work, of short as well as long jumps.”
Roy Wilkins United States
“Keep the faith, baby.”
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. United States
“In overthrowing me, you have cut down in Saint-Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty; it will spring up again from the roots, for they are numerous and deep.”
Toussaint Louverture Haiti
“I have saved my country. I have avenged America.”
Jean-Jacques Dessalines Haiti
“Possession make you rich? I don't have that type of richness. My richness is life, forever.”
Bob Marley Jamaica
“Anything is possible. I don't think limits.”
Usain Bolt Jamaica
“A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization.”
Aimé Césaire Martinique
“Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.”
Frantz Fanon Martinique / Algeria
“The only great men among the unfree and the oppressed are those who struggle to destroy the oppressor.”
Walter Rodney Guyana
“I dedicate this goal to the poor children of Brazil. We have to look after them.”
Pelé Brazil
“We do not want that dreaded death sentence and we have come here today to say: try harder.”
Mia Mottley Barbados
“O, ye nominal Christians! might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God?”
Olaudah Equiano Nigeria / United Kingdom
“All for one, one for all.”
Alexandre Dumas France
“It was my father who taught us that an immigrant must work twice as hard as anybody else, that he must never give up.”
Zinedine Zidane France / Algeria
“I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the wash-tub. Then I was promoted to the cook kitchen, and from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations.”
Madam C. J. Walker United States
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”
Jackie Robinson United States
“If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
Toni Morrison United States
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
Maya Angelou United States
“Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
James Baldwin United States
“There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.”
Oprah Winfrey United States
“…this line of education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom to our people.”
George Washington Carver United States
“Like what you do, and then you will do your best.”
Katherine Johnson United States
“When they go low, we go high.”
Michelle Obama United States
“African Unity is, above all, a political kingdom which can only be gained by political means.”
Kwame Nkrumah Ghana
“I make no claim to lay out any doctrines here. I am neither a messiah nor a prophet. I possess no truths.”
Thomas Sankara Burkina Faso
“Without dignity there is no freedom, without justice there is no dignity and without independence there are no free men.”
Patrice Lumumba DR Congo
“It is no less important that we know whence we came. An awareness of our past is essential to the establishment of our personality and our identity as Africans.”
Haile Selassie Ethiopia
“Africa has to open her doors to every Black man in the world. Until Africa sees it that way, she won't have made it yet, man.”
Fela Kuti Nigeria
“It is never shameful to be poor and to try to borrow to build my country… The shame is to suck the blood of peoples and suck away their rights.”
Gamal Abdel Nasser Egypt
“There can be no real peace and security until there be first justice enjoyed by all the inhabitants of that beautiful land.”
Desmond Tutu South Africa
“The wrongs of the past must now stand forgiven and forgotten.”
Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe
“Parliament is a misrepresentation of the people, and parliamentary systems are a false solution to the problem of democracy.”
Muammar Gaddafi Libya
“Egyptian antiquity is to African culture what Graeco-Roman antiquity is to Western culture. The building up of a corpus of African humanities should be based on this fact.”
Cheikh Anta Diop Senegal
“My country has been turned by the Verwoerd Government into a huge prison.”
Miriam Makeba South Africa
“Now my heart turns to and fro, in thinking what will the people say, they who shall see my monument in after years, and shall speak of what I have done.”
Hatshepsut Egypt
“He left me to deputize for him and embarked on the Atlantic Ocean with his men. That was the last we saw of him and all those who were with him, and so I became king in my own right.”
Mansa Musa Mali
“This oath, thus taken before my father, I have so strictly kept even to this day, that no man ought to doubt but that I shall be of the same mind for the rest of my life.”
Hannibal Barca Tunisia
“The foundation of everything is unity. … we chose to think beyond the horizon of tragedy, and become a people with a future.”
Paul Kagame Rwanda
“The constitution contained in the Bill before us is the product of negotiation and compromise. Yet the central tenets of a democratic, just and equitable society remain uncompromised, because freedom is non-negotiable.”
Cyril Ramaphosa South Africa
“This is not the time to look ahead with doubt, but the time to look ahead with hope and confidence.”
Samia Suluhu Hassan Tanzania
“Even when we don't have enough jobs to give, we must still train people. Skills are assets — whether they are used here or abroad.”
Aliko Dangote Nigeria
“He told me the only way to silence them was to beat them. That is the only thing that made me stay.”
Samuel Eto'o Cameroon
“The fuel subsidy is gone.”
Bola Tinubu Nigeria
“Today, we all wear the jersey of Liberia, and the victory belongs to the people, to peace, and to democracy.”
George Weah Liberia
“The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular, is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power.”
Yoweri Museveni Uganda
“I want to make the sport an interesting sport whereby all the human beings can run and together we can make this world a beautiful world.”
Eliud Kipchoge Kenya
“The reason for everything I do and how I do it is for one goal and one goal only, and that's the eventual unity of Africa.”
