From one young African to the others

VITALIS HAUPINDI, GRADE 10 LEARNER AT ST. THERESE SECONDARY SCHOOL IN TSES WRITES:

(A speech delivered at the celebration of the Day of the African Child.)

You know nowadays when I look at Africa, many questions come to my mind and I say to myself what will happen if Kwame Nkrumah was to rise? What will happen if Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko were to rise? What will happen if Jomo Kenyata and Juluis Nyerere were to rise? What will happen if Kenneth Kaunda and Mulimu were to rise again to life?

With what type of Africa will they be confronted with?

When I look at this modern Africa I see an Africa where its young boys and girls only celebrate American music and not African. I see an Africa where its young boys are only interested in European football clubs like Liverpool and Barcelona but never interested in Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns.

What will happen if these Pan-Africanists were to rise back to life again? Will they be confronted by an Africa where we only celebrate Hollywood movies and not Bollywood or Nollywood? Will they be confronted by an Africa where even food has foreign names now? Even when we fry potatoes in Tses we call them French Fries.

Will they be confronted by an Africa were we youngsters are more informed about Donald Trump than about the great Kwame Nkrumah, and most indispensably, will they be confronted by an African child who only knows how to be spoon fed? Or will they be confronted by an Africa child who is so stubborn, ignorant and has lost his roots?

Will they be confronted by lazy African children who only knows how to wait for Europeans to come and invent solutions to our African problems and dilemmas? Will they be confronted by African children who do not know themselves and are filled with foolish pride?



MAKE AFRICA GREAT AGAIN

Today I am submitting to us that you young African boys and girls should change Africa. You guys should make Africa great again. You know if you speak to the great wise men of Africa like Prof. PLO Lumumba he will tell you that Africa is like a scare on the conscious of humanity. You young boys and girls are not going to change Africa by Facebooking, WhatsApping and Snapchatting.

We are a continent of 1 billion people. We are a continent with the most blessed resources on the planet and this begs the question: What are the youngsters in Africa doing about it?

Africa has been traumatized and remains traumatized today. We claim to have gained independence but our minds are still colonized. The new colonial project is alive and well in our brains. You know in critical times at critical moments in history it has always been the question of choice.

How can a continent so blessed have only young men and women with only one ambition and that is to go to the United States and Europe? Europe was not build by an army of angels. Europe was built and is still being built by young intellectuals like you and me.

I still recall very well what Prof. Patrick said at the 2017 African Fearless summit. There are only two ways in which Africa can sit at the table of Human Civilization. Africa can either be a diner or a waiter, but we young Africans must make sure that Africa sits down as a diner and not a waiter.

I am submitting to us that Africa is in the process of being subdued by other civilizations and we as African children must become ourselves and make a change individually.

Humanity can be better because you lived. So do the world and Africa a favour and be yourselves boldly, courageously and unapologetically.

Dear African Children, African Civilization is in our hands, so let's make the change while we can.