A Compilation of Afrodescendant Wisdom

Table of Contents

 

CARING  …………………………………………………..3

CIVILITY…………………………………………………..9

COMMUNITY………………………………….…………13

CONTINUITY………………………………..……………19

CARING

 

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.

Zora Neale Hurston

 

SUPPORT

1. Go within every day and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out. — Katherine Dunham
2. No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow. – Guinea
3. Midday sun is the remedy for a cold. –Hausa
4. The darkness of night cannot stop the light of morning. –Cameroon
5. “If God were not forgiving, heaven would be empty.” – Berber
6. “A good deed is something one returns.” – Zanzibar
7. “No matter how long the night, the day is sure to come.” – Zaire
8. I Am Somebody. – Alvin Ailey
9. “You cannot tell a hungry child that you gave him food yesterday.” ~Zimbabwean
10. “We must cherish our old men. We must revere their wisdom, appreciate their insight, love the humanity of their words.” — Alice Walker

 

ADVICE

11. Never be afraid to sit awhile and think. — Lorraine Hansberry
12. Don't look where you fell, but where you slipped. – Liberia
13. Remember, luck is opportunity meeting up with preparation, so you must prepare yourself to be lucky.  — Gregory Himes
14. Better a mistake at the beginning than at the end. – Cameroon
15. If things are getting easier, maybe you’re headed downhill. – Ghana
16. Tasty soup draws people to itself. --Ewe
17. Hurrying and worrying are not the same as strength. –Hausa
18. He who conceals his disease cannot expect to be cured. – Ethiopia
19. The bitter heart eats its owner. –Bantu
20. If you want to lean on a tree, first make sure it can hold you. –Ambede
21. When weeds invade the land, it means the owner is absent. –Bahumbu
22. The bird flies high, but always returns to hearth. –Nigeria (
23. A chicken that hatches a crocodile’s eggs is looking for trouble. –Malagasy
24. The crocodile is only strong in the water. –Angola
25. Only heaven can see the back of a sparrow. –Bantu
26. The eye never forgets what the heart has seen. – Bantu
27. Every shut-eye ain’t asleep and every good-bye ain’t gone. – African-American
28. Be grateful for luck. Pay the thunder no mind—listen to the birds. And don’t hate nobody. –Eubie Blake
29. If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself. – Eubie Blake
30. “It’s better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret.” — Jackie Joyner-Kersee
31. “Being a failure at living your own life as best you can is better than being a success living the life somebody else says you should live.” — Julius Lester
32. “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” —Moms Mabley
33. “If a man can reach the latter days of his life with his soul intact, he has mastered life.” — Gordon Parks
34. “Each moment is magical, precious and complete and will never come again.” — Susan L. Taylor
35. “The most sacred place isn’t the church, the mosque, or the temple, it’s the temple of the body. That’s where spirit lives.” — Susan L. Taylor
36. “One time de mistake, two time a purpose.” --Jamaican
37. What tastes sweet in the mouth can burn the belly.-- Jamaican
38. Do not call to a dog with a whip in your hand. –Zulu
39. If you play with a dog, don’t complain when it tears your clothes. –Anaang
40. Too much explanation brings exposure.” .-- Jamaican
41. Cross your river before you throw away your stick—Jamaican
42. “If you like the sauce, lick the dish!” .-- Jamaican
43. “The reason why the tortoise walks slowly is because it wants to know how deep the ground is.” –African
44. “If you close your eyes to facts, you will learn through accidents.” –African
45. “A wise person doesn’t fall down the same hill twice.” –African
46. “Do not look where you fell. Look where you slipped.”—African
47. “However long the night, the dawn will break.” —African
48. Change your steps with changes in the rhythm of the drum--Ewe.