Burna Boy Nigeria
“It doesn't escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else's.”
Lupita Nyong'o Kenya
“Ivorians, from the south, the north, the east and the west, we have proved to you today that all of Côte d'Ivoire can live side by side and play together for one goal: the World Cup.”
Didier Drogba Côte d'Ivoire
“If you want something, go for it and you have to know it's going to be tough and there's going to be ups and downs.”
Mohamed Salah Egypt
“It was tough because I didn't have anyone behind me to push me to achieve my dream. But I never stopped dreaming.”
Sadio Mané Senegal
“Imperator, hand over thy fishing-rod to the fishermen of Pharos and Canopus; thy sport is the hunting of cities, realms, and continents.”
Cleopatra VII Egypt
“When the bells of peace ring, there will be no hands to beat the drums of war.”
Anwar Sadat Egypt
“Every time I stay true to myself, it just always goes right.”
Tems Nigeria
“They are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people… There is complete security in their country. Neither traveller nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence.”
Ibn Battuta Morocco
“We African heads of state must stop behaving like puppets who dance every time the imperialists pull the strings.”
Ibrahim Traoré Burkina Faso
“I call to you, my father Amun, I am among a host of strangers; all countries are arrayed against me, I am alone, there's none with me!”
Ramesses II Egypt
“The Zairean experience is based on a political philosophy that we call authenticity. This is an awareness on the part of the people of Zaire that they should return to their beginnings and search for the values of their ancestors.”
Mobutu Sese Seko DR Congo
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Martin Luther King Jr. United States
“We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary.”
Malcolm X United States
“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”
Frederick Douglass United States
“There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have one, I would have de oder; for no man should take me alive.”
Harriet Tubman United States
“The time had just come when I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed, I suppose.”
Rosa Parks United States
“Education must not simply teach work — it must teach Life.”
W. E. B. Du Bois United States
“In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”
Booker T. Washington United States
“We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind.”
Marcus Garvey United States
“Power, not reason, is the new currency of this Court's decisionmaking.”
Thurgood Marshall United States
“Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.”
Barack Obama United States
“I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong.”
Muhammad Ali United States
“Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community.”
John Lewis United States
“Prisons do not disappear problems, they disappear human beings.”
Angela Davis United States
“…a victory for democracy in Jackson will be a victory for democracy everywhere.”
Medgar Evers United States
“Leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving.”
Jesse Jackson United States
“While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last, because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.”
Kamala Harris United States
“Our black heritage must be a foundation stone we can build on, not a place to withdraw into.”
Colin Powell United States
“We have such a strong desire to live with hope and human dignity that existence without them is impossible.”
Huey P. Newton United States
“Was not Christ crucified?”
Nat Turner United States
“Africa is the cornerstone to the realisation of people's unity.”
Bob Marley Jamaica
“I've just proven to the world that you can do it clean, with hard work and determination.”
Usain Bolt Jamaica
“I, the man of color, want only this: That the tool never possess the man. That the enslavement of man by man cease forever.”
Frantz Fanon Martinique / Algeria
“I believe that love is the most important thing we can take from life, because everything else passes. … Love! Love! Love!”
Pelé Brazil
“The man of genius does not steal; he conquers.”
Alexandre Dumas France
“I was lucky to come from a difficult area. It teaches you not just about football but also life.”
Zinedine Zidane France / Algeria
“I am not ashamed of my past. I am not ashamed of my humble beginning.”
Madam C. J. Walker United States
“You can put me down as an expert on being a colored American, with 30 years of experience at it.”
Jackie Robinson United States
“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”
Toni Morrison United States
“You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I'll rise.”
Maya Angelou United States
“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”
James Baldwin United States
“I want all the girls watching… to know that a new day is on the horizon.”
Oprah Winfrey United States
“Unkindness to anything means an injustice done to that thing.”
George Washington Carver United States
“If you do your best, nobody can ask you to do it over again.”
Katherine Johnson United States
“I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters — two beautiful, intelligent, black young women — playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.”
Michelle Obama United States
“Independence is only the prelude to a new and more involved struggle for the right to conduct our own economic and social affairs.”
Kwame Nkrumah Ghana
“The slave who is not able to take charge of his own revolt deserves no pity for his lot.”
Thomas Sankara Burkina Faso
“I prefer to die with my head held high, with unshakeable faith and deep confidence in the destiny of my country, rather than live in submission and contempt for sacred principles.”
Patrice Lumumba DR Congo
“Our Armageddon is past. Africa has been reborn as a free continent and Africans have been reborn as free men.”
Haile Selassie Ethiopia
“I must identify myself with Africa. Then I will have an identity.”
Fela Kuti Nigeria
“Today, citizens, we say: this is our money, returned to us. These are our rights, about which we kept silent, come back to us.”
Gamal Abdel Nasser Egypt
“Perhaps oppression dehumanizes the oppressor as much as, if not more than, the oppressed. They need each other to become truly free, to become human.”
