Last weekend I read Winnie Mandela's auto-biography titled 'part of my soul went with him' published in 1985. The book revealed a young woman's determination to save her country, but also to preserve the essence of marriage, family and community.
In the book, Winnie questions religion, addresses the role of religion in the propagation of colonialism and shared her own role in the fight against aparthied. The book was so captivating, I could not put it down until I had finished reading it. Winnie's story is a must read. It presents one lesson for me, and that of resillience, determination and consistency with one's principles. She, by her stand on white domination demonstrated the 'ubuntu' spirit. I am sure that she could have choosen a different path, like to leave South Africa or accept a negotiated 'release,' but she decided to stay the course.
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Both the lives of Winne and Nelson Mandela present enormous lessons that this generation of young people can take on board as we navigate the murky waters of African 'liberation' from poverty. This is a real battle that must be won, and it can only happen when African young take their stand and insist that the right things be done by the political elite. In the South African struggle, the line was clear, white minority versus black majority. In most of Africa, it is the case of a black elite versus the black majority poverty stricken population. Hopefully, young Africans will mobilise mass movements everywhere accross the continent and ask for CHANGE!
This was the main theme of my paper 'for the love of country' to be presented at the meeting of Nigerian students at the University of East Anglia, which I unfortunately missed. Nigeria is in dare need of change! Our president has been away leaving a power vacuum and the political elite seem comfortable in maintaining the status quo; a young Nigerian attempted to blow-up an airliner, and all our image makers and foreign relations heads can focus on is the removal of Nigeria from the list of terror nations (without proactively addressing the possible underlying causes for radicalisation- unemployment, a poor education system, a poor health system and lack of access to almost all things basic). I was to encourage the Nigerian students to start to engage the system through the embassy in London, and through the various government institutions in Abuja. To encourage them to focus inwards and address the issues affecting young people. Nigerian youth wherever they are need to act, demand change and provide alternative solutions to solve our country's problems. The time to act is NOW or NEVER!
Posted at: 06:45 PM | Add Comment
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