Maria Nhambu > Quotes

“I marveled at the beauty of all life and savored the power and possibilities of my imagination. In these rare moments, I prayed, I danced, and I analyzed. I saw that life was good and bad, beautiful and ugly. I understood that I had to dwell on the good and beautiful in order to keep my imagination, sensitivity, and gratitude intact. I knew it would not be easy to maintain this perspective. I knew I would often twist and turn, bend and crack a little, but I also knew that…I would never completely break.”
― Maria Nhambu, Africa's Child

“Whenever I felt like that, I would have a chat with my own Fat Mary. She was like the sweet fresh air after the rain. She brought me newness, clarity, and relief. She managed to get in touch with and resurrect the free spirit deep inside me. Being one with the spirit allowed me to soar above my everyday reality. I marveled at the beauty of all life and savored the power and possibilities of my imagination.”
― Maria Nhambu, Africa's Child

“I can’t cry so I have to laugh.”
― Maria Nhambu, Africa's Child

“I was alone. I had no one. No mother, no father, no brothers, no sisters, no grandmas, no grandpas, no uncles, no aunties, no cousins, and no tribe. I’d seen the children at the orphanage laugh or cry when they received news about a family member. I would never receive such news and no family would laugh or cry for me. That day I understood with sharp clarity that I didn’t have a mother who wanted me.”
― Maria Nhambu, Africa's Child

“In order to survive her tumultuous childhood, Mary created another Fat Mary, a companion and consoler, who took away her hurts, fears, and questions and kept them safe until Mary was older and mature enough to process the abuse and neglect she had endured.”
― Maria Nhambu

“I had a long talk with my dear Fat Mary that night, because I had many questions. Could someone actually be beaten to death by such a nun? Did Mother Rufina, the new Superior, know that Sister Clotilda was so cruel? Who let her work with children? Could nuns go to hell?
Fat Mary told me she didn’t know the answers to my questions, but she reminded me that it was her role to take my worries and burdens and keep them for me until a time when I could understand them.”
― Maria Nhambu, Africa's Child

“Mary’s childhood was rough. She was frequently beaten and chastised by the nuns who served as her protectors and brutalized by the older girls in the orphanage.

Oh how I wept those first few years of my life. My tears came like tropical storms. Every pore in my body wept. I heaved and shuddered and sighed. Everything around me seemed dark and terrifying.”
― Maria Nhambu, Africa's Child

“When you dance with the Africans, unless it is a ritual dance like a wedding or harvest or rain dance, there’s no right or wrong way to dance. There’s only movement. And the more you express your feelings as you move, the better you feel when you’re done…When I dance the African Way, I show my feelings with my body instead of hiding them in my heart. When I dance, I know I’m alive here and now. My body and soul are in harmony.”
― Maria Nhambu, Africa's Child

“I prayed that our growth would be as strong and determined as the seeds of coconut palms, boldly reaching skyward toward the sun diligently boring deeper into the earth to secure a firm foundation for the beautiful, durable, fruit-bearing trees they would become. For me, Mhonda was the place to continue the growth of the still young but strong roots of my tree planted in Kifungilo. This was my life now, the life I’d prayed for, the life that would provide me with an education and would open doors. I wanted this life very much. I told my wavering spirit to bear with me because, just like the coconut palm, I would sway and bend and bruise, but I would survive. I would have to become the tree in the African saying: ‘The tree that bends with the wind does not break.”
― Maria Nhambu, Africa's Child

“I went to the recreation room and knelt down in front of the same Nativity scene where I’d prayed to Baby Jesus to find my mother when I was a child. I looked at him lying there in his bed of hay and wondered why this scene never left me. Over the years, whenever I prayed, I prayed to Baby Jesus. He was the miracle baby who never grew up. I believed that he really listened to me and often answered me. As I knelt there I realized that Sister Silvestris was right all along. She told us every Christmas that whatever we asked of Baby Jesus he’d grant us.”
― Maria Nhambu, Africa's Child

“As puzzled as I was by my classmates’ assumptions, their classification of me as a Black American nonetheless comforted me. Could it be that now, finally, I had my own group to belong to? Would Black Americans claim me just because the whites assigned me to them?”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“With tears of joy, I recalled Fat Mary’s role in my childhood. She had been my consoler and counselor since the day I understood I was alone in the world and had no one who loved me or wanted me. I had decided back then that I would love me, fat me, just as I was. Her role was also to safeguard the meaningful and happy moments of my childhood and bring them to me when I needed to remember life’s goodness.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“When my depression turned to anger, I knew I was on the way to recovery.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“How could I live without dancing?”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“On the plane leaving Africa, I had a vision of Mama Africa, a powerful and proud African woman carrying the abundant fruits of Africa in a basket. She accompanied me as I gazed down on the continent I was leaving. She would be with me in my new country, Mama Africa assured me, and I would forever be a child of Africa.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“In your heart, you will always be African, but in America you are a Black American. It is possible and desirable to be both.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“It is not about forgetting but about not letting the past define you. It is about learning from it and embracing its role as your lifetime teacher.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“To them I was first a Black, then a Black from another country, and then a person.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“There is no such thing as immunity from the joy or pain of the past.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“Discovering dance and its power to heal my soul played a key role in my survival.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“Haven’t I always said that no amount of beating, ridicule, or degradation could change your beauty, inside or out?”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“In their hearts, they know that we are all created equal in the eyes of God and the universe. Whoever thinks otherwise will never be happy.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“It was Cathy who taught me the true meaning of the word “risk.” Whenever I see that word written or hear it spoken, I see her face. I see her faith. I see her love and her youth when she took on this challenge. She perceived a need and didn’t wait for everything to fall into place before doing something about it. She did not wait until someone wrote the manual on How to be a Mother to a 19-Year-Old African Orphan When You’re Only 23.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“I worked hard at fitting in and becoming an American, but then I discovered that being an American was not enough. I had to be a Black American because that’s how Americans, especially whites, saw me.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“I wanted to share with Black Americans the beautiful and empowering aspects of Africa.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“What was wrong with these American students? Didn’t they know I was the teacher and they had to do as I said? I learned quickly that my authority meant little, if anything, to them. I was not the all-powerful and feared mwalimu (teacher) of Africa.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“I was suffering from a profound disease called culture shock and a severe case of homesickness. My brain was exhausted trying to figure out a lifestyle and living standards that everyone took for granted and few bothered to explain.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter

“Standing up for your human rights is what you must always do.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter