Africa Quotations

South Africa is the only place in the Southern hemisphere where Halloween is really catching on. They have a lot of sporting events that have made it more popular there. They have motocross and rave celebrations, and they're embracing it as a youth culture thing.

My 94-year-old grandmother has always been so inspiring to me. She is kind, smart, brave, and independent. After graduating number one in her medical school class at a time when it was extremely rare for women to attend medical school, she worked with the World Health Organization in North Africa to eradicate tuberculosis.

I have always thought that the rapid economic development of South Africa would in the long run prove to be incompatible with the government's racial policies, and recent events have tended to confirm my opinion.

For me, personally, life in South Africa had come to an end. I had been lucky in some of the whites I had met. Meeting them had made a straight 'all-blacks-are-good, all-whites-are-bad' attitude impossible. But I had reached a point where the gestures of even my friends among the whites were suspect, so I had to go or be forever lost.

I was born in South Africa during apartheid, a system of laws that made it illegal for people to mix in South Africa. And this was obviously awkward because I grew up in a mixed family. My mother's a black woman, South African Xhosa woman... and my father's Swiss, from Switzerland.

I grew up in a very strong, nuclear family. My father was a sportsman. He represented South Africa in a couple of sports, so he was a very positive person and someone who encouraged you to be your best and give your best with everything that you do.

The first Western attempt to save Africa from itself was in the late 19th century. It was led by Christian missionaries who claimed to be seeking to end poverty, disease and the slave trade.

Africa is awakening. It's a huge market of almost a billion people with huge resources and a young population. People spend when they're young.

I went to Africa without the perspective of a balance between teaching people the truth, which has been my calling, and helping people who have physical problems, like AIDS and orphans and hunger.

South Africa never leaves one indifferent. Its history, its population, its landscapes and cultures - all speak to the visitor, to the student, to the friend of Africa.

I don't think anyone who has been to Africa comes away untouched by the place. You see a lot of beauty and optimism, but you also come away with an awareness of the huge gulf between what most of us have and what most of them have to make do with. Then, every now and then, a famine or a war makes everything a hundred times worse.

The Internet is emblematic of an era in which what happens in Southeast Asia or southern Africa - from democratic advances to deforestation to the fight against aids - can affect Americans. As has been observed about water pollution, we all live downstream now.

The future belongs to us, because we have taken charge of it. We have the commitment, we have the resourcefulness, and we have the strength of our people to share the dream across Africa of clean water for all.

I feel that no one should be ashamed or have fear or doubt within themselves when they speak about the roots or Africa wherein I and I originate from. It's like an individual who tries to disown himself, and to me, it is a form of defeat by disowning yourself.

Having great friends in New York is like having great friends on an expedition into Darkest Africa in the early 19th century. You need them. And you need sponsorship on a daily basis. I have a painter friend here who says, 'I need two compliments a day just to break even.' And we gave them to each other, and we got them - and honestly got them.

It's not just Ethiopia, but Africa in general - most of the media concentrates on what's not going well. But there is so much beauty there. When you go, it changes everything. It changes you, your life, and the way you see things. The challenge is changing the image of Africa that's been anchored in people for years now.

Africa is not fulfilling people's hopes and aspirations. African leaders have not had an agenda that included governing Africa so that people would find their careers, their life, dreams and visions fulfilled here.

I don't subscribe to the narrative that Africa is backward because of colonialism.

Because pandemics almost always begin with the transmission of an animal microbe to a human, it's work that takes me all around the globe - from rain forest hunting camps of central Africa to wild animal markets of east Asia.

I'm extremely positive about investment in Africa. Africa has a wonderful climate, wonderful people, and amazing possibilities. Africa has been called dark and hopeless, but today it is neither of these. Africa is awakening. It's a huge market of almost a billion people with huge resources and a young population. It's the best place to invest.

I have never collected an object or figure from Africa or Oceania because of anything curious about it or because of its utility or historic interest. Everything has been chosen entirely because of its aesthetic significance; its form, feeling, structure, and plastic values.

