Week 4: July 14-July 20, 2024
I cannot believe it is almost time to go back home and plant the seeds that I have collected in the US. It seems like time has flown by in a speed of lightning, but I am grateful for it all. Even though I am dreading the travelling back because planes are not accessible particularly for those with mobility disabilities. On my way to the US, I spent 8 full hours in a soiled nappy because I simply could not access the bathrooms. Through all of that, I can’t help but be immersed in gratitude because I feel like it is a hack to a life of abundance.
During our session this week, Dr. Kwame Yeboah, one of our facilitators who specialises in sustainable community development, implored us to always question the status quo of how and why things are the way they are. Ask why and how America got to be how it is and why things work the way they do. This is important especially in advocacy work and building sustainable communities, because when you know the how and the why, you can replicate and learn from the best practices. Do not look at things at face value – understand them first.
He also shared with us that as change agents, and as young African leaders one of the most important factors is social capital, the networks, and the connections we build will one day be the ones that sustains us. People who are there, that you can count on.
In Africa homelessness is a choice because we have social capital. We have people who take us in when we have nothing. This again ties to the concept of Ubuntu that I have been writing about in the past weeks. He urged us to be agents of transformative development not agents of exploitation when we go back to Africa. If we choose the latter, then we will create poorer people.
To develop anything, we need the perspective of those who are being developed otherwise there is no true transformative development. This encompasses the notion of “Nothing About Us Without Us” which emerged as a rallying cry for activists fighting systematic oppression and enabling people with disabilities to take charge of decisions that impact their life. Since then, the idea has served as a cornerstone for the global disability rights movement’s efforts to ensure that people with disabilities are fully and equally included in society.
Another interesting observation while on the topic of sustainable community developments is the fact that Western societies are individualistic, I have been struggling with how people here totally dismiss your entire existence by not responding to greetings. Sometimes I had to pinch myself to remind me that yep, I am not a ghost, I am here, alive, visible, and real. People don’t greet each other here and this to me translates to people not really caring how each other is doing.
I cannot tell you how happy I am every time someone responds to a greeting because that reminds me of home and how we live in community – the interconnectedness, and the need for one another. For me I carry the lessons I was raised with everywhere I go. Kindness is always the first option and sometimes my only option even when faced with situations that do not require kindness. I am who I am today and move how I move in the world because someone was kind to me. My kindness is a means to pay it forward.
Dr. Kwame ended the session by sharing with us that we need to think about what kind of development we need in Africa and that Africans need to think about these five considerations:
1.Africa’s evolving socio-economic landscape.
2.African led development that is driven by Africans (African led-is not Africa alone.)
3.Build on Africa’s strengths and resources (Development is not abandonment.)
4.People centred and inclusive (Invest in people and offer opportunity for all to share in the gains
5. Environmentally friendly. So that we do not deplete the resource base and life sustaining services they provide.
I implore you as well to start thinking about these considerations to build the Africa we want, a positive Africa that leaves no one behind.
For more on my experiences, checkout this column every week and connect me on my socials:
