This month of May 2022 Africities meet comes to Kisumu City in the County of Kisumu, Kenya. It is hard to ignore the aspirations of Africans of the days of old, among them Steve Biko, and the inspirations that preexist in their thoughts. It feels like the ideas around Africities are new, but the fundamentals are as old as time.
There is no better time for black consciousness. As manifested in Steve Biko’s series of notes, letters, and essays, dubbed “I write what I like,” over four decades ago. Biko calls our attention to our “ownness.” In this he seeks to explain that black people are neither inferior nor superior to other races, but rather, we are uniquely equal to any other race in our own ways. He taught and enlightened people of color, that, when necessary, bend unjust laws and break unfair rules.
ROLE, SIGNIFICANCE AND FUTURE
In defining the role of South African Students’ Organization – SASO – Steve Biko put forth six pillars of their overall aspiration as black students:
- Crystallize needs and aspirations and to highlight the grievances of non-white students
- Establish collective bargaining power that advances the interests of non-white students
- To heighten and intensify the interactions of non-white students and facilitate productive discourse among non-white students
- To solidify identity of non-white students, to effectively earn dignity and respect
- To protect all its units and act as a pressure group for the benefit of non-white students.
- To boost morale and confidence of non-white students in themselves and their own institutions.
One of the key highlights of Biko’s letter to the Students’ Representative Council Presidents he states that:
“The blacks are tired of standing at the touchlines to witness a game that they should be playing. They want to do things for themselves and all by themselves.”
So, what makes this relevant today? The times might be different; one representing the dark days of South Africa’s Apartheid regime and the other representing times of rapid liberalism, collaboration, and rapid growth for Africa.
Yet in both, Africa seeks a better Africa for Africans. Africities is right at the center of this pursuit – creating conversations that advance the greatness of Africa.
Among the organizations of great promise is the Africities. With Africities coming up May 17th to May 21st, 2022, I cannot help but draw the parallels. This reminds us that we live in a world already perfect in its aspirations yet expanding in positioning and implementation of the pursuits that advance towards these aspirations. Just like Biko’s dreams of times gone by, we seek a more perfect world, a more perfect Africa.
Africities seeks to place Africa’s mid-size and emerging cities at a great place when it comes to housing, infrastructure, food security, sanitation, environmental soundness and ground breaking innovations.
All Africities is seeking in Kisumu City, Kisumu County, Kenya is to reach for a more confident African population, cities without slums, villages without hunger, countries free of civil wars and a new generation that manages its own affairs for the betterment of itself and the world.
Follow this for more parallels between I write What I like and the Africities in our daily comparative analysis.