 

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP

49. Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. — Zora Neale Hurston
50.  Happiness requires something to do, something to love and something to hope for. – Swahili
51. The embrace at meeting is better than at parting. – Egypt
52. Sorrow is like a precious treasure, shown only to friends. – Madagascar
53. Before healing others, heal yourself. – Gambia
54. Friendship is honey––but don’t eat it all. – Morocco
55. How lovely is the sun after rain, and how lovely is laughter after sorrow. –Tunisia
56. When the moon is not full, the stars shine more brightly. –Buganda
57. Even your dog knows the homes of your friends. – Tetela
58. The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice. – African-American
59. To be in love is to touch things with a lighter hand. – Gwendolyn Brooks
60. “Love is like a baby: it needs to be treated tenderly.” –Congolese
61. “Being happy is better than being king.” —Nigerian
62. “A woman is never old when it comes to the dance she knows.” —African
63. “Where there is love, there is no darkness.” –African
64. “It is better to be loved than to be feared.” –African
65. “If the full moon loves you, why worry about the stars?” –African
66. “You know who you love but you can’t know who loves you.” –African
67. “Love stretches your heart and makes you big inside.” — Margaret Walker
68. “No eyes that have seen beauty ever lose their sight.” — Jean Toomer

 

MENTORING

69. He who wants to be famous will have many a sleepless night. – Tunisia
70. Start something else [besides a career] that makes use of your creative ability, because if you don't you will die inside as a person. — Katherine Dunham
71. Everything will satisfy except money; as much as you have, so much you want. – Morocco
72. “Use missteps as stepping stones to deeper understanding and greater achievement.” — Susan L. Taylor
73. A man with too much ambition cannot sleep in peace. – Baguirmi
74. Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. – African 
75. For the benefit of the flowers, we water the thorns, too. –Egypt
76. Behave like the chameleon: look forward and observe behind. –Malagasy
77. Knowledge is like the bird of the forest: one person alone can never catch it. – Ewe
78. Don’t break the branch you climbed. – African
79. You should make a new bucket whilst you still have the old one. –Berber
80. You will never drown where you always take a bath. – Mali
81. “The wise man never takes a step too long for his leg.” –African
82. Better building bridges than building walls. –Swahili
83. [on retirement] You can only milk a cow so long, and then you’re left holding the pail. –Hank Aaron
84. The man who views the world at fifty the same way he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life. – Muhammad Ali
85. It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe. – Muhammad Ali
86. I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same as making a “life”. –  Maya Angelou
87. I vowed, right then, to learn something new every day. It was a deep revelation, something I felt throughout my whole self. –Imamu Amiri Baraka
88. Man cannot live by profit alone. –James Baldwin
89. Success occurs when preparation meets opportunity. – Nathaniel H. Bronner, Sr.
90. No one rises to low expectations. –Les Brown
91. “You are young, gifted, and black. We must begin to tell our young, there’s a world waiting for you, yours is the quest that’s just begun.” — James Weldon Johnson
92. “If you don’t know where you come from, it’s difficult to assess where you are. It’s even more difficult to plan where you are going.” — Joseph E. Lowery (
93. “Coconuts fill a basket one by one. .-- Jamaican
94. “Wisdom does not come overnight.” –Somali
95. “To get lost is to learn the way.” –African
96. “The mere imparting of information is not education. Above all things, the effort must result in making a man think and do for himself.” — Carter Godwin Woodson
97. “When you lose, you’re more motivated. When you win, you fail to see your mistakes and probably no one can tell you anything.” — Venus Williams
98. “It’s pretty hard for the Lord to guide you if you haven’t made up your mind which way you want to go.” — Madam C. J. Walker
99. “I am not a special person. I am a regular person who does special things. — Sarah Vaughan.”
100. “This is the first miracle, a man becomes his dreams; then it is that the line between what he does and is and his dream melts away.” — Howard Thurman
101. “There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.” — Howard Thurman
102. “Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.” — Gloria Naylor
103. “Your own need to be shines out of any dream or creation you imagine.” — James Earl Jones
104. “No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helps you.” — Wilma Rudolph
105. Every spoiled effort is potentially a new style.-- .-- Jamaican
106. “Those who accomplish great things pay attention to little ones.” ~Mali
107. “I believe in the soul. Furthermore, I believe it is prompt accountability for one’s choices, a willing acceptance of responsibility for one’s thoughts, behavior, and actions that make it powerful. — Alice Walker
108. “Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.” — Alice Walker
109. “[W]hatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you’ll find that when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.” Tina Turner

