It is Africa Day today, and the headline - for those who oppose street name changes and other forms of transformation, is from Thabo Mbeki's 1996 I am an African speech.
There is a version of the I am an African speech on youtube with pretty pictures.
Oh - Africa Day, because the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) now the African Union (AU) was formed on 25 May 44 years ago.
The spirit of that era is typified by one of the OAU founders, the African visionary, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah: “The Independence of Ghana is meaningless without the total Independence of Africa. We as Ghanaians are prepared to surrender our national sovereignty in part or in total in pursuit of African unity”.
In the past month I've taken a few photos around Durban, just during the normal course of my day. I think when one looks at these you can see why I celebrate today in spirit with millions of other Africans across the globe because I believe there is a new generation of leaders coming up though the ranks and that there is hope for our continent.
Whatever the setbacks of the moment, nothing can stop us now!Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall be at peace!
However improbable it may sound to the skeptics, Africa will prosper!
Whoever we may be, whatever our immediate interest, however much we carry baggage from our past, however much we have been caught by the fashion of cynicism and loss of faith in the capacity of the people, let us err today and say - nothing can stop us now!
Happy Africa Day to all.
Watch the I am an African speech on YouTube
1 comment:
Every day I am proud to be African; and that's not just sentiment - just look up at the sky - and see why!
Unfortunately I am sad to be African too – as I see people spinning past important issues – for political prowess.
I work in a NGO InternAfrica.org – which focuses solely on housing in the Cape. Daily I post on the habitat crisis, read it for more pressing problems
But as an example – in Mannenburg there are many low cost developments – where there are streets upon streets….
WITH NO NAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, now this may not appear to be a problem; but STOP.
PUT YOURSELF THERE
LIVE THERE FOR TWO YEARS
You are surrounded by ten suburbs without street names.
You Live in a twilight zone of weird directions and no one can find anyone – never mind post or other such stuff that might run your daily life…
Now what about spending all that money on RE-naming places….??????????
What about those lauded developments of the recent past – those poor bastards don’t know where they live?
Where’s the pride in that????????????????????
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