Once upon a time, in a marshy swamp somewhere, the frogs wanted a king. After much consultation, they sent a petition to God saying, “Mighty one, send us a king who will rule over us and keep us in order”.
God laughed at the request and dropped a huge log into the swamp. At first, the frogs were horrified by this ‘monster king’. They grovelled and worshipped him. But with time, they discovered that the log was motionless.
He said nothing, did nothing and saw nothing. This frustrated them. Then the bravest of the frogs moved towards it and touched it with great fear. It did not move or strike back.
Days later, the “frog leader” in the kingdom climbed on the log and started dancing and jumping all over it. It did not move. Seeing this, all the other frogs mounted the log and danced their heads off on it. Still, it did not move.
That my fellow youth is our real problem: we have a huge log for our competence. We are motionless!! We are saying NOTHING, doing NOTHING and seeing NOTHING regarding the position and competence of young people in the continent. We have been told we are the leaders of tomorrow, the real change. But once we occupy the small space provided for us, we become dormant and bring no change! And this, therefore, causes our elders to ‘mount over us’ and ‘dance their heads off on us’. They misuse us for their own personal and political benefits. We need to stop this frustration and misuse from our so called ‘leaders’. We need to rise up and take action. We need to be the epitome of change in our continent.
The Youth Summit is our time and our chance to bring change and make a difference in our continent. At the Summit in Addis, young people shall be empowered to SAY something about the current position of young people in the continent, DO something to bring transformation of young people, and SEE something about the future of the youth in Africa.
YOU DONT WANT TO MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY TO RISE UP AND TAKE ACTION!
Wangeci Kago
Africa Alliance of YMCAs
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