 

 

CIVILITY

Knowledge is created

 as much  by the one who asks the question

as by the one who gives the answer.-African

 

The first sign of an educated person

 is that she asks more questions than she delivers answers. –Johnnetta B. Cole

CONVERSATION

1. One must talk little, and listen a lot. – Mauritania
2. Silence is also speech. – Fulfulde
3. Words are like spears: Once they leave your lips they can never come back. – Yoruba
4. What comes out of the mouth has lost its master. – Gabon  
5. Having a good discussion is like having riches. – Kenya
6. “One may receive the information but miss the teaching.” — Jean Toomer
7. “I have always respected everyone’s religion…[T]here is only one God and a lot of confused people. — Hazel Scott
8. “Examine what is said, not who is speaking.” –Egyptian
9. “If you are filled with pride, then you will have no room for wisdom.” –Tanzanian
10. “A wise man fills his head before emptying his mouth.” –African
11. “When deed speaks, words are nothing.” –African
12. “He who does not know one thing knows another.” –African
13. “Eat when the food is ready speak when the time is right.” –Ethiopian
14. “An empty pot makes the loudest noise.”
15. The first sign of an educated person is that she asks more questions than she delivers answers. –Johnnetta B. Cole (36)
16. “Studdirashan gud as eddicashan.” - (The ability to study the world and learn from it is at least equal to a formal education - wisdom is not the sole province of the privileged)-- Jamaican

 

COMPLAINING

17. He who complains much does little. – Swahili
18. The rich are always complaining. –Zulu
19. When the monkey can't reach the ripe banana with his hand, he says it is not sweet. – Sudan
20. “Good things sell themselves; those that are bad have to be advertised.” – East Africa (2

 

UNTRUTH

21. The flatterer walks in the middle of the road. – Ovambo
22. “Truth came to market but could not be sold; however, we buy lies with ready cash.” – Yoruba
23. Error moves with quick feet and truth must never be lagging behind. –Alexander Crummell
24. “If you damage the character of another, you damage your own.” —Yoruba

 

OFFENSIVE CONDUCT

25. If you offend, ask for pardon; if offended, forgive. — Ethiopia
26. Gossips always suspect that others are talking about them. – Yoruba
27. Scandal is like an egg: when it is hatched it has wings. – African
28. The remedy for “don't let it be heard” is “ don't let it be done”. – Hausa
29. The monkey does not see his own backside; he sees his neighbor's. – Zimbabwe
30. A parasite cannot live alone. – Namibia
31. “Do not argue with a fool, for people will not be able to tell the difference between the two of you.” – Igbo
32. The higher the monkey climbs, the more he shows his behind. – African-American
33. “I’m getting paid to make an ass out of myself. What’s your excuse?” — Richard Pryor
34. “A fool has to say something. A wise person has something to say.” –African
35. “He is like a drum which makes a lot of noise but is hollow inside.” ~ Sudanese
36. “Money talks, bullshit walks.” African-American
37. “An empty cart makes the most noise--Jamaican
38. Don’t say things mischievous people can do harm by repeating. -Jamaican

 

AWKWARDNESS

39. “I have been amazed and amused watching white people dancing to a Negro band in a Harlem cabaret; attempting to throw off the crusts and layers of inhibitions laid on by sophisticated civilizations…trying to work their way back into that jungle which was the original Garden of Eden; in a word, doing their best to pass for colored.” — James Weldon Johnson
40. “Never before have so many white Americans paid black Americans that sincerest form of flattery - imitation.” — John H. Johnson

 

 

RESPECT/CAUTION

41. If you receive a gift don’t measure it. –Kenya
42. Treat your guest as a guest for two days – then on the third day give him a hoe. – Swahili
43. When the mouse laughs at the cat there's a  hole nearby. – Nigeria
44. If the panther knew how much he is feared, he would do much more harm. – Cameroon (
45. Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer. – Muhammad Ali
46. “Young man, young man, your arm’s too short to box with God.” — James Weldon Johnson
47. “If you think you have someone eating out of your hands, it is a good idea to count your fingers.” —Nigerian
48. When you see a crab walking clumsily it does not mean that it has lost its way. --Ewe.

