Famous quotes

Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

English Italiano Polski עברית Français Português فارسی Español 中文 Русский Deutsch العربية हिन्दी 日本語 Ελληνικά Latina

Joyce Banda

66 quotes

“Most African women are taught to endure abusive marriages. They say endurance means a good wife but most women endure abusive relationship because they are not empowered economically, they depend on their husbands.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Former Malawi President speaking on abusive marriages to BBC in 2012.
“I learned that leadership is about falling in love with the people and the people falling in love with you. It is about serving the people with selflessness, with sacrifice, and with the need to put the common good ahead of personal interests.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“women constitute the majority of our population in Africa. Therefore, when we talk about poverty, suffering and underdevelopment, we are talking mostly of women.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is important that women’s needs, aspirations and realities become central drivers of policies and programmes to increase maternal health care access and utilisation.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm indeed a mandasi seller, and I'm proud of it, because the majority of women in Malawi are like us, mandasi sellers.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You just have to go and look at what’s happening to women presidents now and I don’t know whether that is going to attract women to enter politics because in Malawi my being in politics had a negative effect”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“Women decided ‘no, I would rather not join politics. If you end up being a leader and you’re treated like that, then I cannot do it.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“From there move on into Zimbabwe, see what’s happening to Joice Mujuru [the former vice-president expelled from the ruling Zanu-PF party]. Go to Liberia and see what Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is going through – even Ebola is her fault. And go to Argentina and Brazil, end up in the US. So I don’t want to talk about myself but it is something a journalist should take a close at look at and form your own opinion. Misogyny not only for Joyce Banda but for women”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“It is very strange in Malawi”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“I was pleasantly surprised, the reception that I got. I don’t remember a single day during the time I was minister of gender, foreign minister, vice-president and president when I saw anything on the part of the men that indicated they were undermining me”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“In fact, it was the other way round: I received a lot of support from men in my country, maybe sometimes more than my fellow women. If there were any statements on radio scandalising me or accusing me, it was my fellow women, so I think I would be telling a lie if I said that I faced that in Malawi.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“I am being accused of murder, that I wanted to murder this president the time he was refusing to give up power to allow me take office”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“It came from his mouth: that the former president sent doctors to come and inject him the day he was kept in the police [station]. That is the one [accusation] that is more current and serious now but I don’t care even about that because it’s not possible.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“The tragedy is the former president was alerted, just like I was, and didn’t take action”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“That is the difference. Therefore, I shall always be proud of what I’ve done, regardless of what you journalists or anybody can say.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“The donors have been very clear: ‘We will come back but conduct a forensic audit into the K92bn, we want to know who stole this money.’ At the end of the day it is not the donors that have to be blamed. It is us as Malawians: we are not listening to what the donors want us to do. It is my opinion that that should happen, that the forensic audit should be conducted into the K92bn so we know where that money went.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“You’re fighting strong people and they’ll fight you back, but I was fortunate in the sense that I decided that State House is not the last place I can be. There’s life beyond State House and therefore I will do it regardless because Malawians are the ones that must come first, and that’s what I did”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“So they will criticise but all I want you to know as journalists is that you must help this continent: when you find one leader that sticks their neck out to fight corruption, they must be encouraged. At the end of the day it’s not about Joyce Banda, at the end of the day it’s about that ordinary person in the village who must get drugs but she won’t get drugs because money’s been looted”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“I will forever be proud that I did a good job”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“In any case, you can only have one leader at a time.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda, Africa’s first female ex-president: 'I shall always be proud of what I’ve done'The Guardians(May 7,2015)
“One, to turn around the collapsed economy and the reforms I implemented to achieve that, and secondly, that I [reduced] maternal mortality from 675 per 100,000 live births to 460 [per 100,000 live births] in 24 months.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: BPR Interviews: Dr. Joyce BandaBrown Political Review(November 13, 2016)
