THE LONG JOURNEY TO FREEDOM
The drums sound as the women in the village sing the song that uplifts even as it tells a sad tale. You may be poor, you may have only a ramshackle house, you may have lost your job, but that song gives you hope. The music that inspires the children growing up to take the road that many have taken but few have survived. That long road, leads to freedom.
As I went on the road that many have taken but few have survived, I heard the song of freedom coming from the pyramids of Egypt, from the cape of South Africa, from the tropical forest of West Africa and from the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro of East Africa. The song had a beautiful rhythm but it pierced my heart like an arrow, piercing through my bones and causing my flesh to bleed; but I was focused and I was ready to die for its cause.
“What was my main inspiration?” I asked myself. The dream! The dream that one day the nations of Africa would rise and live out the true meaning of its creed; the home for all. I have a dream that one day our sons and daughters will have access to good health care, a good education system, social ameniities and much more than I could ever think of now. I have a dream that our young boys and girls will one day live in a nation that is free of war, disease and corruption. I have a dream that one day the children of Africa will have equal opportunities to kids from other parts of the world to be who they were born to be. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight as the glory of Africa is revealed to all mankind.
All of a sudden the music that had inspiresdme stopped. “What is going on?” I asked myself. It was the price of freedom. It has chased everyone away like a hungry lion going after its prey. Who is bold enough to stand it? Who is bold enough to tear this lion into pieces? A thick cloud of despair covers me. A thin wall of fear stands between me and freedom. Fear of what? The things I see around: hunger, HIV/AIDS, malaria, wars, natural disasters, corruption. Is this road really going to lead to freedom? Is there hope for this devastated place I call home? It seems to me like a dry bone that will never have flesh on it. A dead body that has lost the hope of breath in its nostrils. People have lost hope. People have died for the cause. History says it is impossible. But I was reminded by the words of a wise man, “the greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” For this reason I have committed myself to this cause.
“There is nothing we can do about it,” they say. However, I refuse to believe
that the bank of freedom is bankrupt. I refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this Continent. And so I've come to cash this check that will give me upon demand the riches of freedom. It is time to rise from the dark and desolate valley as many call Africa, to a place that is habitable for us. A sun is rising over our continent; a sun that shines down the light of freedom and hope. A light that brings smiles to the faces of children across the continent, a light that brings strength to the bones of old men and women across the continent. A light that stirs up “guts” in the young and hearty.
You can see that there is no easy walk to freedom anywhere and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountain tops of our desires. Dangers and difficulties have not deterred us in the past, they will not frighten us now. But we must be prepared for them, like men who mean business and who do not waste energy in vain talk and idle action. The way of preparation for action lies in our rooting out all impurity and indiscipline from our organisation and making it the bright and shining instrument that will cleave its way to Africa's freedom.I call on all the citizens of this world be you black, white, brown, red or yellow as long as you live, you are obliged to be part of this struggle for freedom.
Freedom is not tomorrow it is today.
Gabriel Stevens (Inspired by Martins Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela)
