Thanks for your piece on President Obama and his Youth Initiative for Africa. I have read carefully and critically your opinions and attitudes towards this program of action from the President. Let me identify the pros and cons of your narrative:
1. You hit the nail on the head when you focused on the class issues which were sufficiently documented through your sociological discussion of the factors and conditions affecting different Sierra Leoneans in society today. Certainly, living under the conditions you described spoke volumes about the life and times of the struggling poor in Sierra Leone. Your words underscored the relationship between this hypothetical candidate and the circumstances in Sierra Leone as described by the UN under the UDNP categories of economic and social change in Africa.
2. Another point of credit in your analysis deals with the strange nature of the relationship between the chosen and the selector. Separated by a vast Atlantic Ocean and not sufficiently educated about each other's conditions, the people assembled to represent Africa are most likely going to be remembered as the so-called "Talented Ten of W.E.B. Dubois, when Black America was coming out of the Civil War and her intellectuals were negotiating with White leaders such as Andrew Carnegie. Was he not the "The Great White Hope," who tried to reconcile Booker T. Washington with the dissent "Young Turks" who are now remembered as the founding fathers of the NAACP.
3. The third point that emerged from your critique of the Youth Initiative deals with opportunities and the problems of marginalization in African society. Truth be told, the Youth Summit is just the beginning. Much is needed to formulate and develop the best approaches to construct a lasting Obama legacy.
In defense of the contributions of the organizers of the Youth Summit, let me offer two points which need to be articulated to advance the argument that the idea was not something that came out of the blue.
a. The election of President Obama was unprecedented in American history. If we go back to the life and times of President George Washington and then move on the life and times of President Obama, we find ourselves dealing with convergence and divergence in human thought and action between the first and the 44th. President. Washington appeared at a critical moment in World history. For the first time in that century, the idea of a republic is brought to being. Just as George Washington was an innovation then, so is President Obama an innovation in the whole concept of society and state in American life. A Black Man in the White House. Not only did his election create a new perceptions among American peoples, but it forced many racial, ethnic and religious groupings to learn and adjust to the languages of tolerance and self-understanding.
b. His focus on the youth apparently paralleled what he learned about the founding fathers of the black struggle and their desperate desires to mobilize the young and old simultaneously. Obama lives at a different juncture in African and world history. All of us who pay closer attention to his policies and programs must remind him and his cohorts the danger in underestimating the youth. African youths deserve his attention and those who clamor for these under-represented and deprived peoples must resort to the airways and the internet to make their points.
This is how I read your piece and I urge the people in Obama White House to listen to such clarion calls. Good luck.
Sincerely,
Professor Sulayman S. Nyang
Howard University
P.O. Box 590113
Washington D.C. 20059
Howard University
P.O. Box 590113
Washington D.C. 20059
On Friday, August 1, 2014 6:06 PM, william bangura <william.bangura17@gmail.com> wrote:
Okey,
You have misunderstood my opinion because I am not implying about this very salient issue. It is not a guarantee that my archetype will be benevolent, pragmatic and progressive because my paternal country Sierra Leone had prototypes—I will not dignify them-- that were from very poor backgrounds but were tyrants and thieves. "The oppressed became the worse oppressors".
But what if my example fulfilled all my characteristics a la Kwame Nkrumah?
"Public Management: young Africans who work or aspire to work in all levels of government, regional organizations such as the African Union, international bodies such as the United Nations, or other publicly-minded entities or think tanks."
The late President Kabbah was a technocrat from the United Nations and his governance was less to be desired.
"You could also easily have visited their website for more information about the program before launching your needless attack against Pres. Obama. There are lots of problems in Sierra Leone you could think of solving. Start small and don't wait for Obama and the African blood in his veins."
I am a proud Yoni and a Themne from Tonkolili, consequently "I revere the chieftaincy and not the chief". So I do not have any BLIND LOYALTIES to President Obama.
I canvassed in Virginia for then Senate Obama during the 2008 Democratic primaries and the presidential elections. And my daughters accompanied me on the last Sunday before the elections so they will be part of a historical era.
