Global Changemakers

THE REBELS ARE FIXING OUR WORLD

Gillion Bosman

Africa needs to find its own solutions; a sentiment echoed at last years World Economic Forum (WEF) and addressed this year by South Africa’s new President Jacob Zuma. This beautiful continent of ours rich in diversity and wealthy with our abundance of natural resources. The big challenge is how do we as a continent begin to grow amidst a global financial crisis that affects us the worst?

It is common knowledge that Africa did not contribute to the financial mess we have found ourselves in but we are going to be the hardest hit. The International Monetary Fund predicts that frontier economies such as that of South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya will be the first to feel the effects of the crisis as they have stronger economic links with other regions. These countries have had to stop its plans to borrow money creating a void in their abilities to deliver on the needs of their people. The financial crisis will devastate Africa’s plan to pull it self out of poverty and also meet the Millennium Development Goals.

How do we begin to think of addressing this immediate crisis when we are still reeling from the affects of colonialism?  The answer has always been obvious but after seeing the Eddy, Esnatt, Barry Mohammed, George and Zillah in action at an event hosted by the British High Commissioner here in South Africa I knew that young people are part of the solution. They spoke eloquently of the issues they have managed to represent at the WEF and also of how Eddy put disability on the agenda for the participants at the WEF. We have the potential to bring about change and to take the words of Nelson Mandela “sometimes it falls on a generation to be great” and to bring about change. Young people are able to engage with older people and our peers, create new forms of governance and also creatively address the challenges we face. We are already activating change through our community action projects and will continue to do so.

With the recession forcing young people from the African Diaspora to return home after seeing that the grass is after all not greener on the other side, we will have a wealth of human capital to help us waiver this storm and also build Africa.

It is important to remember that we did not cause this crisis; the crisis was caused by greedy investors living in affluence in the Western world. They have broken our world system and perhaps we need to start thinking about “a new world”.