It’s Africa Youth Day today! Africa Youth Day aims to celebrate and recognise the African youth as a force for social, political, and economic change in their societies. There are tremendous positive contributions from young people on the continent and in the diaspora that provide hope for the future.
Drawing from Africa Youth Day, the African Union Commission dedicated November Month 2019 as Africa Youth Month with the theme 1 Million by 2021: Count me in! The 1 Million by 2021 campaign was launched in April 2019 by African Union Chairperson with the objective to reach a million young African people by creating opportunities for youth to actively and meaningfully contribute to the implementation of Africa’s Agenda 2063. University of Edinburgh’s students have responded to this campaign by starting Model African Union, a movement that will build on this new wave of young Africans in order to channel it towards the goals of the African Union.
However, before we celebrate this new wave of African youth, we should first evaluate if we even know who we are celebrating.
Do you about Bogolo Joy Kenewendo?
At 30 years old, she is Botswana’s Minister of Investment, Trade and is Botswana’s youngest minister. Before this appointment, she was the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on defence, security and foreign affairs. During her time as minister of Investment and Trade, she has been pushing for investment in transport and ICT infrastructure while providing incentives, such as competitive corporate tax rates for investors.
Did you know about her?
If not, there might be a reason. There is a cacophony around African youth that blinds us from the opportunities and current young role models branding the continent with innovation. We hear often: African youth is immigrant, violent, hungry, jobless, helpless, voiceless, and so forth. African youth has no value in this era where old leaders make news of corruption, power monopoly, and dictatorship. We listen to these so often that it shadows young leaders like Bogolo Joy Kenewendo who are actively fighting to bring the youth voice up. We even tend to forget that the revolutionary changes on the continent were brought by the youth. Young people are the ones who fought for independence. Burundian Independence Hero, Louis Rwagasore, was 29 at the time he was assassinated shortly before Burundi Independence. Patrice Lumumba was 29 when he was, unfortunately, assassinated as Prime Minister. Kwame Nkrumah, Sir Seretse Khama and Julius Nyerere were in their late 30s, early 40s.
This day is, therefore, to shatter the current negative single story about African youth and interrogate African youth potential. On this day, the Model African Union at the University of Edinburgh wants to engage everyone to focus on what African youth does and has always been doing best: change-making.
To do so, Model African Union at the University of Edinburgh will also leverage members’ skills in diplomacy, leadership, public speaking, high-level decision making, and solution-finding. We believe that African youth educated under the Model African Union umbrella will be the greatest leaders in Africa in the years to come. And this change is what keeps us excited, energized, and motivated! Again, the theme of November is “1Million by 2021: Count me in!” Can we count you in?
*An interesting fact about African Youth*
Africa has the youngest population in the world. If you read the article until this far, it means you are interested enough to search and find out what percentage African youth makes up from the continent’s population. Share with us! :)
Thanks
