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 "The youth are the leader's of tomorrow". An old cliche but sorry Joe... I don't wanna hear that today! We are living in an era where young people hold such an enormous amount of power and influence that I believe that we are either at the dawn of that long awaited tomorrow, or we are already living in that day but we aren't acknowledging it.
We could take the example of Chisha Folotiya who heads The Carlton Group in Zambia, which is conglomerate that owns Mondo Music Corporation, Rhodespark School, and a host of other successful businesses. The man is 30 years old. The artists under his stable, which was formed less than 2 years ago, are getting tremendous radio and television airplay and are household names in that territory. The Editor in Chief of Trendsetters, a Zambian youth newspaper published by Youth Media, is 23 years old. The paper has received international and national awards in its three years of existence. At 17, the young Zambian designer Nkulu Banda was already hosting her own fashion shows and now at age twenty has designed outfits for prestigious events such as Mnets Face Of Africa already. The teams involved in the successes of these and other stories, are in most cases full of young guns, who are enthusiastic, goal oriented and very eager to take risks while challenging the status quo. I was twenty-two years old when in February 1998 I was appointed Acting Station Manager at a Radio Phoenix FM in Lusaka. Because of my age some camps both internally and externally questioned the appointment. Generally in Africa, the concepts of respect and reverence in most cases are stipulated by someone's age, which is aligned to maturity and wisdom. Having lived in Zambia, which is the third most urbanized African country today, we find that the younger and older generation have a discrepancy in relation to their life experience. Nowadays, the breadwinner of a home could well be the children who might be earning an income from a non-conventional source as far as our cultural understanding is concerned. As the pay-off line for the Fiat car suggests, young people are also "driven by passion", and so it is not surprising that world over, they are the ones to first get clued up with harnessing new technologies for example. They are therefore in most cases earning a greater income than the traditional "head of the home" - the father. Even the young street vendors have marketing strategies that enable them to exceed their parent's gross revenue. Because I am presently a Zambian based in Johannesburg, I often get the queries of my plans concerning settling in Zambia later in life (to return or not to return that is the question). Ridiculous! I am definitely going back home to share knowledge and assist in nation building just as all people in Diaspora should be doing. However, we must realize that the necessity of physically returning home for many has been reduced because technology. The monitor on my PC is a window that allows me through cyberspace to peak at what's going on at home and to share ideas, network and to help other young people to focus on opportunity's rather than live a life without hope. The majority of the population even in the city's of our continent can not yet comprehend the concept of the Internet, so how can I, in simple language, explain to my 80+-year-old grandfather at his village in Sesheke that I am now working for an e-zine? Information converted into knowledge or vise versa coupled with wisdom and then packaged into mediums that will receive massive attention places each person who is privileged to be in a position to harness these technological innovations in a position to help in developing our nations. Simunza Muyangana, who has had access to the Internet for years longer than I, would frequently send relevant and intriguing information off the web by email to Zambia. The text would be printed and given to me to decipher then share with thousands who tuned into my drive time music show on Radio Phoenix. He was consistent and it was only about two years later that I got to physically meet him. Professor Guy Berger who heads the journalism department at Rhodes University in Grahamstown University in South Africa calls this concept GKD (Global Knowledge for Development). A simple explanation is that we must consider placing information on the plate of broadcasters, musicians, community leaders and other individuals who can in turn share it with those who do not have access to these tools. Empowerment is the intended target. If this is truly that "tomorrow" which is so often spoken of, then we should now awaken so that we may carry on with this special legacy responsibly. This should be a natural progression but one whereby we uphold the more positive elements of our heritage with pride before passing them on ourselves while we should also revisit and alter some of our outdated practices for the sake of progress. Young guns, this is the day to help make a difference from right where you are. Forward march.
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