 

RIGHT CONDUCT

49. Patience is a bird that hatches great eggs. – Zulu
50. “However swift a man, he will not outstrip his shadow.” – Fulani
51. “Wealth diminishes with usage; learning increases with use.” – Zanzibar
52. “He who led me in the night, will be thanked by me at daybreak.” – Mozambique
53. “In the gate of patience there is no crowding.” – Morocco
54. “Peace is costly, but it’s worth the expense.” – Baguimi 
55. Tell the truth and shame the devil. – African-American
56. Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth. – Muhammad Ali
57. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. –  Maya Angelou
58. I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting system, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.  – George Washington Carver
59. “Being inclusive is part of our African tradition.” — Judith Jamison

 

 

WISDOM

60. “You cannot force water up a hill.” —Maasai
61. “A tree does not move unless there is wind.” —Nigerian
62. “The chameleon changes color to match the earth, the earth doesn’t change colors to match the chameleon.” ~ Senegalese
63. “Women have no chief. ~ Acholi
64. “True peace is not merely the absence of tension but the presence of justice and brotherhood.”- Martin Luther King

COMMUNITY

 

If you want to go fast, go alone.

If you want to go far, go together.

 

FAMILY

1. If you are a parent, recognize that it is the most important calling and rewarding challenge you have. What you do every day, what you say and how you act, will do more to shape the future of America than any other factor. — Marian Wright Edelman
2. Children are the reward of life. –Congo
3. The enemy of a chief is he who has grown up with him from childhood. – Ashanti
4. A child that has never been in a strange town thinks her mother cooks best. – Ho
5. The town is a barren wildness to one who is unhappy in one’s home life. – Yoruba
6. Affairs of the home should not be discussed in the public square. – Kenya
7. “She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind. — Toni Morrison
8. “A family is like a forest, when you are outside it is dense, when you are inside you see that each tree has its place.” –African
9. “A united family eats from the same plate.” –African
10. “A family tie is like a tree, it can bend but it cannot break.” –African
11. “If I am in harmony with my family, that’s success.” –African
12. “A child is what you put into him.” –African
13. “When you show the child the moon, it sees only your finger.” –African
14. “We desire to bequeath two things to our children; the first one is roots, the other one is wings.”–African
15. “If you educate a man, you educate one person. If you educate a woman, you educate a whole family.” —Fanti
16. “If relatives help each other, what evil can hurt them?” –African
17. “He who earns calamity, eats it with his family.” –African
18. “No matter how big a child is, he cannot deny that he was once carried on the back of a woman.”—African
19. “What you help a child to love can be more important than what you help him to learn.” –African
20. “The baby at the mother’s back does not know the journey is far!” –African
21. “It is a child who has never traveled who says that only his mother prepares tasty meals.”–Ghanaian
22. “A person who has children does not die.” —Nigerian
23. “The laughter of a child lights up the house.” ~ Swahili
24. “A child one does not instruct on return, one instructs him when going.” ~ Bantu
25. Marriage is not a food truck.--Jamaican
26. A young bird knows nothing about storms. --Jamaican
27. If relatives help each other, what harm can be done to them? – Ethiopia
28. If you have no relatives, get married. – Egypt
29. It is not the fire in the fireplace which warms the house, but the couple who get along well. – Malagasy

 