Desmond Tutu South Africa
“If ever we look to the past, let us do so for the lesson the past has taught us, namely that oppression and racism are inequities that must never again find scope in our political and social system.”
Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe
“The party is a contemporary form of dictatorship. It is the modern instrument of dictatorial government.”
Muammar Gaddafi Libya
“The whole human race had its origin, just as the ancients had guessed, at the foot of the Mountains of the Moon.”
Cheikh Anta Diop Senegal
“I have not the slightest doubt that these arms will be used against the African women and children.”
Miriam Makeba South Africa
“I have done this with a loving heart for my father Amun… It was he who led me, I did not plan a work without his doing.”
Hatshepsut Egypt
“We belong to a house which hands on the kingship by inheritance.”
Mansa Musa Mali
“For either you must conquer, or die, or fall alive into the hands of your foes.”
Hannibal Barca Tunisia
“Our people will never — and I mean never — be left for dead again.”
Paul Kagame Rwanda
“We have a Constitution we can be proud of, now let's make it work.”
Cyril Ramaphosa South Africa
“Almighty God did not create a weak brain for a woman and a highly capable brain for a man.”
Samia Suluhu Hassan Tanzania
“Honestly, if we had fully understood the magnitude and challenges involved, we may not have even attempted it… the courage, or maybe, naivety that got us this far.”
Aliko Dangote Nigeria
“We have to be strict, but it is not a question of money. […] We must look for solutions all together.”
Samuel Eto'o Cameroon
“We are too great a nation and too grounded as a people to rob ourselves of our finest destiny.”
Bola Tinubu Nigeria
“We belong to Liberia first before we belong to our inherited tribes, or chosen counties.”
George Weah Liberia
“No one should think that what is happening today is a mere change of guard: it is a fundamental change in the politics of our country.”
Yoweri Museveni Uganda
“Only the disciplined ones are free in life. If you aren't disciplined, you are a slave to your moods.”
Eliud Kipchoge Kenya
“The schools in Nigeria would rather teach you another man's history than your own.”
Burna Boy Nigeria
“Beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume. It was something that I just had to be.”
Lupita Nyong'o Kenya
“Seeing both leaders side by side for the national anthems was very special. I felt then that the Ivory Coast was born again.”
Didier Drogba Côte d'Ivoire
“All lives are sacred and must be protected. … I am calling on world leaders to come together and prevent the slaughter of innocent souls. Humanity must prevail.”
Mohamed Salah Egypt
“Why not start by building a school to give opportunities to those young kids who dream to become someone else in the future?”
Sadio Mané Senegal
“Do not expect other honours or libations; these are the last from Cleopatra the captive.”
Cleopatra VII Egypt
“You have to face reality bravely as I have done. There can never be any solution to a problem by evading it or turning a deaf ear to it.”
Anwar Sadat Egypt
“I think if anyone feels how I felt at the time, hold on.”
Tems Nigeria
“Yet another is their zeal for learning the Koran by heart.”
Ibn Battuta Morocco
“My generation cannot understand how Africa, with so much wealth beneath our soil, with a generous nature, water and sunshine in abundance, is today the poorest continent.”
Ibrahim Traoré Burkina Faso
“I know Amun helps me more than a million troops, more than a hundred thousand charioteers, more than ten thousand brothers and sons who are united as one heart.”
Ramesses II Egypt
“A return to authenticity is not narrow nationalism, a blind return to the past. On the contrary, it is a useful instrument for peace among nations, a condition for existence among peoples.”
Mobutu Sese Seko DR Congo
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
Martin Luther King Jr. United States
“We declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being…”
Malcolm X United States
“The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed.”
Frederick Douglass United States
“But I was free, and they should be free. I would make a home in the North and bring them there, God helping me.”
Harriet Tubman United States
“We had to take a stand to at least let it be known that we want to be free regardless of the conditions under which we were living.”
Rosa Parks United States
“I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas…”
W. E. B. Du Bois United States
“No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.”
Booker T. Washington United States
“Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God's grace, I shall come… to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life.”
Marcus Garvey United States
“If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a State has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.”
Thurgood Marshall United States
“We must start from the simple premise that Africa's future is up to Africans.”
Barack Obama United States
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs…?”
Muhammad Ali United States
“The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.”
John Lewis United States
“We recognize that we are collective agents of history and that history cannot be deleted like web pages.”
Angela Davis United States
“The years of change are upon us. In the racial picture things will never be as they once were. History has reached a turning point, here and over the world.”
Medgar Evers United States
“Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow — red, yellow, brown, black and white — and we're all precious in God's sight.”
Jesse Jackson United States
“Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourselves in a way that others may not, simply because they've never seen it before.”
Kamala Harris United States
“Let your dreams be your only limitations. Now and forever.”
