If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?
Maya AngelouRead
If more Africans had eaten missionaries, the continent would be in better shape.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the influence of missionaries is detrimental and that rejecting foreign ideologies could benefit Africa.
Maya Angelou's quote plays on the idea of consuming missionaries metaphorically to suggest that had Africans rejected the missionaries' often damaging ideologies and practices, Africa might have developed in a healthier and more autonomous manner. This statement critiques colonialism and the imposition of foreign beliefs on indigenous cultures, highlighting the need for self-determination and a return to native values.
Themes
AfricaMissionariesColonialismIdentitySelf-Determination
In practice
Example use cases
During a talk about post-colonial studies, this quote can emphasize the importance of understanding history.
More from Maya Angelou
All quotes βI find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at commensurate speed.
Maya AngelouRead
The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn't need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder-in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.
Maya AngelouRead
I dreamt we walked together along the shore. We made satisfying small talk and laughed. This morning I found sand in my shoe and a seashell in my pocket. Was I only dreaming?
Maya AngelouRead
I know that I'm not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don't know how not to.
Maya AngelouRead
I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So he spent time trying to be all things to all people - one way guaranteed not to be successful or respected in a lion's den. You can't just play around with all those big cats - you've got to take somebody on.
Maya AngelouRead
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