Author Maya Angelou Discusses Africa
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=65834
General Information
Source:
Creator:
NBC Today Show
Katie Couric
Resource Type:
Copyright:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
11/13/1992
11/13/1992
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video News Report
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
1992
00:05:47
Description
"Author Maya Angelou talks about cultural relationships
between Africans and African-Americans.
"
Keywords
"Maya Angelou, Africa, Author, Poet, Actress, African American, Africans, Ghana, Egypt, Nigeria,
Black Americans, Culture, Cultural, Identification, Education, Colonial, Colonialism, Europe, Eurocentric
, Afrocentric
"
Citation
MLA
"Author Maya Angelou Discusses Africa." Katie Couric, correspondent. NBC Today Show.
NBCUniversal Media. 13 Nov. 1992. NBC Learn. Web. 15 April 2015
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1 of 4
APA
Couric, K. (Reporter). 1992, November 13. Author Maya Angelou Discusses Africa. [Television series
episode]. NBC Today Show. Retrieved from https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k12/browse/?cuecard=65834
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"Author Maya Angelou Discusses Africa" NBC Today Show, New York, NY: NBC Universal,
11/13/1992. Accessed Wed Apr 15 2015 from NBC Learn: https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k12/browse/?cuecard=65834
Transcript
Author Maya Angelou Discusses Africa
KATHERINE COURIC, co-host:
Though most Afro-centrists would argue that all of our roots are in Africa, at least 12 percent of America's
population, African-Americans, feels a particular kinship to the continent. It's been an uneasy relationship
between African-Americans and Africans but one that continues to grow as countries in Africa move
closer to democratization. Author, actress, poet, Maya Angelou spent many years living in Africa. She
was among a group of African-American artists who called Ghana home during the l960s. Maya Angelou,
good morning.
MAYA ANGELOU: Good morning.
COURIC: Welcome back to TODAY.
ANGELOU: I still call Ghana home.
COURIC: Do you?
ANGELOU: A part of home, yes.
COURIC: When did you live there, for how long?
ANGELOU: I lived there about four years, in the early '60s. I had lived in Egypt for a year and a half, and
then I moved to Ghana.
COURIC: What was it like living--for you living in Ghana?
ANGELOU: It was reassuring. It startled me because there are so many Africanisms which I didn't know
were Africanisms. I thought they were black Americanisms. I kept running into them, finding that--`Oh!
So this is the source of the thing.'
COURIC: Like what?
ANGELOU: When I got off the plane in Kano, Nigeria, and I was about 30-something, you know, and
very much a young lady, and all the other people got off the plane. As they descended, a young black
man, who had on--I mean, the first time I had ever seen a black man or a tarmac in anything other than-than a main--maintenance-costume uniform. And this young man with his cap and epaulets and that and
short pants stood there saluting as people de--deplaned--`Welcome to Nigeria. Welcome to Nigeria.' And I
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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stepped down. He said, `Oh, Auntie! Welcome to Nigeria.' I thought, `Please! Wait now! Just a minute!'
But I found that the usage of terms indicating familiar relationships was really African. I thought it was
black American. You know, `Uncle Joe' and `Sister so and so', `Bubba', `Tuda', `Poppa', `Ma', and so on. I
found those were Africanisms.
COURIC: How would you, Maya, describe the relationship between African-Americans and Africans?
Obviously, you got to go to Africa and learn a great deal, but for most people, most African-Americans in
this country, how do they view the continent?
ANGELOU: There's more identification in the last 25 years. There was a time when people used to say
things--black Americans would say things like, `Africa-- I didn't leave anything in Africa.' But over the
years, education, the impact of Malcolm X, for instance, and the impact of Martin King, and the impact of
the young black men and women who started `Black is Beautiful' and trying to encourage a connection
has helped to increase the identification. I think that African-Americans and Africans both need education
on each other, and--and Americans, of course, need education on Africa—all Americans.
COURIC: How do you think Africans view African-Americans?
ANGELOU: Well, quite often, the only thing they know--the--the characters they see on sitcoms, which
are funneled into African television. Unfortunately, African students do not study African-American
history. And so a student in Brussels, or in Paris, or Stockholm would know more about the 300 years plus
that we have been here than an African student. It's a tragedy, and it's an inheritance of colonial education,
which continues, to say Europe is the center of all things. All time, in fact, began at Greenwich. You
know, that's the beginning of time.
COURIC: But Euro-centric education is certainly found in this country, as well. That, of course, is a very
controversial subject. But do you think that it needs to be much more Afro-centric, in terms of education
policy in this country?
ANGELOU: Well not just Afro-centric, Katie, it needs to be education-centric. One cannot call oneself an
educated person and not know something about Africa, and not know something about Asia, or something
about South America. And you cannot--I mean, you can say that you are trained, but you cannot say you
are educated. And so the education should be broadened. I don't mean to lose what we already have, but to
increase, so that we can speak sensibly, sanely, reasonably.
COURIC: Other than education, what else do you think could be done to forge a greater alliance between
African-Americans and Africans?
ANGELOU: Well, I think that the African who comes to the United States should probably have some
orientation so he, she does not go straight to the European to be told what to do and how to do it. He—he
or she can be terribly disappointed and even hurt. But--and the African--African-American going to
Africa certainly should have some orientation. Unfortunately, one can find the African-American going to
a country and saying, `Oh, my goodness! Your water!' You know, `You turn it off between these hours. In
our country, our water...' You know, it's unfortunate.
COURIC: Well, maybe this show is a start.
ANGELOU: It's a wonderful thing. I'm so proud of this show.
COURIC: Thank you. Maya Angelou, always nice to see you here on “Today.”
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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ANGELOU: Thank you.
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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