African Issues Quotes

Neither Western donor countries like the U.S. nor poor recipients like Cameroon care much about Africans who are poor, rural and female.

Finding, then, that the whole of Africa was pervaded by an intolerable spirit of mad folly, through the influence of those who with heedless frivolity had presumed to rend the religion of the people into diverse sects; I was anxious to check this disorder, and could discover no other remedy equal to the occasion, except in sending some of yourselves to aid in restoring mutual harmony among the disputants…

Across Africa there is what I call a colonialist mentality or orthodoxy. Orthodoxy in the sense that a lot of things have gone wrong in Africa in the post-colonial period. And time and time again, any time something went wrong, the leadership claims that it was never their fault.

You know, we're missing so much as African-Americans and we should be concerned about what's going on in Africa.

I am still a socialist. I am a left-of-center politician. I believe that in Africa, if you see the poverty around us, you can't afford to be anything else.

I have been working for Africans since I was 18, when I got involved with the Nelson Mandela concerts. I got involved with debt cancellation because Desmond Tutu demanded that the world respond to that situation.

We would be driving down the street in a place like Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and started to see, my gosh, the only people that have shoes are men. Why does that woman have a baby in her belly and one on her back, and she's carrying a huge load of bananas? You start to ask these questions.

There seems to be this sense among even well-meaning Americans that Africa is this black hole of murder and mutilation that can never be fixed, no matter what aid is brought in.

While the majority of my childhood memories are beautiful, I also have experienced the challenges that Nigeria has faced since independence.

Every region in the world faces challenges - and Africa is hugely diverse, so its own challenges are varied.

'Beasts of No Nation' began when I read an article about child soldiers in Sierra Leone during my final year of high school.

It is my firm belief that action on the issues that matter for Africa must emerge from within Africa itself.

It's not fair that people ignore AIDS in Africa because it's Africa. It's not fair.

Why do Angelina Jolie and Bono receive overwhelming attention for their work in Africa while Nwankwo Kanu or Dikembe Mutombo, Africans both, are hardly ever mentioned?

Screw state! State’s always on the side of the blacks. The hell with them… I’m getting tired of this business of letting these Africans eat a hundred thousand people and do nothing about it.

All we hear about Africa in the West is Darfur, Zimbabwe, Congo, Somalia, as if that is all there is.

Personally, I regard myself as an intellectual 'rebel,' kicking against the 'old colonialism-imperialism paradigm' which has landed Africa in a conundrum.

Rwanda is an example in terms of the transformation of the rights of women. But if you talk to almost any Africanist at the State Department or the World Bank, when you say the word Africa, they think women.

The 'Cheetah Generation' refers to the new and angry generation of young African graduates and professionals, who look at African issues and problems from a totally different and unique perspective.

One of the things I like best about Netflix is that they make projects like 'Beasts of No Nation.' It's a film about a reality in an African country where kids were being used to be soldiers in a war. And it made so much sense to me as a citizen of the world.

Karen Russell learned to think from her father, someone Peter Gammons knows well, Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell, who used his prominence to support Martin Luther King Jr., to support the civil rights movement, and other important work, including work in Africa throughout his career. And Bill Russell is still at it.

Disempowerment - whether defined in terms of a lack of self-confidence , apathy, fear, or an inability to take charge of one's own life - is perhaps the most unrecognised problem in Africa today.

When I moved to Paris, I understood where I was coming from. Before that, I wasn't aware how Cameroonian I was! I realized our tradition and languages make me completely different. At that moment, I decided to try to use my music to explain to people about my continent and its problems.

I want people to know there is more to Somalia than looting and piracy.

I'm hopeful that increased awareness of the issues in Africa will bring about a new wave of progress and activism among young people everywhere.