It is so amazing to see the future leaders of our countries gathered together in this small town, drafting policies in their minds, planning the future of their countries and engaging in issues that affect their people.

I must say that I am proud to be amongst the next presidents, the next ministers, the next religious leaders, the next scholars, the next businessmen and women and the next activists of democracy and human rights. If I were to be given a pen and paper, I would ask for your autographs. This brings me to a quote by a novelist that says “it is correct to say that plants of today were seeds yesterday”.

It was not long ago when our parents were planning to start families. It was not long ago when we were conceived, it was not long ago when we were born in this beautiful and yet cruel world. It was not long ago when we were beautiful toddlers in our mother and fathers arms; yes it was not long ago when our relatives, siblings, family friends and family work colleagues were giving us beautiful gifts and presents on our first birthdays. On this day, I confirm that “it is indeed correct to say that plants of today were seeds yesterday”

Yesterday we were toddlers facing a challenge of learning to say Dada, yesterday you were faced with a challenge of learning to stand and walk, yesterday we were faced with a challenge of learning to survive without our mothers when they had to go to work. Yes it is indeed correct to say that “plants of today were seeds yesterday”.

Yesterday we were infants, blossoming like beautiful flowers in the early morning of spring. Shinning like stars in the midnight of summer and as we were growing up, we survived the harsh realities of this beautiful and yet cruel world. We witnessed our fellow Africans dying in the street of Cape Town, Harare, Addis Ababa, Accra, Lagos and Cairo because the devil has managed to inject evil thoughts and feelings in their hearts and minds.

We witnessed death as a product of political and economic conflict, Africans were angry at each other and no one wanted to take the blame for the current state of the nation. We witnessed the rate of the economy declining. The government had no money and the unemployed had no income. The unemployed had no income therefore the unemployed had no food. The unemployed had no food therefore the unemployed could not feed their families. The unemployed had no food and poverty claimed their lives.

It was at this time that we started witnessing elders in the community wearing black suites, black shoes, and black hats singing sad songs, lifting up high caskets heading to the “place of rest” because they had no choice but to do so.

It is at this time that we started witnessing our fellow African brothers and sisters in Rwanda slaughtering each other because they couldn’t live as neighbors, friends and work colleagues. We witnessed our fellow African brothers and sisters in South Africa, segregating and shooting each other because they believed that the other is too black to be white and the other is too white to be black.
We witnessed our fellow African brothers and sisters in the former Rhodesia killing each other because they couldn’t reach a consensus, we witnessed again our fellow African brothers and sisters in the new Zimbabwe hating and assaulting each other because of some unresolved political issues. Leaders turning against each other because the one felt that he was betrayed by the other.
As infants, we witnessed other infants and toddlers of Ethiopia going to sleep forever because poverty has terminated their contracts of life. And because their mommies and daddies had no money to buy them caskets, the government thought it was better to just throw them in a bare hole.
Yes “it is indeed correct to say that plants of today were seeds yesterday”. If I were to tell you what you have witnessed then it would take me a decade or two. These have been the decades you have witnessed and experienced things. These have been the decades you have lost some friends, families because a man named Mr. Crime decided to rob their lives and again, if I were to tell you, it will take me another decade or two.

Perhaps the question we need to ask is the question of what has gone wrong in our communities. Everyday when we turn on the T.V we are being told by reporters, journalist that our currency has declined. We told that our education system is too poor to educate its own people. We told that our people are living under bridges, in sharks and in under developed houses. We being told that company X has closed and X amount of people have lost their jobs but most of all, we being told that millions and millions of people across Africa are infected with HIV and the government has no money to buy them Anti Retrovirals.

I think we have witnessed too much and comrade Martin Luther King says “now is the time”. Our nations have been blessed by a wealth of leadership. We have experienced and witnessed enough. Now is the time we start doing something. We have heard the cries of our African brothers and sisters in Rwanda; we have heard the grumbling empty stomachs of our younger brothers and sisters in Ethiopia. We have heard our people crying in the Middle East asking for a more democratic nation. We have heard the cries of our brothers and sisters in the Democratic Republic of Congo asking for international aid.

If we haven’t heard any of these cries then we are denying reality. If we haven’t heard any of these cries then we not what we claim to be. If we haven’t heard any of these cries then we not true Africans.
On this day my fellow African brothers and sisters allow me to say, we are the sons and daughters of the soil. This is the soil that has raised warrior men and women who fought and died in the wars of resistance. Warrior men and women who fought and died in the Anglo Boer war, Warrior men and women who fought against the apartheid regime. Warrior men and women who fought for liberation of the African people from Cape to Cairo, Morocco to Madagascar.

We are the sons and daughters of the rivers, the same rivers that our great grand fathers used for drinking and cooking. The beautiful rivers of our continent, flowing from northern Africa to the southern part of our land.

We are the sons and daughters of the mountains, we are protected by our ancestors living in the mountains and caves as Lions, Tigers, ingwenya and Umajola. As Africans, we should be proud of our multi cultural communities, nature reserves and villages, which the whole worlds want to see.

We are the custodians of our rich African land, and today I am proud to say that Africa belongs to all who owe their being and loyalty to the development and prosperity of our continent. From Cape to Cairo, Morocco to Madagascar, Afrika for Africans and to be African is not to be too black to be white or too white to be black. This is because we believe that there’s only one race and that is human race and that god has created us in his own image.

As Africans we have to eradicate the walls of segregation, liberate the nation - liberate Afrika. We have a role to play, we have communities to build, we have policies to draft, we have a country to run and we have a continent to build.

Comrade Thabo Mbeki says “We need to accelerate the process of development, to an extent that when we report at the end of the day, we will be able to say, confidently and without any contradictions, that the lives of our people, are better than they were yesterday”.

As the young African intelligentsia, comrade Steve Biko says “we need to unite, so as to go forth, and exercise our power in an open and democratic society, rather than to use our power in some obscure parts of the Kalahari”.
Yes I confirm, “It is indeed correct to say that, plants of today were seed yesterday”

a friend of mine Udo once told me that as Africans, “we are truly an embodiment of the African dream that no matter our backgrounds may also be, if we have the will and the right attitude, many things can go in the right direction and the great one will also guide us always on our paths”.

To be continued…