ALICE WALKER
“I am an expression of the divine, just like a peach is, just like a fish is. I have a right to be this way…I can’t apologize for that, nor can I change it, nor do I want to… We will never have to be other than who we are in order to be successful…We realize that we are as ourselves unlimited and our experiences valid. It is for the rest of the world to recognize this, if they choose.” “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” “Look closely at the present you are constructing:
it should look like the future you are dreaming.”
GILL SCOTT-HERON
“You will not be able to stay home, brother./You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out./You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,/Skip out for beer during commercials,/Because the revolution will not be televised.”
“The first revolution is when you change your mind about how you look at things, and see there might be another way to look at it that you have not been shown.”
“Life inevitably translates into time. That is why the sum total of it is called ‘a lifetime’. Freedom is the potential to spend one’s time in any fashion one determines. I would always want the time invested in my ideas to be profitable, to give the reader something lasting for their investment in me. It is very important to me that my ideas be understood.
BELL HOOKS
“For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed? …”
“I’m such a girl for the living room. I really like to stay in my nest and not move. I travel in my mind, and that that’s a rigorous state of journeying for me. My body isn’t that interested in moving from place to place.”
“When we face pain in relationships our first response is often to sever bonds rather than to maintain commitment.” “Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”
Dr. NA’IM AKBAR
“As long as we accept alien definitions of reality and internalize them, we remain powerless. If we can emerge with such new definitions and not be so thoroughly intimidated by the existing paradigm, we can begin to collect on our destiny.”
“Human beings are unable to be about the serious business of living and building societies if they feel compelled to always clown or entertain others. People do not take you seriously if you don’t take yourself seriously. A sense of humor brings necessary balance to an organized life, but a life of humor blinds one to life.”
AMA ATA AIDOO
“For us Africans, literature must serve a purpose: to expose, embarrass, and fight corruption and authoritarianism. …It is understandable why the African artist is utilitarian.
People are worms, and even the God who created them is immensely bored with their antics. …
Politicians are easy to attack, but frankly, we are all guilty of not meeting the needs of Africa’s young people properly.
There are powerful forces undermining progress in Africa. But one must never underestimate the power of the people to bring about change.
Love is fine for singing about and love songs are good to listen to, sometimes even to dance to. But when we need food for our stomachs and clothes for our backs, love is nothing. I’ve written poems about gifts. Life is inspirational; sometimes it comes from the most unlikely places.”
Dr. JOHN HENRICK CLARKE
“Powerful people cannot afford to educate the people that they oppress, because once you are truly educated, you will not ask for power. You will take it. Whoever is in control of the hell in your life, is your devil. Racists will always call you a racist when you identify their racism.”
“I think any person who calls them self a leader, preacher, policy maker of any kind, should ask and answer the question in his own lifetime… How will my people stay on this earth? How will they be educated? How will they be schooled, and how will they be housed, and how will they be defended.
The answers to these questions will create the concept of enduring nationhood, because it creates the concept of enduring responsibility.”
WANGARI MAATHAI
“Education, if it means anything, should not take people away from the land, but instill in them even more respect for it, because educated people are in a position to understand what is being lost. The future of the planet concerns all of us, and all of us should do what we can to protect it. As I told the foresters, and the women, you don’t need a diploma to plant a tree.”
“A tree has roots in the soil yet reaches to the sky. It tells us that in order to aspire we need to be grounded and that no matter how high we go it is from our roots that we draw sustenance. It is a reminder to all of us who have had success that we cannot forget where we came from.”
Malcolm X – El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz
“Stumbling is not falling.” “There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.” “Without education, you’re not going anywhere in this world.”
“There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone, but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That’s a good religion.”
“Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.”
IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT
“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
“Virtue knows no color line, and the chivalry which depends upon complexion of skin and texture of hair can command no honest respect.”
“Haiti as an independent republic accepted the invitation extended to her along with other nations, and erected a building on the World’s Fair grounds, 1893. She placed Frederick Douglass in charge of this building to represent the Haitian government.
Mr. Douglass had been sent as minister to Haiti from this country a few years before this, and had so won the confidence of this little black republic, that it in turn gave him the honour of being in charge of their exhibit. Had it not been for this, Negroes of the United States would have had no part, nor lot in any official way in the World’s Fair. For the United States government had refused her Negro citizens participation therein.”
Dr. IVAN VAN SERTIMA
“The African presence in America before Columbus, is of importance not only to African and American history, but to the history of world civilisations. It provides further evidence that all great civilisations and races, are heavily indebted to one another, and that no race has a monopoly on enterprise and inventive genius.”
“We now have very hard proof that Egypt was African when the pyramids were built.”
“You can not make yourself whole again by brooding one hundred percent of the time on the darkness of the world. We are the light of the world.”
ROSA PARKS
“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.” “Each person must live their life as a model for others.” “I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free…so other people would also be free.” “I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move.”
“I have never been what you would call just an integrationist. I know I’ve been called that… Integrating that bus wouldn’t mean more equality. Even when there was segregation, there was plenty of integration in the South, but it was for the benefit and convenience of the white person, not us.”
“Time begins the healing process of wounds cut deeply by oppression. We soothe ourselves with the salve of attempted indifference, accepting the false pattern set up by the horrible restriction of Jim Crow laws.”
“Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.” “Our existence was for the white man’s comfort and well-being; we had to accept being deprived of just being human.”
Dr. MOLEFI KETE ASANTE
“A wise person speaks carefully and with truth, for every word tht passes between one’s teeth is meant for something.”
“There are two things over which you have complete dominion, authority, and control – your mind and your mouth.”
“As a people, our most cherished and valuable achievements are the achievements of spirit. With an Afrocentric spirit, all things can be made to happen; it is the source of genuine revolutionary commitment.”
“A common expression among African Americans relates the good to the beautiful, “beauty is as beauty does” or “she’s beautiful because she’s good.”
“The first statement places emphasis on what a person does, that is, how a person “walks” among others in the society. The second statement identifies the beautiful by action. If a person’s actions are not good, it does not matter how the person looks physically. Doing good is equivalent to being beautiful.” ACAP Team.