NEIGHBORS

30. The question is not whether we can afford to invest in every child;-it is whether we can afford not to. — Marian Wright Edelman
31. It takes a whole village to raise one child. – Yoruba
32. Choose your neighbors before you buy your house. –Hausa
33. “The most important question in the world is, ‘Why is the child crying?’” — Alice Walker
34. “My mother always told me, ‘Never give up because you never know who’s praying for you.’” —Denzel Washington
35. “The elders of the village are the boundaries.” —Ghanaian
36. A good friend is better than money in your pocket. .--Jamaican

 

PUBLIC SPACE

37. “I’ll never forget going up to Harlem and seeing all those black people. Jesus, just knowing there were that many of us made me feel better.” — Richard Pryor
38. “We learn about one another’s culture the same way we learn about sex: in the streets.” — Ishmael Reed
39. The stranger, unfamiliar with the local community and landscape, does not know where the deep water and other hazards are. . --Jamaican

 

SPIRIT

40. Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful. –Rita Dove
41. The same music governs the rhythm of the seasons, the pulse of our heartbeats, the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of ocean tides, the cycles of growth, evolution and dissolution. It's music, it's rhythm. — Michael Jackson
42. Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. — Jimi Hendrix
43. If you find a tune that's got something to do with you, you just feel it, and when you sing it, other people feel it, too.  — Billie Holiday
44. Belief in magic is older than writing. — Zora Neale Hurston
45. I wake up from dreams and go "Wow, put this down on paper." . . . That's why I hate to take credit for the songs I've written. I feel that somewhere, someplace, it's been done and I'm just a courier bringing it out into the world. — Michael Jackson
46. Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams - they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do–they all contain truths. – Muhammad Ali
47. My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors. –  Maya Angelou
48. The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago. –Louis Armstrong
49. There are roads out of the secret places within us along which we all must move as we go to touch others. – Romare Bearden
50. How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these. – George Washington Carver
51. Soul [music] is like electricity – we don’t know what it is, but it’s a force that can light a room. – Ray Charles
52. “Dance is bigger than the physical body. When you extend your arm, it doesn’t stop at the end of your fingers, because you’re dancing bigger than that; you’re a dancing spirit. —Judith Jamison
53. “…the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language.” — James Earl Jones
54. “We must never forget that dance is the cradle of Negro music. — Alain Locke
55. “We are very practical people, very down-to-earth, even shrewd people. But with practicality we also accept what I suppose could be called superstition and magic, which is another way of knowing things.” — Toni Morrison
56. “Black people’s grace has been what they do with language.” — Toni Morrison
57. “I’m not really a songwriter – I’m an interpreter. So in a sense I am an actress first and foremost. I act out the songs, and I lead with my heart.” — Diana Ross
58. I wake up from dreams and go "Wow, put this down on paper." . . . That's why I hate to take credit for the songs I've written. I feel that somewhere, someplace, it's been done and I'm just a courier bringing it out into the world. — Michael Jackson
59. “Jazz is not music, it is a way of life, it is a way of being, a way of thinking. I think that the Negro in America is jazz. Everything he does–the slang he uses, the way he walks, the way he talks, his jargon, the new inventive phrases we make up to describe things–all that to me is jazz as much as the music we play.” — Nina Simone
60. “God created black people and black people created style.” — George C. Wolfe
61. “The sun never sets without fresh news.” —Xhosa
62. “The drum is the favorite instrument of the spirits.” –African
63. Move your neck according to the music. – Ethiopia

 

HERITAGE

64. I acknowledge an immense debt to the griots of Africa, storytellers of West Africa who preserve the oral histories of their people, where today it is rightly said that when a griot dies, it is as if a library has burned to the ground.  — Alex Haley
65. “Out in the country, with few books or strangers, and no such thing as television, we depended on the stories we knew, and the stories we could invent and tell ourselves. I grew up with the spoken word.” — James Earl Jones
66. “Maybe our forefathers couldn’t keep their language together when they were taken from Africa, but this, the blues, was a language we invented to let people know we have something to say.” —B.B. King
67. The new broom sweeps clean, but the old broom knows the corners.--Jamaican

 