I was in Africa once. I was in Kenya. I got off the plane, and I thought, 'Africa...' Some guy in a dashiki said, 'Mr. Bundy. Oh my God, it's you.'

I love going to Africa and stuff. I love going anywhere, really, but I've been to Africa a bunch of times and it's just a beautiful place that needs help, obviously, but helping people that are really thankful is really easy to do. And the people out there always seem so thankful.

Living in South Africa has had a very profound impact on my career.

The reason I'm in San Diego is not because I want distance from South Africa but because I want proximity to the people I love. But I don't envy growing up in America. As ugly as aspects of it were, my biggest blessing was to be born a South African.

I went cage diving in South Africa with Great Whites, and that was fun. Sweden was cool.

The majority of small-holder farmers in Africa are women and, in urban areas, you're primarily looking at women-led households. So we can't solve hunger if we don't have gender-sensitive programming that addresses access to opportunities for women, whether it's through education or tools for cooking, like solar-powered stoves.

Every village in Africa now has a cyber cafe.

Clean water and power is our right as humans on this earth, and for too long, our governments in Africa have failed to provide these things.

I'd love to do a safari holiday somewhere in Africa - maybe Kenya or Tanzania. I have never been, and we've deliberately waited until the children are older so that they could appreciate it, learn something and come back with stories.

You have to remember that although Gandhi and Churchill only met physically once, their paths crossed again and crossed again all over the globe, from London and South Africa and India and back to London. In fact, I discovered that during the Boer War in 1899 they literally passed yards from each other on the battlefield.

China-Africa relationship has a long history and is full of vitality. Since the 1950s and 1960s, our common historical experiences have brought China and Africa together, and we have forged deep friendship in our joint struggle during which we have supported each other in times of difficulty.

By the time Africa is developed, it will be the wonderland of the world, 'cause it will be able to make use of all the mistakes of other nations. But it nah go just drop out of the sky. So we have to put in work.

Most of the Amazon basin is as flat as a pancake and laced with extravagantly meandering waterways. One school of thought holds that more than 145 million years ago, when Africa and South America were joined, the Amazon's main stem was connected to the Niger River and actually flowed in the opposite direction, toward the Pacific Ocean.

I work a lot in Africa: Texas and Africa have the best sunsets on the planet, that I've ever seen.

Only in South Africa could you have a change in government without civil war. If there wasn't the depth of love and caring among our people, this would not have happened.

When I began 'All Our Names,' I did so wanting to create parallel narratives between Africa in the nineteen-seventies and America during that same period.

Nobody in Africa loves to be a beggar or a recipient of aid. Everywhere I go in Africa, people say, 'When are we going to stand up on our feet?'

Africa has become the big game of the nation hunters. Today, Africa looms as the greatest commercial, industrial and political prize in the world.

Africa is not for the weak-hearted: infrastructure issues are there. The middle class is absent in most of the countries. We have to cater to the low end of the market to grow.

When diamonds' role in fuelling violent conflict in Africa gained worldwide attention, the diamond industry established the Kimberley process in order to keep "blood diamonds" out of international trade.

We view South Africa as one of our closest strategic partners in the developing world and in the African continent.

Africa has lost its dream, and when people don't have a dream and don't pursue it, they flounder. People are shocked that I would move to Africa. But I say the place of greatest need is the place of greatest opportunity.

I am one of the affluent rich living the good life. But I like to think that I am doing my bit to resolve the problems of Africa and am certainly committed to Africa in the long run.

I don't think Africa gets as much credit as it should have on the world stage. People tend to think of us as coming from The Dark Continent, where nothing good goes on. That's not true. A huge amount of, as I say, entrepreneurship goes on.

An Obama administration truly looking to break with the molds of the past would stop treating Africa as an obligation and start treating it as globalization's next great opportunity, understanding that Chinese - along with Indians and Arab sovereign wealth funds - are natural partners in this process.

I'm an escapist. I'm not a planner; I've never made a decision about anything in my life. The good thing about Africa is that you can escape forever. You can do what you want without someone looking over your shoulder.

