THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH LEADERSHIP
The training of the youth, who love Africa, labor, and is properly
educated and organized, is the most important task that we have as a people. The
emancipation of women is very closely related to how well our youth will be
educated. President Kwame Nkrumah wrote, “The degree of a country’s
revolutionary awareness, may be measured by the political maturity of its
women.” The emancipation of women is also the emancipation of man.
The youthful creators of the new society must be dynamic, desirous of
change, transformation, and endowed with a sense of initiative and creativity.
They must be disciplined, not the kind of discipline imposed from the external,
but an internal discipline that is the result of a high level of
consciousness. They must be
organized with a clear plan of action every month, every week, every day. It is our goal to become so organized
that we can do in one day what previously took us twenty years. The youth must have a great thirst for
learning and be aware that the more knowledge one acquires, the better-equipped
one will be to serve the people.
These youth must have a profound love of the masses of the people,
constantly concerned to link every step in education and training to the
practice of productive work, determined to link all this thinking and activity
to the struggle for the liberation and unification of Africa. These youth will
not succumb to propaganda of elitism, arrogance, individualism, superiority
complexes, contempt for manual labor, drinking, drug-taking, sexual promiscuity,
women hating, a know-it-all attitude, contempt for African culture, and other
forms of backward propaganda.
Our youth must constantly practice the principle of Collectivism which
asserts that the family is more important than the individual, the community is
more important than the family, the nation is more important than the community,
and all of humanity is more important than the nation.
The future is bright; the road is tortuous. We must build Africa
independently with the initiative in our own hands through self-reliance, hard
work, diligence, and thrift. We will build Africa through production and
scientific experiment. We must be resolute, fear no sacrifice and surmount every
difficulty to liberate and unify Africa. We must create a situation in which
there are both discipline and freedom, both unity of will and personal ease of
mind and liveliness. There are 1 billion Africans scattered in over 120
countries and we are all responsible for creating and bringing into being a new
material and immaterial realities, which enhance the national wealth
(Africa).
Our youth leadership must be discovered, encouraged, fostered, and
promoted.
In Notes for an African World Revolution – Africans at the Crossroads,
John Henrik Clarke wrote about the importance of youth leadership,
p. 17-8
“Early in the twentieth century, African nations
began to emerge. A special study
should be made of Ghana, especially early twentieth century politics in Ghana
and the revolt against colonialism.
Casely Hayford fathered modern Ghanaian politics. He converted his fight for the return of
the exiled kings into a fight for independence. This was in the early part of the
century as the British began to exile the Ghanaian kings, Prempeh and Yaa
Asantewa. They began to build a
youth movement (essential to every revolution). When near his death in 1931, Hatford
wanted to turn over the mantle of responsibility to another Ghanaian, he turned
it over to a young man he had trained:
Joseph P. Danquah. Hayford
said, when he was fully aware that he was dying, “ Send for J.P.” Then according to one report, he said to
the young lawyer, “The mantle of
responsibility now is yours. Lead
this nation to independence.”
Working under J.P. Danquah, was a young student, who then went by the
name of Francis K. Nkrumah. He
began to train Nkrumah to take the mantle of responsibility. They did not do as we do today – leave
things to chance. They planned
them. They came out of a society
that we need to reproduce today in order to bring about our revolution. Our children should be picked out and
trained for leadership from birth.
You can watch how that child handles a fork; watch that child’s ability
to share with the group; watch that child’s ability to protect the group and to
accept the training that will make that child improve. We should spot leaders early and begin
to train them. We should make a
priesthood of this effort.”
