African Roots Quotes

I am a Negro: Black as the night is black, Black like the depths of my Africa.

What you have to understand is that blues... it's in a line from the oldest forms of African music. If you're playing it like it's an echo of the past, it would be a lot less exciting, but this music lives today.

Miles Davis was doing something inherently African, something that has to do with all forms of American music, not just jazz.

I celebrate my blackness. I love the artistic vibrancy of the culture I was born to.

Being African didn't mean anything to me until later in my life.

As much as I'm a black person from America, I'm a black person from Africa, too.

Africa is my continent. It is where I opened my eyes.

Maybe if I go far enough back into my ancestry, I have African roots or something. I've got no idea.

I've got to where am in life not because of something I brought to the world but through something I found - the wealth of African culture.

The people and the cultures of what is known as Africa are older than the word 'Africa.' According to most records, old and new, Africans are the oldest people on the face of the earth. The people now called Africans not only influenced the Greeks and the Romans, they influenced the early world before there was a place called Europe.

We're all Africans, everyone - black, white, yellow.

My mother's last name, maiden name is Hogue. She is Cherokee and African. My grandfather, Dave Hogue, owned 300 acres of land in Marion, Alabama. He was an entrepreneur and someone I looked up to as a kid a lot.

I am a Nubian.

As a kid, I always felt connected to Africa; it was something I was very proud of.

My grandparents on my father's side came to this country from the Caribbean with a strong connection to Africa and no shame about it.

So for everybody who allows themselves to be separated from me because I said 'African' instead of 'Nubian' or 'Black' or 'Kemet' or 'original' or 'Israelite,' don't be so foolish. I say 'African' because the continent of Africa is the land from which we all originate. It is the word that we are most familiar with right now.

You know, rap is sort of like a form of talking, right? So it's like you can hear, you know, the slaves doing it. You can hear, like, you know, Africans and Jamaicans doing it just kind of as, like, a rhythmic, poetic conversation, you know, to a rhythm.

Inside me I'm Ghanaian, and I'm proud to be African. But of course I'm Italian. I was born in Italy. I've never been to Africa in my life, but I will go one day.

The election of Senator Barack Obama brought jubilation across Africa, where millions celebrated him as 'one of their own.'

I grew up as a British kid - I went to school in London, roamed the streets of London - but having these interactions with my roots and going back to Ghana, I'm like, 'Yeah this is sick.' I love my country and my people, and the energy and vibes that they bring back. So I want to rep that and be a part of it.

My roots are African. The birds I remember, the fruits I ate, the trees I climbed, they're African.

Because I am an African, I am a Ghanaian.

I'm first generation American, and my parents were both from Nigeria.

Just going to Africa is amazing; it all comes back to the motherland. It's pretty much where everything started.

I base myself in African-derived music. Blues is one of the modern forms of African music.