People need to see that, far from being an obstacle, the world's diversity of languages, religions and traditions is a great treasure, affording us precious opportunities to recognize ourselves in others.
Youssou N'DourRead
I think people should know more of Africa in terms of its joie de vivre, its feeling for life. In spite of the images that one knows about Africa - the economic poverty, the corruption - there's a joy to living and a happiness in community, living together, in community life, which may be missing here in America.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the joy of life found in Africa, contrasting it with perceptions of poverty and corruption while highlighting community and happiness.
Youssou N'Dour captures the essence of life in Africa, pointing out that despite common portrayals of the continent focused on poverty and corruption, there exists an enriching joy and a sense of community that can often be absent in Western societies like America. This perspective invites a deeper understanding and appreciation of African life beyond stereotypes, celebrating the vibrancy and connectedness of its people.
Themes
AfricaJoyCommunityHappinessLife
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about cultural appreciation to highlight the richness of African life.
More from Youssou N'Dour
All quotes →If you come from Africa with your economic poverty and your cultural riches, and you meet someone like Peter Gabriel or a person from a big record company, and they tell you that what you are doing is marvelous, that makes you feel powerful.
Youssou N'DourRead
When I'm in Senegal, I can't just sit in isolation making music. People need my help. And the Senegalese people helped create my music. It comes from the country itself.
Youssou N'DourRead
Similar quotes
Even though I spent the first five years of my life in Nagasaki, going to Japan can be really difficult. Even if they know I've been brought up in the West, they still expect me to understand all the subtleties of their culture, and if I get it wrong, it matters much more than if a British person gets it wrong. I find it intimidating.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
Ours is a culture based on excess, on overproduction; the result is a steady loss of sharpness in our sensory experience. All the conditions of modern life - its material plenitude, its sheer crowdedness - conjoin to dull our sensory faculties
Susan SontagRead
A resilient culture has a certain amount of resistance embedded in it. Not so much to capsize it, but enough so that it doesn't atrophy.
Adam GrantRead
We have entered a new phase of culture - we may call it the Age of the Cinema - in which the most amazing perfection of scientific technique is being devoted to purely ephemeral objects, without any consideration of their ultimate justification. It seems as though a new society was arising which will acknowledge no hierarchy of values, no intellectual authority, and no social or religious tradition, but which will live for the moment in a chaos of pure sensation.
Christopher DawsonRead
African-Americans are not a monolithic group. So, we tend to talk about the black community, the black culture, the African-American television viewing audience, but there are just as many facets of us as there are other cultures.
Malcolm-Jamal WarnerRead
San Francisco is one of the great cultural plateaus of the world - one of the really urbane communities in the United States - one of the truly cosmopolitan places and for many, many years, it always has had a warm welcome for human beings from all over the world
Duke EllingtonRead