South African Activist Quotes

Miriam Makeba

Steve Biko

Alan Paton

Albie Sachs

Allan Boesak

Julius Malema

The much quoted text, My kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36) does not mean that the kingdom is not, or will not be, in this world or on this earth. … When Jesus and his disciples are said to be in the world but not of the world, the meaning is clear enough. Although they live in the world they are not worldly, they do not subscribe to the present values and standards of the world. … The values of the kingdom [of God] are different from, and opposed to, the values of this world. There is no reason for thinking that it means the kingdom will float in the air somewhere above the earth or that it will be an abstract entity without any tangible social and political structure.

The only way in which one can make endurable man's inhumanity to man, and man's destruction of his own environment, is to exemplify in your own lives man's humanity to man and man's reverence for the place in which he lives.

On being onstage:

This is the one place where I am most at home, where there is no exile.

What we want is not black visibility but real black participation.

And besides, it drives the dragon crazy when you sing about his downfall even though you are bleeding

Zuma... stands in the way towards acquiring land for our people. That is why we will continue attacking him,... We are at war with whites who took our land and we now want it back. We want our land and we want our wealth; if you stand in our way we will crush you,...

Care for us and accept us - we are all human beings. We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else - don't be afraid of us - we are all the same!

Many sacrifices are going to be exacted before we finally defeat De Klerk and his government. More and more atrocities will be committed by the erstwhile admirers of Hider and dictators of Latin America. But for us, there is no other choice but to engage them in a struggle, not just once but more than a million times.

It is the job, the task of all democrats, wherever we are located, to advance this idea: That nothing short of full freedom will satisfy us.

All revolutions are impossible until they happen. Then they become inevitable