COOPERATION AND SOLIDARITY

68. If you worry about who is going to get credit, you don’t get much work done. — Dorothy Height
69. Without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life. It’s important to the person who serves as well as the recipient. It’s the way in which we grow and develop. — Dorothy Height
70. The one who is carried does not realize how far away the town is. – Nigeria 
71. The farmer who has never ventured beyond his field says his own methods are the best. – Ewe
72. Rain does not fall on one roof alone. – Cameroon
73. The ants said: together will be able to transport an elephant. – Mossi
74. Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested. – Guinea
75. Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it. – Marian Anderson
76. Affluence separates people. Poverty knits ‘em together. You got some sugar, and I don’t; I borrow some of yours. Next month you might not have any flours; well, I’ll give you some of mine.
77. “Imagine what a harmonious world it could be if every single person, both young and old, shared a little of what he is good at doing.” — Quincy Jones
78. “I think integration is greatly overrated.” –Hazel Scott (
79. “I’m not a politician. I only want to help relieve the suffering in communities, and I want to help people see their community in each other.” — Russell Simmons
80. “Few are too young, and none too old, to make the attempt to learn.” — Booker T. Washington
81. “I think I have learned that the best way to lift one’s self up is to help someone else.” —Booker T. Washington
82. “Wisdom is not like money to be tied up and hidden.” –African
83. “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” –African
84. “A small house will hold a hundred friends.” –African
85. “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. –African
86. “Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.” –African
87. “He who learns, teaches.” –Ethiopian
88. “One head alone does not go into council.” —Ghanaian
89. “Two men in a burning house must not stop to argue.” –Ghanaian
90. “Only someone else can scratch your back.” —Kenyan
91. “Traveling is learning.”  —Kenyan
92. “A canoe does not know who the leader is when it turns over, everyone gets wet.” ~Madagascan
93. “He who thinks he is leading and has no one following him is only taking a walk.” —Malawian
94. “A boat cannot go forward if each rows his own way.” —Tanzanian
95. “Words are sweet, but they never take the place of food.” ~ Igbo
96. “It is not necessary to blow out the other people’s lantern to let yours shine.” –African
97. Seeing me is one thing; coming to live with me is quite another. ---Jamaican

CONTINUITY

 

Building a safe and socially just community is like planting date seeds.

When a date seed is planted, it takes eighty years for the seed to mature as a tree bearing fruit.

So, farmers who plant date seeds do so understanding they will never taste the fruit of that tree.

But if farmers weren’t willing to do this, we wouldn’t have any dates to eat. 

This means that the most important job of every community member is to train their successor.

This applies especially to “leaders.”–African American community organizer

 

“[on the Harlem Renaissance] We are journeymen, planting seeds for someone else to harvest.” —Wallace Thurman

“One whose seeds have not sprouted does not give up planting.” —Kenyan

ELDERS

1. Mom and dad would tell … humorous tales of their own escapades. They took life and broke it up in little pieces and fed it to us like little birds. — Ossie Davis
2. When you get real old, honey, you realize there are certain things that just don't matter anymore. You lay it all on the table. There's a saying: Only little children and old folks tell the truth. — Bessie (Annie Elizabeth) Delaney
3. “The words of the elders become sweet some day.” —Malawaian -
4. When you follow in the path of your father, you learn to walk like him. – Ashanti
5. “No matter how beautiful and well crafted a coffin might look, it will not make anyone wish for death.” –African
6. “Where you will sit when you are old shows where you stood in youth.” —Yoruba
7. The older the moon, the brighter it shines. The older the clock, the faster it winds.-- Jamaican

CHILDREN

8. Seems like God don’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams—but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile. — Lorraine Hansberry
9. Birth is the only remedy against death. –Hausa
10. By crawling, a child learns to stand. – Hausa
11. The eggs teach the hen how to hatch. –Kweli
12. When you show the moon to a child, it sees only your finger. – Zambia
13. Send a boy where he wants to go, and you see his best pace. –African 
14. Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. – James Baldwin
15. “We desire to bequeath two things to our children. The first one is roots; the other one is wings—Sudanese 

 

