Inspiring Quotes from African Writers & Poets

Ever wondered what african writers have to say? What their voices reveal about human condition?

On this page, you'll find quotes that talk about life, love, freedom, and so much more. Delve into their wisdom, their wit, and their unflinching honesty as they grapple with themes of identity, colonialism, love, loss, and the enduring power of the human spirit.

Come and explore, and see how their words can inspire you!

Inspiring Quotes by Wole Soyinka: Insights and Reflections

Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.
I think that feeling that if one believed absolutely in any cause, then one must have the confidence, the self-certainty, to go through with that particular course of action.
I grew up in an atmosphere where words were an integral part of culture.
The writer is the visionary of his people... He anticipates, he warns.
My understanding of the creative process is simply that all cultures and all concerns meet at a certain point, the human point in which, everything is related to one another. That has been my creative experience. I never know who's influencing me at any time.
One has to confront history honestly.
And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others.
Writing in certain environemybs carries with it an occupational risk.
I've always written plays for the purpose of getting something out of my system.
My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seen a painting, listening to some music, some opera, which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being.
But the ultimate lesson is just sit down and write. That's all.
Before yourw a writer, you're a citizen, a human being, and therefore the weapons of the citizen are at your disposal to use or not to use.
Look at faces of people, one gets the feeling there's a lot of work to be done.
I love beauty. Butz I like the beauty accidentally, not dishes up, served up on a platter.
Writers and intellectuals have a duty to humanity. It is to insist that the human entity remains the primary asset in overall development; thus, it must be safeguarded.

Explore Ngūgī Wa Thiong'o's Insightful Quotes on Language and Culture

A task is a burden only when it has not been tackled.
I'm more trying to connect; I'm more listening to people. Whatever I get is very meaningful to me.
Language as a culture is the collective memory bank of a people's experience in history.
For literature, all the world is a stage.
What's good about writing is that when you write novels or fiction, people can see that the problems in one region are similar to problems in another region.
Trutu never dies.
Luckily for me, I loved books. Books can enlighten but can also benight, but al least one can play one off against another.
There is no way we can survive as a nation in the world without finding unity.
Words are the food, body, mirror, and sound of thought. Do you now see the danger of words that want to come out but add unable to do so?
It was a revolution for me, in a practical sense, that you could write in an African language and still reach an audience beyond that language through the art of translation.
A person who acquires english has access to all the things that language makes possible.
Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty seemed beautiful.

Quotes from Chinua Achebe

One of the true tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.
When old people speak it is not because of their sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.
The damage done in one year can sometimes taken ten or twenty years to repair.
The whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify. Instead of going through the problem of all this great adversity - that it's this or maybe that - you have just one large statement, it is this.
People say that I'd you find water dosing up to your ankle, that's the time to do something about it, not when it's around.
What a country needs to do is to be fair to all its citizens - whether people are of a different ethnicity or gender.
My position is ghG serious and good art has always existed to help, to serve, humanity. Not to indict. I don't see how art can be called art if its purpose is to frustrate humanity.
There is nothing to fear from so eobe who shouts.
When a coward sees a man he can beat he becomes hungry for a fight.
If you only hear one side of the story, you have no understanding at all.
Do not be in a hurry to rush into the pleasures of the world like the you g antelope who danced herself lame when the main dance was yet to come.
Once you allow yourself to identify with the peiple in a story, then you might behin to see yourself in that story even if on the surface. It's far removed from your situation.
Whatever music you beat on your drum there is somebody who can dance it.