It is a matter of some interest, that the only other volume A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt reminds one of is Ake, by Wole Soyinka. What is it about these Yorubas?
AMA ATA AIDOOPoliticians are easy to attack, but frankly, we are all guilty of not meeting the needs of Africa’s young people properly.
More Ama Ata Aidoo Quotes
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It is understandable why the African artist is utilitarian.
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Once in a while I catch myself wondering whether I would have found the courage to write if I had not started to write when I was too young to know what was good for me.
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Sometimes a word or an argument will trigger a poem.
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Things are working out… towards their dazzling conclusions.
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O yes, everyone gets lonely some time or other.
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There are powerful forces undermining progress in Africa. But one must never underestimate the power of the people to bring about change.
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No matter what anybody says, we can’t have it all. Not if you are a woman. Not yet.
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At the age of 15, a teacher had asked me what I wanted to do for a career, and without knowing why or even how I replied that I wanted to be a poet.
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I always wanted to write poetry, even when I was very young.
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Politicians are easy to attack, but frankly, we are all guilty of not meeting the needs of Africa’s young people properly.
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Love is fine for singing about and love songs are good to listen to, sometimes even to dance to. But when we need food for our stomachs and clothes for our backs, love is nothing. Ah my lady, the last man any woman should think of marrying is the man she loves.
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Its a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children.
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Life is inspirational; sometimes it comes from the most unlikely places.
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Soyinka’s Death at Dawn, Auden’s Musée des Beaux Arts, Stevie Smith’s Not Waving but Drowning and Wislawa Szymborska’s Some People come to mind immediately. But there are plenty, plenty more that I enjoy.
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the best way to sharpen a knife is not to whet one side of it only. And neither can you solve a riddle by considering only one end of it.
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