When we talk of the pan African Agenda, it is about more than a philosophy. More than a movement, we talk about a mindset. A dignified world view where all people of African extraction live in dignity, peace and prosperity. All three conditions being crucial ingredients.
Where the one can not exist without the other. There can be no real dignity where people are barely scrapping by to survive. Same as there can not be development in an environment where there is no peace.
Thus for the ideal we will call the pan African agenda to be realised the starting point is ownership of the resources. These are the natural resources around us,the resources within our immediate vicinity where we live.
The first and most important resource being land. Yes, our beautiful, very fertile continent with its conducive climatic regions for agriculture.
Even he who lives in a palace needs to eat, this inevitable reality of the human condition being essential to keeping the mind, body and soul together. It means he or she who owns the means to produce food is a king or queen to whom all others must pay a price to enjoy the most basic of essentials.
Hence the the subject of land has been emotionalised in certain circles where the arguement was that Africans are not capable of faming on a commercial scale. A myth meant to scare the natural owners of the resource from taking ownership of the land. That is a bare faced lie that has since been exposed through Zimbabwe's successful agrarian reform program. Which like a clarion as 1963 in a speech by Kwame Nkrumah at th founding of the Organisation of African Unity, is taking up its rightful position. It is not just going to be exporting maize as it traditionally used to, but will be adding wheat to its exports. The development finds resonance in a letter written by the honourable Dr Nkosazana Zuma from the future to the African icon Kwame Nkrumah. In the letter she mentions among other developments on the continent, successful agrarian reform. She mentioned then in a matter of fact manner and right now the reality, the evidence of the far sightedness of pan African leadership is there in Zimbabwe's successful agricultural sector.
The speech in 1963 and the letter written by Dr Nkosazana Zuma from the future speak of a singularity of mindset. That envisions Africa as it can be through harnessing of its natural resources not aid.
It is a singularity of a vision united int the reality that Africa has the resources. It has the intellectual capacity in its youth dividend to chart its own destiny.
Dr Nkosazana Zuma's letter from the future talks of other developments in infrastructure, development of science and technology. A revamped education system meant to produce creators of new wealth. Again we see the evidence of that far sightedness is evident in Zimbabwe's new 5.0 education mode with its emphasis on production of new services and goods through emphasis on teaching of science and technology. Starting right from the elementary level.
While incubation hubs have been constructed at institutions of higher education. Under education 5.0 mode, institutions were mobilised during the outbreak of COVID 19 to assist with production of personal protective equipment as the country was cut of from any global funding by the sanctions regime imposed on it by the West.
The country was able to manufacture it's own PPEs, including producing it's own medical oxygen. Even making a donation of the same to neighbouring Mozambique. The country recorded one of the lowest COVID infection rates in the world. Dispelling the prediction in western media that it suffer high death rates.
This is the Africa visioned in that speech back back in 1963 by Kwame Nkrumah and spoken of by a letter from the future some 40 forward in time. It is an Africa that trumps sanctions and is defined by the ingenuity and resourcefulness of its own people.
The message is quite clear and the attempts to frighten the people of this beautiful continent from claiming their rightful place under the sun by imposing a cocktail of crippling sanctions to humiliate and destroy an African nation have failed dismally.
Going back to both the speech and the letter, it is clear that there are opportunities outside of agriculture. Where Africans can participate meaningfully and make their contribution to the African agenda. It is a fact that we have the youngest population on this blessed Earth.
This youth dividend represents raw manpower to drive development infrastructure development. It also represents intellectual capacity that will be instrumental in the creation of new enterprises.
It is young minds who will drive the scientific and technological development that will transformation the future of the African continent. If Africa is to leap frog into a competitive economic block, the young people must take their place in the driving seat of such a transformation.
Already there are young people who have taken up the baton and are running the race in various sectors of the economy. While it is not possible for every young person to get into agriculture others are looking into other none traditional sectors.
People will always require reliable transport systems. Efficient road and communication networks form the backbone of a functional economy.
These are all areas that are wide open for the taking by the youth of the continent. None traditional sectors such as sport must be taken for the economic value they can bring to an economy. The athletic among us can not only earn decent livelihoods for themselves and their families.
They can also provide free funds for investing into other productive sectors. That way they not guarantee their own future self sustenance, but also invest in generating dignified employment for other young Africans as well. While it may all read like wishful thinking there are inspiring examples of young people across the continent who are already living the ideal.
We trust that after reading real live testimonies of young people from across the continent, from a diversity of backgrounds you too will be inspired to identify a economic sector where you contribute.
That is the actualisation of the pan African agenda.