“The fight against corruption. I didn’t know that when you fight corruption, they [will] fight you back that viciously. I was totally unprepared. And it really, really stressed me out. But at the end of the day, I was hoping that I set a precedent. What makes me really proud is that the trials are ongoing, successful convictions are taking place, and people are serving sentences.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: BPR Interviews: Dr. Joyce BandaBrown Political Review(November 13, 2016)
“Corruption is an issue every leader must tackle, not only in Africa, but globally. [What] African countries can do to become independent is that we must insist that what we want is fair trade. It’s not going to be about aid, but trade. Western countries and Africa must work together. Support us and help us to produce, but also [help us] to add value so that we don’t export our jobs.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: BPR Interviews: Dr. Joyce BandaBrown Political Review(November 13, 2016)
“No, it’s not. In an African country, that’s very rare. What happens immediately after one leader leaves [is that] everything is turned around, whether it was good or not. It was me who kept those programs of my former late president that I felt benefited Malawians. Even as I’m talking to you now, the Presidential Initiative for Maternal Health has been abolished [and Malawi has] moved up again from 460 [deaths per 100,000 live births] to 510 [deaths per 100,000 live births].”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: BPR Interviews: Dr. Joyce BandaBrown Political Review(November 13, 2016)
“The legacy depends on how Malawians feel and what they say; it is not dependent on the actions of government.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: BPR Interviews: Dr. Joyce BandaBrown Political Review(November 13, 2016)
“Despite the Women, Peace and Security agenda as anchored in UN Security Council Resolution 1325 being in place for 25 years, women remain largely excluded from formal peace negotiations”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda tells world leaders: stop talking, start acting on women in Congo peace talksNyasa Times(September 22, 2026 )
“We have moved past the debate on why women should be included. The question now is how, with resources, protection and accountability”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda tells world leaders: stop talking, start acting on women in Congo peace talksNyasa Times(September 22, 2026 )
“Women constitute the majority of our population in Africa. Therefore, when we talk about poverty, suffering and underdevelopment, we are talking mostly of women. That’s why I believe that the promotion of gender equality, women’s empowerment, improvement of maternal health and achieving education for the girl child is a transformational strategy to achieving development.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The case for women’s leadership: Joyce BandaWomen's World Banking(August 5, 2013)
“It is important that women’s needs, aspirations and realities become central drivers of policies and programmes to increase maternal health care access and utilisation. Women must be empowered and have to be actively involved in all decisions related to their health and well being. As I have said many times before in different forums, we cannot talk about empowering a particular group without involving the group itself. No decisions should be made about women without women’s involvement.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The case for women’s leadership: Joyce BandaWomen's World Banking(August 5, 2013)
“But I am able to carry it. Why? Because I'm an African woman. An African woman carries heavy loads anyway. That's how we are trained; we are brought up that nothing is unbearable. I use that now, positively. I use that now to have the thick skin that I have, and not fear, and move forward, and push; and push forward”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“I was getting into the car when somebody called me and said the president has collapsed. That whole day on the 5th [of April], I didn't know that he had died. I thought he was in hospital. I even phoned the first lady that evening to wish him a quick recovery. I was then informed in that conversation that he was being taken to South Africa to hospital. I didn't know that he had been dead seven hours.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“The following day it was on the BBC, and it was at that point that I heard that the cabinet was meeting at Capital Hill, choosing another president.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“In 48 hours, they tried to take over government and sideline me – and, by that, sideline the constitution. In that 48 hours, I fought for my rights.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“The turning point came when the army's commander supported her claim to the presidency. "I will forever be thankful to the Malawians and international community, and my professional army and army general, who said: 'No, we will follow the constitution.' That's why I'm here”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“I had come from [a previous] abusive marriage, and I had walked out of that marriage at a time when people didn't walk out of abusive marriages. As an African woman you were supposed to stay, regardless. So, I made up my mind that I must do something about this tradition of violence. I prospered very quickly. Very quickly, I became politically empowered. I was running my own business.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“I started to worry about other women. I sat down in 1989 and I made up my mind at that point that I was going to spend the rest of my life assisting women and youth to gain social and political empowerment through business and education. I convinced myself economic empowerment of women was going to be key, especially in a country like this where most women didn't go to school”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“My president wanted to remove me. He even wanted a constitutional review. My cars and my security had been withdrawn.