BANZA August 2016 | Page 68

Why do we have to wait for you to get to high school or university to teach you basic computer skills? Why wait for your mind to harden and lose its youthful flexibility and dedication then attempt to empower you? In Setswana, we say: it is easier to mould and discipline a child while he is still young than to let him take shape into something different. aspect of life, specific traits, or ways of life that are abundant or visible in a lot of individuals. The ‘lot’ or majority now start to believe that by virtue of them having those particular traits in abundance, they are normal. You and I are different in the same ways. The same line of thought is what you and I should take to propel ourselves to greatness. Let’s mould our young people at a tender age when they are still full of energy. I may want to be a doctor, you may want to be an entrepreneur; at the end of the day, we need each other to propel this continent to greatness. These entrepreneurship and innovation academies will provide a platform for some of the continents’ most creative and intelligent youth to harness their brain power and solve the problems this continent faces. We are already intertwined by destiny and invisible systems; why not capitalise on such synergies to publicly empower our youth and expose them to streams of avenues that will ensure we change the fate of this continent? We expect Americans and Chinese to come to our countries, investigate problems our farmers and financial systems are battling with, then expect them to create solutions and products for those problems, and then sell them to us. We cannot continue to go about our daily ways acting like Africa is not collapsing even when it makes a loud, shattering noise as it slams the ground. What is stopping us from doing the same? Resources? Competition, lack of Government support? Be good, do good. No one knows your problems and challenges like you! By virtue of you experiencing them can you solve them better. Earlier on, I was telling a friend that normality is to a certain extent quantitatively objective, especially because a lot of people believe in a certain BANZA It is all on you and I.