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Their words

Quotes on courage

110 quotes from the leaders of Africa and its diaspora.

“A luta continua — the struggle continues.”
Samora Machel Mozambique
“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
“Lord, take my soul, but the struggle continues.”
Ken Saro-Wiwa Nigeria
“There is an urgent need for dedicated and courageous leadership… This is no time for faint-hearted men…”
Medgar Evers United States
“The only great men among the unfree and the oppressed are those who struggle to destroy the oppressor.”
Walter Rodney Guyana
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong.”
Muhammad Ali 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
“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
“I've just proven to the world that you can do it clean, with hard work and determination.”
Usain Bolt Jamaica
“The man of genius does not steal; he conquers.”
Alexandre Dumas France
“I am not ashamed of my past. I am not ashamed of my humble beginning.”
Madam C. J. Walker United States
“You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I'll rise.”
Maya Angelou United States
“I want all the girls watching… to know that a new day is on the horizon.”
Oprah Winfrey 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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“Long battles lie ahead of us, so that we may live free, live with dignity, live with pride.”
Gamal Abdel Nasser Egypt
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
Frederick Douglass 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
“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
“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
“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
“I am here loaded with chains, and willing to suffer the fate that awaits me.”
Nat Turner United States
“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
“History, despite its wrenching pain, / Cannot be unlived, but if faced / With courage, need not be lived again.”
Maya Angelou United States
“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
“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
“I make obeisance to God who created me!”
Mansa Musa Mali
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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 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
“On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”
Barack Obama 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
“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
“If I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard.”
Madam C. J. Walker 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
“We owe this noble mission our courage. We must be brave and we must be bold.”
Cyril Ramaphosa South Africa
“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
“I neither wish to live nor can I live, Caesar.”
Cleopatra VII Egypt
“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
“Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that.”
Martin Luther King Jr. 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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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