Politics & Power Quote by Miriam Makeba

Makeba’s genius here is how she slips a political manifesto into the plainspoken rhythm of everyday resolve. She’s not delivering an abstract ideology; she’s modeling a posture: Africans “get up and do things for us.” The phrasing matters. It’s bodily, almost percussive - stand up, move, build - the opposite of the passive roles Africa has historically been assigned in global storytelling: recipient, victim, project.

Name-checking Thabo Mbeki anchors the quote in a specific post-apartheid moment when South Africa was trying to pivot from moral symbol to continental partner, and when “African Renaissance” rhetoric was in the air. Makeba doesn’t parrot that language; she translates it into a people-level ethic of self-determination. The diplomatic nod (“our President”) is also strategic. She legitimizes the ideal of pan-African cooperation while keeping the real emphasis on agency rather than state power.

Then she narrows the lens: “We are trying as women to do things for ourselves.” That “as women” is the quiet knife. It signals that even inside liberation movements and nationalist projects, women are often asked to serve the cause without owning it. Makeba’s subtext is that freedom can’t be subcontracted - not to former colonizers, not to benevolent governments, not to male-led movements. Coming from a musician whose career crossed exile, activism, and global stages, the line doubles as autobiography: a reminder that cultural work is political work, and that dignity begins when you stop waiting to be granted permission.