This is the right time for African youths to shine.

By Muhumuza Faizo King,

A few years ago, I was honored to join more than 90 young African Leaders from fourteen East and Central African Countries. All of them were more different than they were the same. The most significant similarity lied in their desire for change and zeal to stand tall in the face of adversity to lead the change they desire. They did all this with an impeccable level of excellence and an unmatched commitment to their work.

To mention but a few; in his early twenties, Ahmed Ali a qualified Pharmacist left his profession because he believed he would lead more change while teaching and mentoring upcoming African stars at the University at Khartoum in Sudan. For Victor Kabegu change meant setting up a great cassava farm and adding value by making starch out of the cassava. For Isaac Rwomushana change meant excelling as a junior lecturer at Makerere University in the quest for becoming a highly knowledgeable international Educationist. For Aidah Bukubuza it meant waking up every day to use technology to build human solutions that fix mental health problems. For Khamis Bol, it meant studying hard to return to South Sudan and lead by promoting Education as much as he can. All their stories teach us that new and unsolved problems are often pretty hard. If we want to have any chance of making something creative, useful, and clever, then we need to be willing to attack hard problems even if it means failing a few times before we succeed. Remember no one starts with magical success, you keep building on your losses with courage and commitment and confidence.

We are African youths! We have an obligation to re-write our story, from pessimism to optimism, from ethnic division to developmental unity, from unnecessary cowardice in the face of change to constructive bravery to see good change. This is our time, our time to hold our arms aloft as a gesture to tell the world this is all of us, we are bold, we are talented, we are strong and we are change makers.

Self-belief! Self-belief! This is the most important character in this day and age especially for a young African who wants to go all the way and shine. Remember this; you can have all the tactics in the world, but that essence of self-belief, that’s critical.

Many African youths are living in countries that are divided, something we unapologetically disagree with. The good news is we can be proactive and understand what we can do with the tools we have to build the Africa we want one step at a time over and over and over again until we overwhelm the status quo to accept change not as an option but as the only choice. The more we commit to building a brand new environment the more we win and the most important thing is to keep winning because only then can we keep shining. Remember this is our time and nothing should delude you from trying to be the best version of yourself.

The Writer is a Ugandan Educationist, Technologist and Author.