You can't hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree. You can't hate Africa and not hate yourself.

Africa needs more funding to continue to fight all of those diseases. We are losing more than 1.3 million young children under the age of five every year because of malaria. We've already lost 25 million people to the pandemic of HIV-AIDS. More people are dying now from typhoid fever. Diabetes is on the rise.

As a young boy, I had strange dreams of affecting people and somehow being instrumental in changing the makeup of Africa and helping to improve life there.

Every day, families in Africa go without food and water, never knowing when their next meal might be; but we can change that if we all work together. In order to make a difference, every purchase of my new energy shot, Street King, will provide a meal for a child in need.

I have always had great respect for former president Mandela. The personal sacrifices he made in order to achieve what was right for the people of South Africa is something I carry with me every day.

In my wide travels across the world and my meetings with various heads of states, be that Africa or South Asia, Singapore or in high level meetings in the U.S., U.K. or Japan, one common mention is about Dr. Singh's extraordinary reputation as a Wise Man, an outstanding Economist and a fine Gentleman.

I've spent months living in Africa and India. So it's not like I was sheltered when I started living in America. But my family laughed when they heard I was going to be in 'Transformers.' I learned a lot and got to experience Michael Bay's mayhem. It was a very colorful experience.

Historically, epics are set in Africa or Asia or the Wild West, but if you make an epic today it's hard to disassociate from the contemporary realities of those places.

You have to realize that up until about 1959, Africa was dominated by the colonial powers. And by the colonial powers of Europe having complete control over Africa, they projected Africa always in a negative light - jungles, savages, cannibals, nothing civilized.

There has long been a debate in the aid community and in Africa about how to most effectively help situations of poverty in developing nations and underprivileged communities.

I got my love of animals from the Dr. Doolittle books and my love of Africa from the Tarzan novels. I remember my mum taking me to the first Tarzan film, which starred Johnny Weissmuller, and bursting into tears. It wasn't what I had imagined at all.

Europe and Africa share proximity and history, ideas and ideals, trade and technology. You are tied together by the ebb and flow of people. Migration presents policy challenges - but also represents an opportunity to enhance human development, promote decent work, and strengthen collaboration.

We can't stop a baby in Africa from starving to death... but we can afford enough technology and weaponry to blow the world up a million times over.

When Nelson Mandela walked free, the world sang with joy. Ever since, South Africa has stood as a beacon of hope for Africa.

The Sudanese government has been playing games with the world, with the Africa Union, in particular, have been playing for time in order to conclude its mission of ethnic cleansing in the Sudan.

I started writing as a child. But I didn't think of myself actually writing until I was in college. And I had gone to Africa as a sophomore or something - no, maybe junior - and wrote a book of poems. And that was my beginning. I published that book.

The perception that the wicket was flat played a part (in the way South Africa bowled),

There are countries in Africa who also need our help, but were not there because theres no oil there. If we want to stop terrorism, we need to stop acting like terrorists.

We stopped thinking about what the world should do for Africa and we started thinking about what we could do with Africans.

Whether she was meeting with (Nelson) Mandela in South Africa or meeting with the president of the United States, she will be known as one who never wavered, never moved away from the notion that we could develop an internationally peaceful world.

We remember the victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia. But millions of vulnerable people in Africa are exposed to natural disasters like droughts, floods and insect infestations as well as armed conflicts. These are silent tsunamis.

We respect Band Aid's ability to raise so much money for relief efforts, but their lyrics seem so misguided and inappropriate. Africa isn't a land 'where nothing ever grows' and 'no rain nor river flows.' And how are lines such as, 'Well, tonight, thank God it's them instead of you' supposed to be helpful?

When we go to South Africa it is going to be pretty hostile there. They are going to rip into us and nail us. They have to expect Australian crowds to nail them but the racist stuff is not on. I am disappointed that has happened, if it has, and hopefully it stops.

What South Africa should remember is that they can fire up the crowd and we can fire up the crowd, but all that matters is (the cricket).

