Africa: Past Dreams and My Future

by Ajarat Bada

It is 06.30 on a Monday morning and the routine remains the same for my sister – an engineering graduate who walks through the streets of Lagos in search of employment with her CV in hand. At this point, any job will do!

It is 7.30pm and we are still playing soccer, it’s the only legitimate distraction for our empty stomachs.

It is 10.30pm and my brother is still on the streets peddling. If his school fees are not paid, he will not be able to write his final secondary school exams.

This is our Africa.

My elementary school social studies teacher was a history buff. We called him a story-teller and were excited when he showed up for lessons. He taught us to draw the map of Africa with pride as he told us tales of what he described as the golden age of our continent. I looked forward to the tales of Africa post-colonialism, in the times of Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Nnamdi Azikiwe and the other great leaders of our continent. Mr. Suleiman, my teacher, described what politics arena used to look like in the motherland. We heard tales of petrol costing peanuts per litre and once upon a time one US dollar could be exchanged for four Naira in my own Nigeria!

He taught us to be proud of this heritage. My teacher was a tall, proud Ghanaian. He reminded us to always hold our heads up high wherever we went: “never let anyone put you down”, as my friend would say, “you are an AfriCAN, be proud!”

I am proud… but I feel the need to be part of something greater than our history!

The day I was born, Mandela was on Robben Island. When he became President in 1994, I was still in elementary school. I clearly understood the nuisance apartheid had made of the civil liberties of black South-Africans. I am glad that I have grown to appreciate what his freedom meant not just to South Africa but to the continent as a whole.

Deep in my heart, I have always felt this special connection to South Africa and its caliber of altruistic leaders like Desmond Tutu. Archbishop Tutu is a man who has spent his better years fighting for the Africa of his and our dreams. The Africa that never was or perhaps the Africa that is yet to be.

Barack Obama, birth certificate in hand, is also part of this heritage of mine. We have not only been able to emancipate ourselves from slavery but we have also been able to rise above the odds and rule the first world. I am told to be proud of this fact as well.

I am proud… but I need to be part of something greater than the present!

Our present AfriCAN leaders brought to reality the Africa of Nyerere’s, Nkruma’s and Azikiwe’s dreams. We have the potential to bring to reality the dreams of Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. I dare to dream of my own Africa.

Some argue that the golden age of our continent has come and gone. I have come to the conclusion that this age for Africa is still in front of me.

I am yet to fulfill the dreams of our present leaders,

I am yet to right the wrongs in Africa,

I am yet to make a mark in her history,

I am yet to write her history for my own students,

I am yet to have dreams of Africa of my own,

But, I am ready to be part of her future,

Ask my ego and she’ll tell you I was born ready, I am an AfriCAN!

Ajarat Bada is a One Young World Ambassador from Nigeria and an UN ECOSOC representative for the United Religions Initiative. She is the founder of the Missing Millennium Development Goal initiative. She works as a Public Health Nurse in Riverside, California.