Colin Powell United States
“…when we say “All Power to the People,” we mean to convey a sense of deep respect and love for the people, and the idea that the people deserve complete truth and honesty.”
Huey P. Newton United States
“The time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first.”
Nat Turner United States
“If the fight is spiritual, then fight spiritual, because everywhere the fight goes on.”
Bob Marley Jamaica
“I've worked all my life for this moment.”
Usain Bolt Jamaica
“Every time a man has contributed to the victory of the dignity of the spirit, every time a man has said no to an attempt to subjugate his fellows, I have felt solidarity with his act.”
Frantz Fanon Martinique / Algeria
“Please take more attention to the young ones, to the kids all over the world. We need them too much.”
Pelé Brazil
“It was not to liberty, that goddess of all, that mothers sacrificed their children: it was to the ambition, the selfishness, the pride of one man.”
Alexandre Dumas France
“My family are very proud of me, but I am very proud of them and where they come from. I am proud that they come from Kabylie.”
Zinedine Zidane France / Algeria
“My ambition is to build an industrial school in Africa.”
Madam C. J. Walker United States
“Negroes were stirred up long before there was a Communist Party, and they'll stay stirred up long after the party has disappeared — unless Jim Crow has disappeared by then as well.”
Jackie Robinson United States
“Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.”
Toni Morrison United States
“Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, / I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”
Maya Angelou United States
“Great men have done great things here and will again and we can make America what America must become.”
James Baldwin United States
“The one quality all of them seem to share is an ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning, even during our darkest nights.”
Oprah Winfrey United States
“My work is that of conservation, the saving of things that the average person throws away.”
George Washington Carver United States
“Follow your passion. Whatever you're doing, do your best at all times and make it as correct as possible.”
Katherine Johnson United States
“With every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us.”
Michelle Obama United States
“The forces that unite us are far greater than the difficulties that divide us at present, and our goal must be the establishment of Africa's dignity, progress and prosperity.”
Kwame Nkrumah Ghana
“We encourage aid that helps us do without aid. But in general, the policy of assistance and aid has only disorganized us, enslaved us, and made us shirk our responsibilities.”
Thomas Sankara Burkina Faso
“Do not weep for me. I know that my tormented country will be able to defend its freedom and its independence.”
Patrice Lumumba DR Congo
“Leadership does not mean domination. The world is always well supplied with people who wish to rule and dominate others. The true leader is of a different sort.”
Haile Selassie Ethiopia
“I want peace. Happiness. Not only for myself. For everybody. If I get it for myself I can't have peace. When everybody has peace then I will have peace.”
Fela Kuti Nigeria
“Long battles lie ahead of us, so that we may live free, live with dignity, live with pride.”
Gamal Abdel Nasser Egypt
“God created us so that we should form the human family, existing together because we were made for one another.”
Desmond Tutu South Africa
“Democracy is never mob-rule. It is and should remain disciplined rule requiring compliance with the law and social rules.”
Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe
“Knowledge is a natural right of every human being of which no one has the right to deprive him or her under any pretext…”
Muammar Gaddafi Libya
“I ask you and all the leaders of the world: Would you act differently? Would you keep silent and do nothing if you were in our place?”
Miriam Makeba South Africa
“My mouth is effective in its speech; I do not go back on my word.”
Hatshepsut Egypt
“I came for the Pilgrimage and nothing else. I do not wish to mix anything else with my Pilgrimage.”
Mansa Musa Mali
“Gisco, another thing has escaped your notice which is more amazing still… in all this multitude there is no one who is called Gisco.”
Hannibal Barca Tunisia
“The Rwandan story shows how much power human beings have within them. Whatever power you do have, you might as well use it to tell the truth and do what is right.”
Paul Kagame Rwanda
“Now is the time to lend a hand. Now is the time for each of us to say 'send me'.”
Cyril Ramaphosa South Africa
“Freedom and democracy are the foundation of peace in a country… there is no freedom or democracy that is not protected and governed by laws, procedures and regulations.”
Samia Suluhu Hassan Tanzania
“There is no segregation on who can own these shares. We want every human being living on the continent to be part of this action.”
Aliko Dangote Nigeria
“What is the best project for our Cameroon? That is what this is about, not personal interests.”
Samuel Eto'o Cameroon
“Military coups are wrong, as is any tilted civilian political arrangement that perpetuates injustice.”
Bola Tinubu Nigeria
“The foundation of the New Liberia must be reinforced by the steel of integrity.”
George Weah Liberia
“The sovereign power in the land must be the population, not the government. The government should not be the master, but the servant of the people.”
Yoweri Museveni Uganda
“I think I fulfilled the legacy by winning the marathon for the second time. That's my total happiness, my inspiration for the next generation.”
Eliud Kipchoge Kenya
“There are so many situations where a fight needs to be had. A revolution is needed, and I want to inspire it.”
Burna Boy Nigeria
“What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself and for those around you.”
Lupita Nyong'o Kenya
“I came to offer you a Ballon d'Or: it is the Ballon d'Or of all Côte d'Ivoire.”
Didier Drogba Côte d'Ivoire
“You have two choices: to tell the people that they are right to put you on the bench, or to prove them wrong. I needed to prove them wrong.”
Mohamed Salah Egypt
“I've always said it's really important to give back and I try my best to give back what my people have given me.”
Sadio Mané Senegal
“Do not abandon thine own wife while she lives, nor permit a triumph to be celebrated over myself in my person, but hide and bury me here with thyself…”
Cleopatra VII Egypt
“Any peace not built on justice and on the recognition of the rights of the peoples, would be a structure of sand which would crumble under the first blow.”
Anwar Sadat Egypt
“I was at a crossroads, to do what I really want to do or do what people were telling me to do… I decided I don't care what people think.”
Tems Nigeria
“I have indeed — praise be to God — attained my desire in this world, which was to travel through the earth, and I have attained therein what none other has attained to my knowledge.”
Ibn Battuta Morocco
“A people that never abdicates, that never gives up, that stands up to adversity.”
Ibrahim Traoré Burkina Faso
“Did you not know it in your hearts: I am your rampart of iron!”
Ramesses II Egypt
“Despite the huge organization created to perpetuate the slavery of the black man, the whites of Europe could not extinguish the flame of freedom and dignity in black Africa.”
Mobutu Sese Seko DR Congo
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Martin Luther King Jr. United States
“Human rights are something you were born with. Human rights are your God-given rights. Human rights are the rights that are recognized by all nations of this earth.”
Malcolm X United States
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
Frederick Douglass United States
“I grew up like a neglected weed — ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it.”
Harriet Tubman United States
“I made up my mind that I would not give in any longer to legally-imposed racial segregation.”
Rosa Parks United States
“We have no right to sit silently by while the inevitable seeds are sown for a harvest of disaster to our children, black and white.”
W. E. B. Du Bois United States
“…I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.”
Booker T. Washington United States
“Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people. Action, self-reliance, the vision of self and the future have been the only means by which the oppressed have seen and realized the light of their own freedom.”
Marcus Garvey United States
“In light of the sorry history of discrimination and its devastating impact on the lives of Negroes, bringing the Negro into the mainstream of American life should be a state interest of the highest order.”
Thurgood Marshall United States
“Nobody should be president for life. And your country is better off if you have new blood and new ideas.”
Barack Obama United States
“It is in the light of my consciousness as a Muslim minister and my own personal convictions that I take my stand in rejecting the call to be inducted.”
Muhammad Ali United States
“In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.”
John Lewis United States
“The real content of any kind of revolutionary thrust lies in the principles, in the goal that you're striving for, not in the way you reach them.”
Angela Davis United States
“The Negro has been here in America since 1619, a total of 344 years. He is not going anywhere else; this country is his home.”
Medgar Evers United States
“We must leave racial battle ground and come to economic common ground and moral higher ground.”
Jesse Jackson United States
“America's democracy is not guaranteed. It is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it, to guard it and never take it for granted.”
Kamala Harris United States
“We were taught that hard work and education were the keys to success in this country.”
Colin Powell United States
“So, too, with survival programs, which are emergency services. In themselves they do not change social conditions, but they are life-saving vehicles until conditions change.”
Huey P. Newton United States
“I am here loaded with chains, and willing to suffer the fate that awaits me.”
Nat Turner United States
“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds.”
Bob Marley Jamaica
“Jamaica has proven that we are the greatest sprint country.”
Usain Bolt Jamaica
“I am not the slave of the Slavery that dehumanized my ancestors.”
Frantz Fanon Martinique / Algeria
“Nelson Mandela was one of the most influential people in my life. He was my hero, my friend, and also a companion to me in our fight for the people and for world peace.”
Pelé Brazil
“Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words: ‘Wait and hope.’”
Alexandre Dumas France
“To be recognised by a whole country is incredible. … It's a message to everybody — politicians, the kids I grew up with, ordinary French people — about what can be done.”
Zinedine Zidane France / Algeria
“I hope you will catch the inspiration, grasp the opportunity to do something.”
Madam C. J. Walker United States
“I respectfully remind you sir, that we have been the most patient of all people.”
Jackie Robinson United States
“It's important, therefore, to know who the real enemy is, and to know the function, the very serious function of racism, which is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work.”
Toni Morrison United States
“History, despite its wrenching pain, / Cannot be unlived, but if faced / With courage, need not be lived again.”
Maya Angelou United States
“We cannot be free until they are free.”
James Baldwin United States
“The key to life is to develop an internal moral, emotional G.P.S. that can tell you which way to go.”
Oprah Winfrey United States
“It is fundamental that nature will drive away those who commit sins against it.”
George Washington Carver United States
“Girls are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing. Sometimes they have more imagination than men.”
Katherine Johnson United States
“Being president doesn't change who you are — it reveals who you are.”