SPIRIT

16. Sometimes you struggle so hard to feed your family one way, you forget to feed them the other way, with spiritual nourishment. Everybody needs that. – James Brown
17. “The black Holy Ghost roaring into some shack of a church, in the South, seizing the congregation with an ancient energy and power—the black church, therefore, represents and embodies the transplanted African memory.” — Larry Neal
18. “Man cannot really own the land; we are only trustees for a time. Eventually the land will claim us and we’ll return to our mother earth.” — Clifton L. Taulbert
19. I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have by reading novels. The understatements in the tenor saxophone of Lester Young, the crying, haunting, forever searching sounds of John Coltrane, and the softness and violence of Count Basie's big band —all have fired my imagination as much as anything in literature. — Ernest J. Gaines
20. Music is one of the closest link-ups with God that we can probably experience. I think it's a common vibrating tone of the musical notes that holds all life together. — Marvin Gaye
21. I sometimes realize that there is something on the earth that is free of everything but what created it, and that is the one thing I have been trying to find. –Ornette Coleman
22. I’d like to point out to people the divine in a musical language that transcends words. I want to speak to their souls. –John Coltrane
23. “Jazz isn’t music merely, it is a spirit that can express itself in almost anything. The true spirit of jazz is a joyous revolt from convention, custom, authority, boredom, even sorrow – from everything that would confine the soul of man and hinder its riding free on the air. — J. A. Rogers
24. “The fact is, nothing great or enduring, especially in music, has ever sprung full-fledged and unprecedented from the brain of any master; the best he gives the world he gathers from the hearts of the people, and runs it through the alembic of genius. — James Weldon Johnson”
25. “It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive characteristic.” — James Weldon Johnson
26. “The influence which the Negro has exercised on the art of dancing in this country has been almost absolute.” — James Weldon Johnson
27. The same music governs the rhythm of the seasons, the pulse of our heartbeats, the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of ocean tides, the cycles of growth, evolution and dissolution. It's music, it's rhythm. — Michael Jackson

 

HERITAGE

28. “Africa is not only our mother, but in the light of most recent science is beginning to appear as the mother of civilization.” — Alain Locke
29. “There is no future for a people who deny their past.” — Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
30. “The worship of the black woman as the mother of the human race goes back to the dimmest antiquity.” — J. A. Rogers
31. “History must restore what slavery took away, for it is the social damage of slavery that the present generations must repair and offset.” — Arthur A. Schomburg
32. “If you learn late, you pass it on to people so they can learn early.” — Russell Simmons
33. “In every crisis there is a message. Crises are nature’s way of forcing change—breaking down old structures, shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take their place.” — Susan L. Taylor
34. “[on the Harlem Renaissance] We are journeymen, planting seeds for someone else to harvest.” —Wallace Thurman
35. “You go to school, you study about the Germans and the French, but not about your own race. I hope the time will come when you study black history too.” — Booker T. Washington
36. “Inside all blacks is one heartbeat that is fueled by the blood of Africa.” — August Wilson
37. “If you want to know the end, look at the beginning.” –African
38. “However far a stream flows, it doesn’t forget its origin.” –African
39. “No man can outwit their ancestors.” –African
40. “A tree cannot stand without roots.” –Congolese
41. “Prepare now for the solutions of tomorrow.” –Congolese
42. “One whose seeds have not sprouted does not give up planting.” —Kenyan
43. “All of our Mercedes Benzes and Halston frocks will not hide our essential failure as a generation of black ‘haves’ who did not protect the black future during our watch.” — Marian Wright Edelman
44. “Learning expands great souls.” —Malawian
45. “When a thing becomes perfect, it soon fades.” ~ Moroccan
46. History is a clock that people use to tell the cultural and political time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography. –John Henrik Clarke 
47. Until quite recently, it was rather generally assumed, even among well-educated persons in the West, that the African continent was a great expanse of land, mostly jungle, inhabited by savages and fierce beasts. It was not thought of as an area where great civilizations could have existed. –John Henrik Clarke