My vision for Africa A young mind without education, is like a bird without wings Tibetan proverb This birth

h place of modern man was once stunning in its vast ocean of hope and promise, beautiful in its array of all creatures big and small, enchanting with its civilizations stepped in culture and traditions, their red and yellow garments glistening like fire flies in the backdrop of the seamless darkness of the night. But the continent that once so majestically flew over the rest like a mother protecting is young, was savagely beaten down by poverty and oppression. Ravaged and pillaged of all its natural treasures. Its Nubian kings and queens so close to heaven, thrust onto the ground to beg for mercy at the feet of those who only seek to exploit our naive good nature. But I believe there is still a chance for redemption, a way we can - as one, return our homeland once again onto the righteous road to the promise land. Until now it was a path we were robbed from taking for so many centuries, but we have to relegate our demons to he past where hey belong and move into the sweet rays of the future. But to do it, we must reclaim what is ours - not through force or by hate, but through love and the unquantifiable power of education, an almighty weapon no nation can overcome, even the name of which sends enemies running to the hills, as it blossoms from the soil of ignorance. Its luscious nectar enriching our mind, body and souls. My vision of Africa is an Africa where all its sons and daughter are proud to speak its name, and rejoice in their origins, rather than keep it locked away like a shameful secret. An Africa where you dont instantly think of poverty, corruption and crime, but an Africa rightfully restored as one of the very elite of the world. And this vision of Africa came to me in a dream, but at first it seemed like an unattainable phoenix carrying a four leaf clover in the desert sun. I thought crossing the distance was impossible then suddenly beneath my feet, from the earth a book was birthed. But as I opened it I found the pages to be empty, then it dawned on me, it was empty because our destiny was yet to be written, and the only ones who could do the writing, were the very same proud sons and daughters. The future of Africa is in the hands of the youth, uncorrupted by pain, suffering or greed but instead enveloped in the warm glow of innocents. My vision of Africa is one of hope that our youth will go on, not just to lead Africa but to lead the world. I believe Africa is an untapped perpetual reservoir of potential that can do wonders, and the only way to achieve this is through education. I once heard a wise saying, why look for a job when you can make one or another one which says give a man a fish and he would eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he will eat forever and too give those future leaders the best chance in this sea of uncertainty, we need to equip them with the necessary tools that will not just will help them survive, but will allow them to flourish and conquer. And this powerful tool is education, which gives birth to innovation and invention, so why be just another employee when you can be the leaders of big companies all over the world and not the likes of Sony, Amazon, Oracle and Microsoft, but instead the one we will build with our own two hands, these prosperous and thriving international businesses, we stand as a beckon of hard work and determination. The world is filled with countless possibilities; we just need go out there and capture them. And a great place to start is by teaching children at even the young at the age of five to program because for me computer programming after English is the most important language to learn on the earth, the internet is ever expanding, and if your part of this free flowing Infinite River of information and activity, you will reap great finical rewards just look at the creator of FaceBook who happens to be worth 16 billion, the creators

of Google are worth close to 23 billion each, and last but not least the creators of Amazon, are worth 10 billion. We need to heal our wounds and wipe away our blemishes, and move together as one we need to unit Africa, its the only way to standardise education around the board, and ensure that corruption cant exist. We will operate under one currency, making trade amongst our brother and sister, easy and effective, vastly boosting out economy and empowering our currency, which will help breath economic stability into the more struggling of countries, which will then have a positive effect on education. We just have to look at Europe as a blue print- alone they are weak, but as one they are almost unrivalled in the world, and its no coincidence that all of the top five most literate populated countries are in Europe. Educate the minds of the youth, and build the leaders of the future. I have a vision for Africa, they said it was crazy and could never happen, but those people sound like the ones who said; man will never walk on the moon, and who also said there will never be a black president of America or no human being could ever run 100 meters in under 10 seconds but what do all those people have in common? They were all wrong. So I ask those of you who are brave enough; to take my hand and we shall embark on this dream together, it may be hard at first, and their will be rocky patches, but when we reach the mountain top, we can look God in the eyes and tell him, we did it.