Caster's dreams more powerful than politics

When you really think about it, you realise that the success and achievement of gold-winning athlete Mokgadi “Caster” Semenya is more powerful than political speechifying.

In fact, this girl-woman should impress us for a totally different reason.

What this 18-year-old girl has shown is not only can a person be what they want to be, but that with dreams anything is possible.

It is more than 15 years into democracy and we still have African people, especially the youth, who still want to make excuses for their failures.

They blame not only apartheid, colonialism, racism and white people for their lack of achievement, but also attribute it to poverty, unemployment and alleged lack of delivery by the government.

I have no doubt that if anyone wanted to find excuses for their failure, they could find all sort of reasons outside of themselves.

Yet Caster, as she is popularly known, has shown that a person from the most under-developed and corrupt region in South Africa can become what she thinks.

This is despite the fact that on some days she would run on dirt roads without food.

But not withstanding that, she has gone on to become a toast of the country, the continent and the world simply through sheer resilience, focus, determination and hard work.

Her achievement should be regarded as an example that, at the end of the day, you are what you dream of becoming.

This is what her life should epitomise for us: a person’s success or lack thereof is the outward expression of their inward thoughts and dreams.

I do not think that enough attention and focus is being put on the real lesson that South Africans, especially from the so-called disadvantaged communities and history, can learn from the example of this girl-woman.

In fact, she should be turned into an ambassador of a much-needed philosophy to teach Africans that: “it does not matter where you come from; it is where you are going that is important.”

This is a philosophy that is eloquently expressed in the writings of Buddha, for instance, where he says: “The mind is everything; what you think you become.”

This same basic idea can be traced in the lives of countless people on earth, including many Africans who have transcended their so-called disadvantaged background and history.

Above all, even in the Bible, one finds the book of Proverbs saying, “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

This is what Semenya’s life declares to the people of this country.

Africans have to mature fast and be quick to let go of holding on to a past that is dead and gone — especially the apartheid legacy; to stop using it as an excuse for mediocrity and lack of achievement.

Semenya, from the under-developed Limpopo, presumably may have had very little support from the municipality, youth structures and political leadership of her region. What I mean is that most probably these people and organisations may not have been helpful in helping her acquire much-needed running shoes, tights, T-shirts or a water bottle for her training. She had to find her own way to do what she had to do.

This philosophy that a person’s life and character are the result of their own inmost thoughts, ambitions and dreams is what has helped her to be what she is today.

It all has to come from somewhere deep inside the individual.

Surely we cannot afford to have Africans, especially youth, continuing to blame apartheid, colonialism, racism, white people and alleged lack of delivery for their lack of achievement in life.

When you think about it, perhaps we do not need affirmative action for blacks to prove that they can compete equally with their peers from anywhere in the world. What is urgently needed is equal access to opportunity, especially for those — like Caster — who were born after 1990.

Few would dispute the fact that Semenya, whose father is only a grasscutter at Tshwane municipality, has been very poor in her life.

A family that is headed by a menial worker may have enough love and spiritual resilience, but this does not mean they had all the advantages other middle-class people count essential.

But despite that, Semenya started out with nothing to build on except what was within herself.

The thing about her is that, from a young age, she had known what she wanted to do and be.

She is a young woman who kept her dream, her ideal, everlasting before her and did not allow her circumstances and the challenges they impose to stop her from doing what she had to do.

Semenya is a young, gifted African girl-woman who has tried her best to live the life she imagined and, in the end, her dreams have become a source of pride for her people.

This can only happen when you stop blaming others for your failures, but go on to do what you need to do to achieve your own dreams as an individual.

This is supposed to be such an obvious and simple truth, which makes me wonder why Africans, especially politicians, want to blame colonialism and apartheid for everything when they are in charge.

It is time that Africans assumed responsibility for everything that happens to them, the good and the bad.