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“I want Malawians, in 20 years, to look back, when we have depleted our resources, and say we had oil but we benefited. Our country became a better place for us to live in”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“Lula da Silva was my hero when he was president. I googled him so many times. The fact that he got 20 million people out of poverty … that happened by encouraging entrepreneurship, by supporting small business”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“We get aid from the west and we get, maybe, concessions and loans and grants from China. The west is obsessed about how things need to be done … We want to maintain this relationship with Britain. We need to maintain that relationship, but it is our sincere hope that the western world will understand that we are racing, too.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“We need to develop our nations.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“China doesn't keep us waiting for two years. China will decide today and will go ahead. The next day you sign, and work starts … so, the choice for Africa is: do I want to have a road next year, or do I want to stay for two years discussing about human rights and governance before we can even talk about the road?”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“I have, in fact, spent my life fighting for that. However, I get bothered when it is tied to development, because time is of the essence to Africa”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“I don't know how it's going to be in two years' time. I must do the best that I can. It's heavy on me, and I will try. If at the end of two years, we have run and run and done the best that we can ... then the people of Malawi say: "'No, we're not satisfied; we can't re-elect you', that's fine”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joyce Banda: 'I want Malawians to say our country became a better place'The Guardians(December 17,2012)
“I’ve spent my whole life on the development platform working in rural areas to try to change the lives of women and girls. My mission in life is to assist women and youth in social and political empowerment through business and education. So from 1981, what I have done is to find ways to enable my fellow women through economic empowerment.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Interview with Joyce Banda, Former President of MalawiThe Politic(August 6, 2017)
“What I see for us moving towards 2030, [in order] to achieve the sustainable development goals, is [assuring] that the men and women who have become leaders in their countries don’t shy away from tackling the ills that bring us down. One of them being corruption. I said this because I know it’s not easy. It’s difficult because when you tackle [corruption], they fight you back. The temptation on the part of any leader is to preserve the status quo and to cover all that up. But our people can live a better life and our people on the continent of Africa deserve better, Malawi included.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Interview with Joyce Banda, Former President of MalawiThe Politic(August 6, 2017)
“After 20 years of working in development and as a women’s and human rights activist, I was thinking of retiring at the age of 54. Then people in the community suggested that, rather than retiring, I should go to parliament where I could better represent them. For me, the motivation in taking up that opportunity was to be involved in influencing laws that have a big impact on women and children.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview: Malawi’s former President Dr Joyce Banda on life in politicsLSE(November24, 2014)
“Spending years working at the grassroots level in microfinance, orphan care and other things meant that by the time I decided to run for office, I had a big enough following to win easily. The main breakthrough was being appointed Minister of Women and Children. In essence, I knew then that I could achieve what had motivated me to go to parliament in the first place. Immediately, I started to prepare myself to take that role and one of the results was the Domestic Violence bill which we passed in 2006.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview: Malawi’s former President Dr Joyce Banda on life in politicsLSE(November24, 2014)
“In Malawi, our founding fathers gave politics the Chichewa name “ndale”. It means tripping someone up so that they can fall. It is a negative term that has psychologically affected us negatively. The understanding of politics for any Malawian is that when you enter politics standing in each other’s way, pushing and letting rivals trip and fall. That is a wrong starting point. When you enter politics, you realise you are on a different playing field altogether.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview: Malawi’s former President Dr Joyce Banda on life in politicsLSE(November24, 2014)
“I had been a human rights activist, I had run NGOs in Malawi as do many other people, and we formed networks and supported one another. I went from this supportive atmosphere to politics where insults were bandied about. And it is worse when you are a woman. You hear it so often that you actually get used to it. It is as if you accept that this is ok when in reality it is not. For me, this was the biggest obstacle particularly as it can slow you down.”
Joyce Banda (born 1950) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview: Malawi’s former President Dr Joyce Banda on life in politicsLSE(November24, 2014)