Let’s walk the talk of S2C

By Gabriel Ofori Appiah, Ghana YMCA

Fellow citizens

It is a new season and a new day has risen and a star has shone…

The movie ‘Night John’, based on a novel by Gary Paulsen, tells the story of citizen transformation. Paulsen wrote that “Words are freedom”. The movie recounts the triumphant story of a 12-year-old slave called Sarny whose job was to serve at the label. When Night John, the new slave, arrives he teaches Sarny to read and write - a crime punishable by death. Actually, the slaves were being cheated and misused by their white masters because they were illiterate and did not know their rights. Sarny’s transformation, with the help of Night John, helped the slaves realise that were subjects. The letters and words of Night John proved to be freedom for the slaves. From this movie, it is clear that we need to know our rights before we can be successfully transformed from subject to citizen and that words (education) play an important role in this.

It takes a new start to keep a clear eye towards life’s end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God’s creature; what you are in His sight is what you are and nothing less. Then as Subject to Citizen, we must agree to voice out justice and freedom for the oppressed. Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received. We leave behind fading symbols of honour and trappings of power. And you takeonly what you have given: a fully enriched life with honesty, love, sacrifice and courage. So let’s walk the talk of S2C.

Let us climb these rungs on the ladder of success:

• PREPARE PRAYERFULLY

• PROCEED POSTIVELY

• PURSUE PERSISTENTLY and justice will arise in our homes, societies, regions and a country as a whole.

As Ambassadors, I believe we will spark the brain that will change the world, thus causing something to start or develop suddenly.

The words of Steve Biko ring clear for us in our S2C journey. He was the founder of the Black Consciousness movement, an anti-apartheid activist and he died for freedom in his country… a brutal death in detention. He said:

“It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is, if you realise that the only vehicles for change are these people who have lost their personality. The first step therefore is to make the black man come to himself; to pump back life into his empty shell; to infuse him with pride and dignity, to remind him of his complicity in the crime of allowing himself to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in the country of his birth.”

We are called for the Renaissance of Africa.

We are moving forward, we stand for the African Renaissance, S2C fire is burning, no shaking!