We're expecting a very hard conTest ? South Africa will be desperate for a series win, after losing to Australia. We have never won a series against South Africa, and we have a real hunger for this series. We want to measure ourselves in South Africa, where our results have always been poor.

With the World Cup coming to the continent of Africa for the first time, 2010 presents a unique opportunity to eradicate the shocking legacy of shack housing,

We were a very politically active family. My father was one of the first lawyers in South Africa to have a black partner, so I grew up very aware of the struggle going on. Coming from that background, it really gave me chills to have my music be a part of the election of the first black American president.

We are all in deep shock. Brett was one of my closest friends and I have the greatest respect for him as a visionary whose contribution to black empowerment in South Africa was enormous.

We are going to isolate countries where these safety issues are a concern. The stigma that Africa carries leads people to fly non-African airlines and thereby deprive our airlines of opportunities to grow and expand.

What we need in Africa is balanced development. Economic success cannot be a replacement for human rights or participation or democracy... it doesn't work.

We decided to rely on the players who gave us full satisfaction in November against South Africa and Australia when they were available.

The real European-African partnership should be based on promoting development and liberating the African continent from its debts, which have been preventing economic progress and depriving Africa of its equitable share in the global economy,

There is no doubt that both regional states and Africa in whole will gain toward peace and stability in Burundi,

We're grappling with how and where these waves originate, because about one in every ten will form into a named tropical storm. This shows us the amplitude and strength of these waves as they come off Africa and into the Atlantic.

There are very few slave narratives because it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write. This man remembered being captured in Africa when he was 16. He remembers vividly the voyage to the Caribbean Islands, being sold to a ship's captain.

When you beat Argentina like that and play so well you start to think you can beat anyone. It is probably the most exciting team there has been at that level for a while. It will be such a waste if we go there and fail. The 2010 World Cup will be really difficult in South Africa but this one in Germany will really suit us. We've got to make the most of it.

Man for man, South Africa just out-bowled, out-batted and out-fielded us. We just didn't deliver today.

Lower inflation at the start of the year suggests that South Africa will be able to take geopolitical risks in its stride. At this point, even the rise in oil is not a huge concern.

Lebanon, Israel, Ireland, South Africa - wherever there is a bleeding sore on the body of the world, the same hard-eyed narrow-minded fanatics are busy, indifferent to life, in love with death.

Learning from your heroes increases your information retention. And these soccer players in Africa are the heroes in their community.

So many people have approached me and said, 'Can I do a musical of John,' ... It's a very simple idea, you know - wow, a musical of John! But I've said no. This time, I said yes, because I liked the idea of having these different actors playing John. Because in the years after John's passing, John has transformed into something else. People in Asia think of him as their hero. People in Africa think of him as their hero. He was a hero for the whole world, and not just a white hero. So it's great to have a black performer singing as John. For me, this play is a revolution, a quiet revolution.

So I'm known-and actually so I'm unknown, you know, or relatively unknown, such as the stuff in Africa and the whole experience I had there.

Sir Bob raised a lot of money for charity and for Africa and that's not to be sneered at.

Mobile phones could not work in Africa without prepaid because it's a cash society.

Millions of vulnerable people in Africa are exposed to natural disasters like droughts, floods and insect infestations as well as armed conflicts.

My knowledge of Africa and of Niger is almost unparalleled in US policy circles.

More critically, the statements that we make can get picked up internationally (and) then feed to the kind of perceptions that South Africa and Africa are incapable of hosting an important international event like this.

More is currently at stake in terms of lives saved or lost in Africa than on any other continent. As humanitarian workers, we cannot accept that so many lives are lost every year on this continent to preventable diseases, neglect and senseless brutality.

Maybe it's possible in Africa to hold back election results for a couple of weeks, but you cannot do that in Germany.

People will see the real South Africa onstage. We will be singing gospel music and praising God in our way.

My schedule just worked out so that I'm able to play more tournaments in South Africa this year.

Nobody can come and develop Africa on behalf of Africans.

On the second anniversary of Charles Taylor's flight to Nigeria, his continued impunity is undermining the rule of law in West Africa and putting civilians in the region at risk.