Aware Quote by Amiri Baraka

My roots go back to West Africa, but my last name is Kirby, which is not an African name.

— Malachi Kirby

I realized that I was African when I came to the United States. Whenever Africa came up in my college classes, everyone turned to…

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

My mom went through civil rights; my dad went through civil rights. My name was Kenya because they wanted to give me an African…

— Kenya Barris

When I began 'All Our Names,' I did so wanting to create parallel narratives between Africa in the nineteen-seventies and America during that same…

— Dinaw Mengestu

I remember, growing up, it wasn't sexy to be African. We got called names.

— Yvonne Orji

Changing my name was meant to inspire and bring youth together all around the world,

— Metta World Peace

I became part of a drag family, which is where I got part of my last name, Davenport, from. I got the name Sahara…

— Sahara Davenport

I talk about Africa and its meaning, being the birthplace of man and all that great history that's been erased and even hidden. I…

— Nas

People wonder why I love Africa so much. I say this is where I was born and raised. My roots are in Africa; that's…

— Dikembe Mutombo

My African roots made me what I am today. They're the reason I exist at all.

— Junot Diaz

My knowledge of my ancestry, like a lot of black people not living in Africa today, is very vague.

— Malachi Kirby

On the first day of school, my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name and said that from thenceforth that was…

— Nelson Mandela