Michelle Obama United States
“'Seek ye first the political kingdom' became the principal slogan of the Convention People's Party, for without political independence none of our plans for social and economic development could be put into effect.”
Kwame Nkrumah Ghana
“Those who led us into debt were gambling, as if they were in a casino. As long as they were winning, there was no problem. Now that they're losing their bets, they demand repayment.”
Thomas Sankara Burkina Faso
“We shall show the world what the black man can do when he works in freedom, and we shall make the Congo a beacon for the whole of Africa.”
Patrice Lumumba DR Congo
“Apart from the Kingdom of the Lord there is not on this earth any nation that is superior to any other… God and history will remember your judgment.”
Haile Selassie Ethiopia
“They have released you now, but you never released yourself.”
Fela Kuti Nigeria
“There is a basic principle I believe in, and my belief in it has not changed: what is taken by force cannot be regained except by force.”
Gamal Abdel Nasser Egypt
“Having looked the beast of the past in the eye … let us shut the door on the past – not in order to forget it but in order not to allow it to imprison us.”
Desmond Tutu South Africa
“So Blair keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe.”
Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe
“The Preamble says that all nations, small or large, are equal. Are we equal when it comes to the permanent seats? No, we are not equal.”
Muammar Gaddafi Libya
“I am not a politician, but I am a South African who feels and who knows where I come from… I merely sing the truth.”
Miriam Makeba South Africa
“Hear ye, all persons! ye people as many as ye are! I have done this according to the design of my heart.”
Hatshepsut Egypt
“I make obeisance to God who created me!”
Mansa Musa Mali
“Years and a chequered experience of good and evil fortune have so disillusioned me that I prefer to take reason rather than Fortune as my guide.”
Hannibal Barca Tunisia
“No community is beyond repair, and the dignity of a people is never fully extinguished.”
Paul Kagame Rwanda
“Immediate, swift and extraordinary action is required if we are to prevent a human catastrophe of enormous proportions in our country.”
Cyril Ramaphosa South Africa
“As the first female President in the history of my country, the burden of expectation to deliver gender equality is heavier on my shoulder.”
Samia Suluhu Hassan Tanzania
“I have been fighting all my life and I am ready and hundred percent sure I will win at the end of the day.”
Aliko Dangote Nigeria
“What democracy demands is that we do not resolve differences through force and repression. But we make allowance for the legitimacy of views that differ from our own.”
Bola Tinubu Nigeria
“We must let the people decide, and then we must respect their decision. That is indeed the true essence of democracy.”
George Weah Liberia
“Even the simplest forms of animal life, such as amoebas, hydras or earthworms, know their interests. … Why should Africans not know their interests and what is good for them?”
Yoweri Museveni Uganda
“Let's all keep running. Together, there is nothing we cannot achieve.”
Eliud Kipchoge Kenya
“I want the younger generations and our children to know the truth and have their foundation in the truth as opposed to in the lies of Europeans and colonial masters.”
Burna Boy Nigeria
“Colorism is the daughter of racism in a world that rewards lighter skin over darker skin.”
Lupita Nyong'o Kenya
“We need to sit together and speak about it to make sure it is the first and last time.”
Didier Drogba Côte d'Ivoire
“[I dedicate it to] the children in Egypt and Africa… to remind them to never stop dreaming and never stop believing in themselves.”
Mohamed Salah Egypt
“I dedicate this award to the youth of Senegal.”
Sadio Mané Senegal
“Hail, master — for Heaven has granted you the mastery and taken it from me.”
Cleopatra VII Egypt
“…the real genius of Egypt has been one of peace… and its ambition has been to build not to destroy, to create not to annihilate, to coexist not to eliminate.”
Anwar Sadat Egypt
“It's about breaking free from any societal pressure, any chain. It's about not being afraid to be yourself and just living your life regardless of what people say.”
Tems Nigeria
“I made it a habit on my journey never, so far as possible, to cover a second time any road that I had once travelled.”
Ibn Battuta Morocco
“The Eldorado our peoples dream of, we can build it here, and we have faith in this people.”
Ibrahim Traoré Burkina Faso
“I charged all countries, while I was alone, my infantry and my chariotry having forsaken me. Not one among them stood to turn about.”
Ramesses II Egypt
“A fruit falls only when it is ripe; but in the storms and the tempests of history the fruit falls, whether ripe or not.”
Mobutu Sese Seko DR Congo
“Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.”
Martin Luther King Jr. United States
“We need to expand the civil-rights struggle to a higher level — to the level of human rights.”
Malcolm X United States
“You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.”
Frederick Douglass United States
“I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave.”
Harriet Tubman United States
“I felt that it was not right to be deprived of freedom when we were living in the Home of the Brave and Land of the Free.”
Rosa Parks United States
“Work, culture, liberty — all these we need, not singly but together, not successively but together, each growing and aiding each…”
W. E. B. Du Bois United States
“…those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.”
