It is so amazing to see the leaders of our countries gathered together in this small venue, 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 fortunate to be amongst the next presidents, ministers, MP’s, businessmen and women, religious leaders and activists for human rights and democracy. I must say that if I were to be given a pen and paper, I would ask for your autographs.
Ladies and gentlemen let me take this opportunity to greet every soul in this house and say good evening.

Before I share my SAWIP experience, let me start by doing justice to this house and start from the beginning,

So let me begin.

I am a seed, planted in the lands of the Eastern Cape in the rocky and green soil of the Umtata region. In a small rural land, opposite the amampondo village. Surrounded by a beautiful river, the Umtata dam. These are the same rivers that our people used for cooking and drinking.
As a seed, I was watered by the beautiful heavy rains of Azania “South Africa”, and warmed by the hot temperatures of my native land.

Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Ayanda surname is Gladile. I was born and raised in the Nonkobe village, in the Eastern Cape Province. Raised by a single parent and being the eldest of 5, the first in the family to go to university, the first to walk the foreign lands external the borders of Africa.

This brings me to a powerful quote in my country that says “South Africa, alive with possibilities” but again before I share my SAWIP experience let me take this opportunity to thank every individual who has contributed to the growth of this program, the board of directors, the hosts families, the management teams, the alumnus and every supporter of the program.

If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have walked the foreign lands outside the borders of my continent, if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have lived in Bethesda- at Kent bury drive, if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have worked at the council for a community of democracies, I wouldn’t have been at the white house, I wouldn’t have met the congressmen, I wouldn’t have had lunch at 5 guys, burger king and I wouldn’t have had coffee at star bucks,

but most of all I wouldn’t have had this wealth of knowledge I learnt from each and every individual I have engaged, the group discussions we had, the debates, the speeches and the wonderful speakers we interacted with and I’m standing here today confirming that “South Africa is alive with possibilities” and opportunities will come to those who seek.

It was on a Tuesday evening, on the 31st of March earlier this year when I was informed that I am part of the South Africa Washington Internship Program. I was at the computer lab, exhausted by the long lecture classes I had, I sat on my chair, not moving a muscle, except for my eyelids reading the emailed letter repeatedly and I couldn’t believe it. I sat quietly looking at the letter and as I was sitting, facing the computer, I started to imagine a land I have never seen before with my naked eye except for what is portrayed on TV.

As I was sitting, my mind took me to the land of great leaders who inspire me, the fathers of pan Africanism Dr. W E B Dubois, human rights warrior Martin Luther King, the vocal Malcom X and the greatest American – president Lincoln. But as I was sitting on my chair, I thought about the relationship I had created at the selection camp with these young intelligent leaders and I saw how big and how strong it was but most of all,

I saw the language diversity, Afrikaans, English, Sotho and Xhosa. I looked at the difference in our pigmentation and I saw that the colour of our faces, our arms, our legs and our hands were different from each other and the silkiness and the roughness of our hair was different from one another but when I looked at how we interacted at the orientation camp and how we managed to build a promising relationship despite the racial identifications, I knew that each and every one of us has a story to tell.

It is amazing to see that this group of 12 is a true reflection of the cultural diversity, the stories we tell is true reflection of the current state of the nation and I knew that, their story, my story make our south African story. As I was sitting on my chair, facing the computer screen my mind miles away, I could hear a voice calling repeatedly saying “students, students, the lab is closed”.

I stood up, walked out of the empty room and as I was walking to my room I started to think about the relationship I had created with my first white Afrikaner friend, Petrus Van Nie Kerk and I knew that what we had created at the selection camp was a foundation of a castle we will continue to build until our bodies are taken to a place of rest, and today when I wake up, taking a shower, having breakfast and walking to the subway I have a friend by my side, a brother, Nick Crosby, who wakes me up in the morning to make sure that I’m early for work, Petrus whom I ask sometimes to pray with me when I’m feeling down, and this to me is something foreign, something I had never experienced and something I never thought it would happen.

As a young boy growing up in the hills of Umtata and later in the sharks of Khayelitsha, I listened to the stories of my people about how they were treated by the apartheid government, how they were made to believe that they are inferior to the other, how they were made to live a life of poverty, because their wealth was dispossessed hundreds of years ago, how they were deprived opportunities and how the Bantu Education insulted their intelligency. It was in 1999 I met a man, Zandile Khonkwana, a step father to me and a father of my half and youngest sister, he was a very strong poqo member, went into exile and got training in Namibia as a soldier of APLA (Azanian People’s Liberation Army) the military wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, but he died on the same year after being stabbed 2 times in the heart, and my sister at that time was a fetus, growing inside my mothers womb, she never got a chance to see this warrior who fought for the liberation of Azania so that she will have the opportunity to better education, equal respect and dignity in Azania but this man told me one thing he said “M – Afrika, I am very angry at the Boers for what they did to us but to live in the past wont take us anywhere, join the revolution and fight for your people for a better future”.

As a child, I developed anger towards the Afrikaner community. I joined the Pan Africanist Congress because I believed that our wealthy land is in the hands of the foreigners, and all my life I never thought I would have an Afrikaner friend, a man I have built brotherhood relationship with, I never thought I would create a relationship with white people because I saw them as the bad guys. It was only when I was at university when I had an Afrikaner lecture Proff F de Villiers, who taught me customary law and legal systems, a very nice humble man who would give us extra marks for consultation, standing in front of me everyday and teaching me about the law that I started to realize that anger will segregate me from a united South Africa. Instead of throwing stones at people, let me unite and repair what has been broken by our parents, grandparents, great grand parents and so forth. And today when I think of Proff Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe’s words saying “Africa for Africans…and to be African is not to be too white to be black or too black to be white but it is to owe your being and loyalty to the development and prosperity of the continent” he continues to say “this is because we believe that there’s only one race and that is the human race and that god has created in his own image”.

Today the relationship I have created with the people I thought were my enemies cannot be described, it was my first time in my life having dinner on the same table with white people at the orientation camp, it was my first time being given a ride by an Afrikaner boy Udo Heldeberg, its my first time living with white people on the same house, my host mother Daria Zane, my host brother Nick Crosby and being employed by a white man Mr. Bob Robert La Gamma and my sisters Samantha Ball and Emma Margetts who runs a non for profit organization which focuses on educating and empowering my own people in black townships to start their own businesses. And when I look at them today and the work they are all doing in poor communities, I feel angry at myself for seeing my own brothers and sisters as my enemies.

and today I’m appealing to the board of directors, the host families, the SAWIP supporters and the work supervisors to open doors to the Ireland and South African interns to share our stories because at the end of the day they make us heal and unite. If it wasn’t for SAWIP I wouldn’t have had this strong relationship with my white African brothers and sisters and I know for a fact that I’m not the only one who felt like this, there’s an ocean of young and old people who still feel the same way I did and it is programs like these that will make a change in our societies. This ladies and gentlemen is my story.

Thank you.