It's important to debunk the myths of Africa being this benighted continent civilized only when white people arrived. In fact Africans had been creators of culture for thousands of years before. These were very intelligent subtle and sophisticated people with organized societies and great art.

Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that's it. No America no jazz. I've seen people try to connect it to other countries for instance to Africa but it doesn't have a damn thing to do with Africa.

Being told about the effects of climate change is an appeal to our reason and to our desire to bring about change. But to see that Africans are the hardest hit by climate change even though they generate almost no greenhouse gas is a glaring injustice which also triggers anger and outrage over those who seek to ignore it.

I think there is a big difference between expressing the pain and anger that many African Americans and other people of color may feel versus language that I think now crosses the line and goes into hate.

I was able to do To Sleep with Anger a very powerful film about African Americans their spirituality and the things that happened within a small community and a family.

One of the most amazing locations I've ever been is the top of the volcano in Tanzania Africa. It's an actual volcano where you really have this lava every day.

It's a melting pot southern Africa. You find these cultural collisions that result in art and music and it's pretty amazing.

The biggest opportunity in 2013 is in Africa. It has seven out of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world. In Nigeria alone there are 100 million people with mobile phones. In total 300 million Africans - five times the population of Britain - are in the middle class.

I'd like to state that Spike Lee is not saying that African American culture is just for black people alone to enjoy and cherish. Culture is for everybody.

I was taught from a young age that many people would treat me as a second-class citizen because I was African-American and because I was female.

Life expectancy in many parts of Africa can be something around the age of thirty five to thirty eight. I mean you're very fortunate if you live to that age. In fact when I went to Uganda for the first time one of the things that occurred to me was that I saw very few elderly people.

We of Africa protest that in this day and age we should continue to be treated as lesser human beings than other races.

I saw no African people in the printed and illustrated Sunday school lessons. I began to suspect at this early age that someone had distorted the image of my people. My long search for the true history of African people the world over began.