"When I grow up, I want to be an air hostess," said the little 7-year old girl in her African accent, shyly pursing her lips together.
"Why?" asked the person behind the camera.
"Uhh..i don't know...i'm just interested in planes when I watch them fly over the village, high up in the sky. Maybe this will be my chance to be on a plane in real life."
She sat behind her ailing grandmother's hut; wearing a torn blue dress. Her feet were rough and dusty, and bare. Rough from the long distances she has had to walk - to school, to fetch water, to the grocery store. And bare because the only pair of shoes she owns are worn-out sandals that a distant aunt got her 3 Christmases ago. Her eyes sparkle still, with a hope that says 'my dreams could come true too'; yet there's a gloom of despair on the corner of her eyes, scared of becoming like every other ordinary person around her whose dreams have slipped out of reach.
The person behind the camera asks, "Have you eaten today? Are you hungry?"
The light in her eyes that'd been sparked by talking about her dreams fades. She looks down, and playfully draws the ground with a stick.
"We had a little bit of food in the morning."
She continues drawing. Her lips are clearly dry. It's 2pm.
"Today we will receive mealie meal and oil from CARE though," she says, almost jocundly.
'CARE' here refers to the many non-governmental organisations providing aid to Africa, mostly in the form of food.
This has been a very efficient relief from starvation for many rural families. However, when that bag of mealie meal runs out, the unfulfilled dreams of the African child still lay there, distant. I do not believe God's picture of Africa is that of lil' black hands stretched forth, ready to receive whatever the elites have to offer. It's more powerful than that.
Our education system is such that we learn whatever we're given (this is where the 'just take' mentality is forged) ,some of which we never actually get to apply in real life. Go to pre-school, primary school, high school, university...get a job, get money - pay for your kids to do the same. It's almost like the job range is outlined too - 'i want to be a doctor', 'a lawyer', 'engineer' bla bla...all great, but while we're at it, may we think out of the boxes made of our textbook pages. Manufacturers, inventors, scientists? What if innovation and creativity were instilled in us from young ages in school and we didn't have to just sit and accept what textbooks say (and wait until the textbook writers discover more and update the info), but actually questioned how that information was attained and joined the research to improve it? What if we were taught of people like Einstein and Newton as normal people who chose to explore their greatness and not as some superpowered superIQ'd superior beings in whose footsteps we just could never follow?
Many people today are sitting around competing to get the latest tech product to be on top of the social pyramid; instead of being curious to find out how it's made and maybe strive to make an improved version. Instead of bragging about buying the latest car, how about we channel more energy towards manufacturing one?
As long as our minds are still satisfied with just receiving, we might keep getting that annoying '3rd' before world.
Greatness is in Africa too, unperturbed! Yes, colonisation happened. Exploitation of African resources happened. Slavery happened too. And we could keep teaching generation after generation about our bitter past in history classes, blaming it for our stagnation; or we could rewrite history for the future generations and say, ' inspite of it all, we rose still.' We still became one of the most powerful continents in the world.'
Children in school ought to be reminded repeatedly that they have the potential to change the world; that the next big thing is right within them. I believe the bigger portion of the limitless treasure God placed on this earth for us as people is yet to be discovered. He would not be inspiring us so deeply to dig it up if it wasn't there.
Africa can stop being the poor, diseased continent it's been named to be and start dominating and roaring like the lions it is home to. We, it's people have everything we need, right here, right now, to be the greatest we ever thought we could be.
And, my little friend up there, in the blue dress, may believe in the possibility of not just being an air hostess, but maybe operating her very own, original airline.
We are the goldened, diamoned and platinumed continent (not to mention super oiled), it's time we knew what it means to be as wealthy as we already are.