Booker T. Washington United States
“I know no national boundary where the Negro is concerned. The whole world is my province until Africa is free.”
Marcus Garvey United States
“The true miracle was not the birth of the Constitution, but its life, a life nurtured through two turbulent centuries of our own making.”
Thurgood Marshall United States
“On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”
Barack Obama United States
“All you need to do is know yourself to set yourself free.”
Muhammad Ali United States
“To those who have said, “Be patient and wait,” we have long said that we cannot be patient. We do not want our freedom gradually, but we want to be free now!”
John Lewis United States
“Walls turned sideways are bridges.”
Angela Davis United States
“He wants the public schools and colleges desegregated so that his children can receive the best education that Mississippi has to offer.”
Medgar Evers United States
“Dream of teachers who teach for life and not for a living.”
Jesse Jackson United States
“My mother taught me that service to others gives life purpose and meaning.”
Kamala Harris United States
“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.”
Colin Powell United States
“It is necessary for our children to grow up healthy with functional and creative minds.”
Huey P. Newton United States
“Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights.”
Bob Marley Jamaica
“I wasn't even looking at the time. I just came here to win.”
Usain Bolt Jamaica
“My final prayer: O my body, make of me always a man who questions!”
Frantz Fanon Martinique / Algeria
“I apologise to the millions of children who saw this act, and to the educators who teach what should and should not be done.”
Zinedine Zidane France / Algeria
“If I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard.”
Madam C. J. Walker United States
“17 million Negroes cannot do as you suggest and wait for the hearts of men to change. We want to enjoy now the rights that we feel we are entitled to as Americans.”
Jackie Robinson United States
“You are moving in the direction of freedom and the function of freedom is to free somebody else.”
Toni Morrison United States
“You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all.”
Maya Angelou United States
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
James Baldwin United States
“Honor your calling. Everybody has one. Trust your heart and success will come to you.”
Oprah Winfrey United States
“I want them to see the Great Creator in the smallest and apparently the most insignificant things.”
George Washington Carver United States
“You learn if you want to. So you've got to want to learn.”
Katherine Johnson United States
“The only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”
Michelle Obama United States
“A State in the grip of neo-colonialism is not master of its own destiny.”
Kwame Nkrumah Ghana
“We should undertake to live as Africans. It is the only way to live free and to live in dignity.”
Thomas Sankara Burkina Faso
“The Congo's independence is a decisive step towards the liberation of the whole African continent.”
Patrice Lumumba DR Congo
“That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned… the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion.”
Haile Selassie Ethiopia
“I said, and I still say, that I bear the whole responsibility.”
Gamal Abdel Nasser Egypt
“My appeal is ultimately directed to us all, black and white together, to close the chapter on our past and to strive together for this beautiful and blessed land as the rainbow people of God.”
Desmond Tutu South Africa
“Only God, who appointed me, will remove me – not the MDC, not the British. Only God will remove me!”
Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe
“Colonization should be punished. The countries that harmed other peoples during the colonial era should pay compensation for the damage and suffering inflicted under their colonial rule.”
Muammar Gaddafi Libya
“I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa and the people without even realising.”
Miriam Makeba South Africa
“Never was brought the like of this for any king who has been since the beginning.”
Hatshepsut Egypt
“Peace once established is a better and safer thing than hoping for victory; that is in your hands, this in the hands of the gods.”
Hannibal Barca Tunisia
“Our job is to make sure that every generation in Africa, enjoys a better life than the previous one.”
Paul Kagame Rwanda
“We owe this noble mission our courage. We must be brave and we must be bold.”
Cyril Ramaphosa South Africa
“The level of vaccine inequity that we see is appalling… We tend to forget that nobody is safe until everyone is safe.”
Samia Suluhu Hassan Tanzania
“My dear Nigerians, especially our youth, I have heard you loud and clear. I understand the pain and frustration that drive these protests…”
Bola Tinubu Nigeria
“Tonight, the CDC has lost the election, but Liberia has won. This is a time for graciousness in defeat, a time to place our country above party.”
George Weah Liberia
“I am not a servant of anybody. I am a freedom fighter; that is why I do what I do. … If anybody thinks you gave me a job, he is deceiving himself.”
Yoweri Museveni Uganda
“Africa is home. Africa is where I was born… Africa is a small continent with a lot of energy and energetic youth.”
Eliud Kipchoge Kenya
“I don't want children to grow up the same way I did, with separations and borders and, 'We are all better than you'.”
Burna Boy Nigeria
“Being able to see yourself reflected in imaginative and aspirational material is so important.”
Lupita Nyong'o Kenya
“I have benefited first-hand from the power of sports to lead a healthy life and I am committed to working with WHO to share such gains worldwide.”
Didier Drogba Côte d'Ivoire
“I neither wish to live nor can I live, Caesar.”
