YouSaid · the spoken record

James Manyika

lines on the record: 60
first: 2025-01-13
most recent: 2025-01-13
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Oh, not at all. Not at all, Alistair, because I remember when I was in primary school, there were all these kids around me who were extraordinarily brilliant and very bright. Now, you know, I often laugh when people say to, oh, you must have been the smartest, brightest kid in your school, in your country. I said, no, no, no, no, no, no. There are all these kids around me who are extraordinarily bright. I just think I probably got lucky in the sense that I got lucky to get access to places and people who inspired me. I was certainly not the smartest kid at all. My friends from that time often remind me of this, about the fact that they used to come top of the class and all of that.”
2025-01-13 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 116. Is AI the answer to human suffering? (James Manyika) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now what I mean by the other side, my father had been extraordinarily lucky. He actually got one of the early Fulbright fellowships and he'd actually studied in America before I was born. So his experiences often had given me a bit of, as I was growing up, a glimpse of what was possible on the other side. I would also get similar glimpses. I remember there's a man, Mr. Jinjell. I remember his name very well. He's a friend of my father. He used to work at Longman's, the publishers. I remember he did something that gave me another glimpse. He took me once to the Queen Victoria Memorial Library. So the Queen Victoria Memorial Library was actually only for white kids. And I remember there was a huge incident because he was being asked, why are you bringing this black kid to this library? By the way, they're not allowed to take any books or let them in just to look around. So I'd always have these occasional glimpses.”
2025-01-13 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 116. Is AI the answer to human suffering? (James Manyika) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Terrifying that again, along with the occasional police raids. But at the same time, you know, I was going to school. As I said, that's all I knew. So I went to local township school. And I remember that very well. I mean, it was a very unusual setting because at the same time all these few glimmers of hope in the sense so for example in my township in Barrow we used to have this extraordinary swimming pool called the George Hartley swimming pool which somebody had decided to build this extraordinary swimming pool in the township so I remember I used to spend most of my weekends swimming at the pool at the George Hartley swimming pool and we'd also go to see films at Stuttgart Hall where we used to see all these incredibly extraordinary American films so it was a very interesting childhood I would also say it was also interesting”
2025-01-13 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 116. Is AI the answer to human suffering? (James Manyika) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A lot of the actual fighting that was being done by as part of the liberation movement was actually not so much in the cities, in the townships as primarily in the rural areas in the outlying districts. So often what would happen is young people would often disappear from the townships to go off to fight the war and they would actually go off and across to Zambia or to Mozambique to join the liberation struggle. And then most of the fighting was actually happening in the farming communities in the eastern part of the country. A lot of what was going on in the township was mostly kind of turmoil and uprisings and those kinds of things, not so much the actual fighting itself.”
2025-01-13 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 116. Is AI the answer to human suffering? (James Manyika) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So that's when they put a tire on somebody's neck because they're supposed to, they're considered a collaborator or a sellout. Because in the township, remember, we also used to have obviously very politically active people and communities in the township would be organizing meetings and rallies. And often Shabines were actually the place where some of those political discussions took place. So often Shabenes, where rated not just because of the alcohol, but also because they'd often be political meetings going on in those places.”
2025-01-13 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 116. Is AI the answer to human suffering? (James Manyika) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, well, often people will be playing music. There were no televisions at the time. Television was a very rare commodity in the township in the seventies. So there would be a lot of music, a lot of people coming to hang out. In fact, there's a famous song called Cochian, which was actually done by Humor Sakela. And PK was made very famous, actually, by Louis Armstrong, because Louis Armstrong came to Rhodesia in the 70s and heard this song and decided to make a song about it. So the shepines were very fascinating. At the same time, I remember one thing that has left me pretty scarred was, and I remember this struck me as very odd at the time, seeing somebody actually necklaced.”
2025-01-13 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 116. Is AI the answer to human suffering? (James Manyika) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, so Shabin is typically a house where alcohol is sold, often illegally, and often there's an illegal brood that's made called Cokiana, which is a very, very potent illegal brew. And occasionally those would also get raided occasionally by the police”
2025-01-13 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 116. Is AI the answer to human suffering? (James Manyika) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Some people are supposed to stay in the rural areas, so there'd be these occasional raids at night and police patrols. It was also fascinating because I remember next door to us is a Shabin. It had all the kind of political turmoil, but also the kind of the societal excitement and things that went on in townships in those days, where you'd see policemen would come to the Shabin next door, kind of hipsters and others in the community.”
2025-01-13 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 116. Is AI the answer to human suffering? (James Manyika) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Mostly grew up in Harare, used to be called Salisbury at the time. And as you probably both know well, Rhodesia pretty much ran like an apartheid country. So I lived in a township now called Mbare. These were segregated townships. So I remember in the early 70s, I went to a segregated school, Chitsare Primary School. So I pretty much grew up in Bare. And I remember at the time growing up, on the one hand, it was all I knew, so it felt normal at some level because that's all I knew. But at the same time, I remember, you know, several things that are still stuck in my mind, the occasional police raid. It used to happen in that in those days, occasionally the police would come in and raid houses to make sure the people who were staying there were supposed to be there because you're supposed to live in townships, but also”
2025-01-13 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 116. Is AI the answer to human suffering? (James Manyika) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Thank you for having me, Rory, and Alice Servantilla to be here. I've been a huge fan of this program for a very long time.”
2025-01-13 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 116. Is AI the answer to human suffering? (James Manyika) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source