“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela (1990)
As I wake on the morning of the 16th of June 2021, my first thoughts go back to the Individuals who took the decision to mobilize as a united force to claim their Equal right to Education.
Waking up in darkness, getting dressed in their School uniforms, they couldn’t have known the extent of the struggle they would find themselves in that day.
45 Years later, our beautiful children, parents and communities find themselves in a Generational State of Disaster.
Whilst this struggle bears a different face to that of 1976, it is no less real or life threatening. A struggle where those veterans who managed to get enough of an education to put their children through tertiary education as the saviors and beacons of the family, only to find they too have to take to the streets as Graduates and Alumni without work or application for their knowledge.
But we wake up still. As individuals, we wake up, we get up. We Move! You! The Youth!
As Individuals, we may not need to take to the streets necessarily, but we do need to take our best clothes and put them on. Stand tall and take a good look at ourselves! Inside you exists the same power and conviction and courage as those youth of 1976!
Ghandi famously spoke to “Be the change you most want to see in the world”.
Today I urge you to not look back on 1976 and see loss
Look back today and see Power! See the strength of conviction of the Youth of 1976! Please, I urge you to look back and see the courage and the conviction of those children, they KNEW they deserved better and so do YOU!
They became the change they want to see for their world, their community. That day a conscious decision was made that they would take hold of their future and do SOMETHING that would benefit them tomorrow, next year and their children. Us! They fought for the weapon Nelson Mandela urged us take hold of; our own capacity for knowledge and application!
Furthermore, Africa boasts the youngest average population in the world and boasts natural resources second to none. In addition, the continent also boasts opportunity not seen anywhere else in the world, but the lack of education in this system has made us believe that it is out of our reach!
What RUBBISH! It is in your hand!!!
As a matter of fact, education nowadays bears a different face with online learning, e-learning platforms and blended learning becoming a part of our day-to-day vocabulary. We have more access to information now than what the students in 1976 could ever dream of having. In your hand, you carry not a cellphone, but a portal to millions and millions of minds and experiences. Now, you have access to education and also have access to more opportunities to mobilize various resources, beyond your current circumstances with a prosperous change of not only your World but also the World of your children and grand children.
You are surrounded by education
Get Up. Take a walk in your Community today, wherever you may find yourself. Look around you. The fences. The houses. The bricks, the paint, the plaster, the corrugated roofing. Well, that is money in the form of physical assets. For instance, someone mined iron, sold it at a profit whereas someone else made steel, sold it at a profit. And afterwards, another person bought steel and turned it into a roof sheet, sold it as a profit generating product. The next person bought those roof sheets, added it to a house.
And that is another product sold for a profit. Then, a person bought the house. And later on, the owner of the house acquired tenants, and managed to create another profit generating product. The roof springs a leak, someone comes in and offers a profit generating product or service. Truth being told, you are surrounded by money on a daily basis.
Now take a quiet moment of silence please, for those brave and beautiful souls that were lost, hurt and traumatized on this day 45 years ago.
The Youth of 2021 thank you for your martyrdom. You made a difference in our lives. You were the change that helped us grab hold of that lethal weapon of education and use that knowledge to create Generational Wealth.