Cleopatra VII Egypt
“Let there be no more wars or bloodshed between Arabs and Israelis. Let there be no more suffering or denial of rights. Let there be no more despair or loss of faith.”
Anwar Sadat Egypt
“I don't want to limit God. I just want to do as much as possible.”
Tems Nigeria
“For a moment I entertained the idea of spending the rest of my life in the service of this Shaykh, but my spirit, tenacious of its purpose, dissuaded me.”
Ibn Battuta Morocco
“We invite all other Africans, all these oppressed peoples, to unite in order to face adversity.”
Ibrahim Traoré Burkina Faso
“King of Kings am I, Osymandyas. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works.”
Ramesses II Egypt
“What becomes of the leader in all this? I announce that I am today taking leave of the Popular Movement of the Revolution, so that it may choose a new leader… Understand my emotion.”
Mobutu Sese Seko DR Congo
“Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that.”
Martin Luther King Jr. United States
“…it's time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem…”
Malcolm X United States
“I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one.”
Frederick Douglass United States
“The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
Rosa Parks United States
“We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting.”
W. E. B. Du Bois United States
“The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of race.”
Booker T. Washington United States
“Sloth, neglect, indifference caused us to be slaves. Confidence, conviction, action will cause us to be free men to-day.”
Marcus Garvey United States
“We will only attain freedom if we learn to appreciate what is different and muster the courage to discover what is fundamentally the same.”
Thurgood Marshall United States
“Selma shows us that America is not the project of any one person. Because the single-most powerful word in our democracy is the word “We.””
Barack Obama United States
“The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
Muhammad Ali United States
“When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something, to do something.”
John Lewis United States
“…we are in a righteous struggle. We are living in a great day, a momentous day, a glorious day…”
Medgar Evers United States
“You must not surrender! You may or may not get there but just know that you're qualified! And you hold on, and hold out!”
Jesse Jackson United States
“We're not often taught their stories. But as Americans, we all stand on their shoulders.”
Kamala Harris United States
“Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.”
Colin Powell United States
“We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self.”
Huey P. Newton United States
“I wanted to do it for my fans. Without them, I wouldn't have done what I've done.”
Usain Bolt Jamaica
“There is no demiurge, no illustrious man taking responsibility for everything, but … the demiurge is the people and the magic lies in their hands and their hands alone.”
Frantz Fanon Martinique / Algeria
“I am far from all those ideas, from this Front National. … Extremes are never good.”
Zinedine Zidane France / Algeria
“There is no royal and flower strewn road to success, and if there is I have not found it…”
Madam C. J. Walker United States
“I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world.”
Jackie Robinson United States
“You might encounter many defeats but you must never be defeated, ever.”
Maya Angelou United States
“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”
James Baldwin United States
“This is what I do with every failure, every crisis, every difficult time — I say, what is this here to teach me? And as soon as you get the lesson, you get to move on.”
Oprah Winfrey United States
“I counted everything. I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed … anything that could be counted, I did.”
Katherine Johnson United States
“In this country, it's never been each person for themselves. No, we're all in this together. We always have been.”
Michelle Obama United States
“We face neither East nor West: we face forward.”
Kwame Nkrumah Ghana
“There is no true social revolution without the liberation of women. May my eyes never see… a society where half the people are held in silence.”
Thomas Sankara Burkina Faso
“We shall bring about not the peace of rifles and bayonets, but the peace of hearts and goodwill.”
Patrice Lumumba DR Congo
“My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours. We belong in a bundle of life. We say, 'A person is a person through other persons.'”
Desmond Tutu South Africa
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”
Martin Luther King Jr. United States
“I would unite with anybody to do right; and with nobody to do wrong.”
Frederick Douglass United States
“We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political, civil, and social; and until we get these rights we will never cease to protest and assail the ears of America.”
W. E. B. Du Bois United States
“Education is not what a person is able to hold in his head, so much as it is what a person is able to find.”
Booker T. Washington United States
“The legal system can force open doors and sometimes even knock down walls. But it cannot build bridges. That job belongs to you and me.”
Thurgood Marshall United States
“I'm asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change — but in yours.”
Barack Obama United States
“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime.”
John Lewis United States
“You have power, and don't you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before.”
Kamala Harris United States
“We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black community.”
Huey P. Newton United States
“For Europe, for ourselves and for humanity, comrades, we must make a new start, develop a new way of thinking, and endeavor to create a new man.”
Frantz Fanon Martinique / Algeria
“I know how to grow hair as well as I know to grow cotton.”
Madam C. J. Walker United States
“You can be kind and true and fair and generous and just, and even merciful, occasionally. But to be that thing time after time, you have to really have courage.”
Maya Angelou United States
“It comes as a great shock around the age of 5, 6, or 7 to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, has not pledged allegiance to you.”
James Baldwin United States
“I went to work every day for 33 years happy. Never did I get up and say I don't want to go to work.”
Katherine Johnson United States