Carlos's Sheep

The ‘Sheep Experiment’

‘A scientist put a herd of sheep in line. He then placed a stick in front of them, two feet from the ground. The first sheep came and jumped over the stick. The second did the same. After the third sheep, he removed the stick.

To his surprise, when the fourth sheep came, it jumped over an imaginary stick. Every sheep thereafter jumped over this imaginary stick. Their minds were fixed on a stick; they never realised it had been removed.’

In Africa, we have been jumping over imaginary sticks for many years. Since colonial times, our fathers were trained to jump and we are following them. External powers have set targets for our leaders to jump over and they are happy jumping. Because we are following them, we are also jumping. We are like the fourth or the fifth sheep. At least our leaders can see the stick. They know why they are jumping. But we are busy jumping, blindly using their standard.

This what mean when we talk of being a subject. A subject is someone who has limited rights and obligations beyond loyalty to the Master. Being a citizen and civic competence is the ability to think before you jump over the stick, whether it is imaginary or real. The ability to think about why we are jumping, and decide whether it is the best time to jump or not.

-Shared by Carlos Sanvee at the Opening Ceremony of the Africa Youth Summit 2009