What does Africa mean to you? Is it a place you believe you were unfortunate to be born in? A jail sentence far behind everyone else and in your heart you are so frustrated by what you see elsewhere and not here? Or is it a land you hear of from afar and in your mind’s eye you picture vast sweeping expanses of dense jungle and untamed wilderness? Or to your mind is it story after story of abject poverty, lack and disease? Or maybe you have of a dark place, full of superstition and the dark arts of voodoo and witchcraft. Has it ever crossed your mind to ask just what does Africa mean to you?
Well Africa is my land, it is the place of my birth and of my purpose. Herein lie the generations of my earthly forefathers and herein are the people to whom I am a son, a brother, a friend and a leader. It is land of smiles and laughter, of bubbly characters and honest hearts. It is a land riddled with a troubled past, finding its feet in the battlefield that is today ane awakening to make a mark that will define the course of human history. It is a land of opportunities, everywhere you turn you cannot avoid them and only now are our eyes opening to see them. It is a land at the heart of God-whose desire is to heal the land and restore it to a place of joy and prosperity.
Africa is more than it’s resources-though plentiful they may be -its richness is enhanced by the diversity of people in it which brings one to a perspective of live that emphasizes what matters-the beauty of relationships that we forge as family and as friends. I cannot deny the pain and the suffering, but i cannot emphasize that over what the hand of God is doing and will do in the land. For in this land, He is raising sons and daughters with a passion-a passion to develop, a passion to improve a passion to change for the better and to be the standard. He is healing the hearts of a generation to move beyond the pain of past hurts and injustices and move foward in the moment that is today for the better.
I could begin for examples, but time would not suffice me to say. And when I raise my eyes to see the future, I see Africa becoming the land we imagine it can be- a giant on the world stage, peaceful, prosperous, vibrant and happy.