How will I respond to them if the pose the question why as president he did not implement substantive policies to alleviate the socio-economic and political problems of sub-Saharan Africa?
Please be advised that I was opposed by "lettered" Nigerians after I had opined that their country is a failed state, therefore, I am not going to revisit that issue.
William Bangura
On Thu, Jul 31, 2014 at 7:27 AM, Okey Iheduru <okeyiheduru@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Yusuf Bangura:I was privileged to be a member of the panel that reviewed the applications for the inaugural President Barak Obama's Young African Leaders Initiative fellowship. Therefore, I can claim to know a thing or two about the fellowship and the process by which the fellows were chosen.
Contrary to your insinuations, each of the nearly 100 panelists reviewed about 40 applications from one country divided into the following categories of applicants:Business and Entrepreneurship: aspiring entrepreneurs who hope to take on leadership roles within the private sector or start their own business ventures on the continent.Civic Leadership: young Africans who are civically engaged and serve the public through non-governmental organizations, and/or volunteer or community-based organizations.Public Management: young Africans who work or aspire to work in all levels of government, regional organizations such as the African Union, international bodies such as the United Nations, or other publicly-minded entities or think tanks.Following their three-day July 2014 summit/meeting with Pres. Obama in Washington, DC, these leaders will attend U.S. universities for a six-week academic institute in one of three areas: business and entrepreneurship; civic leadership; and public management. Coursework and training in each of these sectors will focus on the skills these young African leaders need to run better ministries, start and grow businesses, and serve their communities.Thereafter, about 100 Fellows will participate in high-level eight-week professional development experiences or internships at U.S. businesses, non-profits, NGOs, and government offices.The jury is still out on Obama's Africa policy, but I can assure you that the US Embassy in Freetown indeed considered "class-economic status--school grades" and actually had applicants write "a composition where they opine about the political problems and solutions before making their selections." You could also easily have visited their website for more information about the program before launching your needless attack against Pres. Obama. There are lots of problems in Sierra Leone you could think of solving. Start small and don't wait for Obama and the African blood in his veins.Peace as always!--
On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 2:18 PM, william bangura <william.bangura17@gmail.com> wrote:--I am not privy to the selection process to the Young Africans Leaders Initiative (YALI) but most of them were well-fed and are not a reflection of the socio-economic and political groups of sub-Saharan Africa.I would have preferred that YALI included kids between the ages of 15 and 17 and recent university graduates. Referencing my paternal country Sierra Leone majority of those between the ages of 25 to 35 had already been corrupted socio-economically and politically.I am uncertain about the amount of YALI's per country, but I would have preferred that there is a representative each for the social, economical and political components.The political component should have been represented from one of the schools in Freetown, Sierra Leone who is from a family of five, whose father is a custodian who either works at the Connaught Hospital, is a trash collector for the Ministry of Health or a laborer for the Public Works Department and whose mother is a housewife, and they are both uneducated. Because of his dad's salary they live in a two bedroom tin-shack, with no electricity and they procure water from the street tap, and they can only eat dinner once a day and not throughout each month.But this YALI is very obedient, diligent and respectful at home and at school, is always in the top five in each class and is also very politically conscious.He continuously visits the rural areas to be in contact with his matrilineal and patrilineal relatives who are from different provinces and also toils in the agricultural sector to procure some revenues to pay for his school fees, buy books, uniforms, and shoes, and buy lunch.The US Embassy in Freetown should have considered class—economic status—school grades, and they should have penned a composition where they opine about the political problems and solutions before making their selections.Inviting entrepreneurs between the ages of 25 and 35 is a novel idea, but without the "socio-political" there will never be a viable economical state.To quote the latte President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, " Seek ye first a political kingdom and all else shall be added unto you."As is prevalent with President Obama he has done more for Arabs and Europeans than the sub-Africans whose blood he has "running through his veins."
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Okey Iheduru, PhD
You can access some of my papers on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) at: http://ssrn.com/author=2131462.
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