Music must awaken people to do their duty as citizens and act.
Fela KutiRead
Being African didn't mean anything to me until later in my life.
Interpretation
This quote reflects a journey of self-discovery and the growing appreciation of oneβs cultural identity over time.
Fela Kuti's quote expresses the idea that one's sense of identity and connection to cultural heritage can evolve with experience and maturity. Initially, being African may not have held significance, but as one grows and experiences life, there can be a deeper understanding and pride in that identity, highlighting the importance of cultural awareness and self-acceptance.
In practice
Use this quote in a discussion about the importance of cultural heritage in personal identity.
Music must awaken people to do their duty as citizens and act.
The rhythm, the sounds, the tonality, the chord sequences, the individual effect of each instrument and each section of the band - I'm talking about a whole continent in my music.
I'm playing deep African music.
The art, the greatness of the music, the experience of the music is what I'm about. I think most African artists have destroyed their artistry by commercialization, and I don't want to belong to that bag.
The human spirit is stronger than any government or institution.
My message was 'Think African. Make schools read African history.'
That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.
This will be the day when we shall bring into full realization the dream of American democracy - a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few.
Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.
As the eldest son of an Alabama sharecropper family, I was constantly troubled by a collage of North American southern behaviors and notions in reference to the inhumanity of people. There were questions that I did not know how to ask but could, in my young, unsophisticated way, articulate a series of answers.
I am one who has always been interested only in the edges of the body and the spirit, the outlying regions of the body and the outlying regions of the spirit. The depths hold no interest for me; I leave them to others, for they are shallow, commonplace. What is there, then, at the outer most edge? Nothing, perhaps, save a few ribbons, dangling down into the void.
It is clear to everyone that astronomy at all events compels the soul to look upwards, and draws it from the things of this world to the other.
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