Essay: Nina Said

Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Nina Simone was born on February 21, in 1933. My love for her is boundless.

For several years, on this day, I’ve shared on social media some of my favourite things that Nina Said in appreciation and respect. I’ve collected them here in one place.

In a 1999 episode of BBC HARDtalk, Tim Sebastian asked Nina Simone “Tell me about music as a political weapon.” Here’s what Nina said:

Asked “So you sing from anger?” Nina said “I sing from intelligence.”

On her friendship with playwright Lorraine Hansberry, Nina said: “Lorraine started off my political education, and through her I started thinking about myself as a Black person in a country run by white people and a woman in a world run by men.”

On September 15, 1963, a bomb killed 4 young Black girls Birmingham, AL. Nina said: “I had it in my mind to go out and kill someone...I didn’t yet know who, but someone I could identify as being in the way of my people.” She wrote Mississippi Goddam in an hour

“When they killed those children is when I said ‘I have to start using my talent to help Black people...When they killed those little girls in Alabama, that’s when I changed,”In the mid-1960s

Vernon Jordan, the head of the Urban League, asked Nina Simone how come she wasn’t ‘more active in civil rights’.

“Motherfucker, I am civil rights,” Nina said.

“The first time I wore my hair African was after Pastel Blues...It reflected black pride, and that’s when I changed it. I identified a lot with Africa, and learned what they did, and started wearing my hair in an Afro,” Nina said.

“All my songs, the important ones, have razor cuts, I call them, at the end. I cut you, I make you think and it’s immediate... When any Black woman hears that song, she either starts crying or she wants to go out and kill somebody,” Nina said about her song Four Women“

“I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear!” Nina said

Nina Simone is revolution!

What an incredible legacy she left us.

I am spending today listening to and celebrating her.

What are your favourite Nina Simone songs?

Thank you for reading my essay. You can support my work by:

• Hitting the heart button so that others can be intrigued and read

• Upgrading to a paid subscription to support FEMINIST GIANT

• Opting for a one-time payment via buying me a coffee

• Sharing this post by email or on social media

---

Mona Eltahawy is a feminist author, commentator and disruptor of patriarchy. She is editing an anthology on menopause called Bloody Hell!: Adventures in Menopause from Around the World. Her first book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution (2015) targeted patriarchy in the Middle East and North Africa and her second The Seven Necessary Sins For Women and Girls (2019) took her disruption worldwide. It is now available in Ireland and the UK. Her commentary has appeared in media around the world and she makes video essays and writes a newsletter as FEMINIST GIANT.

I appreciate your support. If you like this piece and you want to further support my writing, you can like/comment below, forward this article to others, or send a gift subscription to someone else today.