South African two-time Grammy winner and jazz legend, Hugh Masekela was on campus for the ALU Grand Opening celebration last week. A few of us got to sit with him and ask about everything from culture to dealing with fame. Here are some of the pearls of wisdom he shared:
On Music and fame
You deserve to be passionate about whatever you do
- I was bewitched with music and when you’re bewitched, you don’t need inspiration. I’m a rare case. With me it was a disease
- Thinking you are important is the beginning of your diminishment
On culture
We can’t keep on imitating people and say we want to be African leaders
- Try to interact with elders when you go back home for vacation because one thing we are losing is our African heritage
- There’s something wrong if you don’t know your heritage, and you know other people’s culture
- The African musicians who are known internationally are the heritage-oriented ones
- That traditional stuff never dies; it just stays there forever
- We’ll never be able to change what is going on until we begin to realize that we live on a continent with artificial frontiers
On the Arts
Nobody can touch Africans when it comes to dance, music, literature, art and design but we’re not showing it off
- You have to be aggressive if you want to go into original stuff. You either do it or you don’t
