Africa Day 2010: Promoting Peace through Sport

Harare, May 25, 2010 – Contemporary Indigenous Youth Development Africa (CIYDA) today joins the rest of Africa and all its people across the globe in commemorating the coming together of nations, a race of people, who came out in defiance with a common goal, to take charge of their destiny not only as a united, but free people. The journey of a thousand miles commences with a single step one says, well for Africa and it’s populace that day began on May 25, 1963. It is a journey that we continue to walk today and has undoubtedly been fraught with both internal and external impediments.

It is perhaps in a distant past that Africa and its people ever found reason to celebrate and reignite that dormant sense of pride on two consecutive occasions. This year’s Africa Day theme, ‘Promoting Peace through Sport’, couldn’t perhaps be more meaningful. In just over two weeks, Africa hosts for the first time one of the biggest event in sports calendar, the FIFA World Cup. Many from across the globe will throng to recently built and re-developed stadia in some of the most remarkable cities of South Africa. For the continent it is a dream come true, after all most of the talent gracing the best leagues in Europe are from Africa. However for most of its people, this will merely shift from a dream at a continental level to a personal one, for most will get neither the opportunity to see their local sports idols at such a prestigious football stage in person, nor will they get the slightest glimpse of it except in print. To sum it up for many as one writer put it,

It’s a party in my back yard...I just can’t afford...

Download and read full CIYDA Africa Day article HERE

What is CIYDA
Contemporary Indigenous Youth Development Africa (CIYDA) is a non-profit organisation founded in 2008 and is based in Harare, Zimbabwe. CIYDA is working to develop and empower the youths of Zimbabwe for the benefits of the nation and Africa as a continent through the use of new media, information technology and networking amongst other things. Through these drivers, CIYDA aims to facilitate an information hub and service provision in the areas of Business Start-up, Social & Cultural Integration, Socio-economic Mentoring and Volunteering. Through current globalization trends and dispersion of Zimbabwean youths, CIYDA currently has a network connection of approximately 500 Zimbabwean youths in many countries amongst them, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia and Canada.

United States of Africa: Continent Must Unite to Achieve Its Goals

July 24, 2009 - The Libyan leader and current chairman of the African Union, President Muamar Ghadafi has once again reiterated his clarion call for African unity, stressing that the continent must be united in order to achieve its goals.

He stressed that in the absence of unity and lack of political will, the continent's goals will be hard to achieve. The Libyan leader made these comments at the Independence Stadium in Bakau, Gambia, where he addressed thousands of Gambians as part of his activities in the country.

The African Union chairman also used the opportunity to implore the youths to distance themselves from illegal migration, stressing the need for them to stay on the continent. He noted that Africans should rely on themselves for development, saying "we have the mineral resources, and the people". To this end, he reminded the youths about the fact that the former colonials colonised the continent because it is the richest in the world. He told the youths that the colonisers had treated Africans like animals. Read full article HERE.

Mapondera, F. A. Says: - Having highlighted some of these issues in my commentary published in celebration of Africa Day on the 25th May 2009 (CLICK HERE)I couldn't agree more with His Excellency President Muamar Ghadafi. However there is a need to accurately define what Africa's goals are as well as to what extent unity amongst African brothers & sisters stretches. More often than not African goals have been distorted undoubtedly by external influences in the form of Western Governments and on the other hand 'unity' is often banded around when there is a political objective to be realised. There are many ways Africa could benefit from 'unity' but 'unity' should mean exactly that and should be evident in ALL aspects aimed at development in Africa.

In working to unify the continent we should not marginalise those in need and those who will suffer the consequences in future of a myopic approach, the YOUTHS. In all future pursuit of unity, Africa should realise the role youths have to play and how they are undeniably going to be the leaders of tomorrow. If through unity a United States of Africa is born eventually there needs to be a change in the approach for engaging youths, impart them with the necessary tools to make them successful leaders of tomorrow.

Disclamer: - Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information supplied herein from other websites, CIYDA cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. Unless otherwise indicated, opinions transfered from other websites and expressed herein are those of the author of the ORIGINAL article and do not necessarily represent the views of CIYDA, it's Executive Director and the CIYDA Team.

What is CIYDA
Contemporary Indigenous Youth Development Africa (CIYDA) is an non-profit organisation founded in 2008 and is based in Harare, Zimbabwe. CIYDA is working to develop and empower the youths of Zimbabwe for the benefits of the nation and Africa as a continent through the use of new media, information technology and networking amongst other things. Through these drivers, CIYDA aims to facilitate an information hub and service provision in the areas of Business Start-up, Social & Cultural Integration, Socio-economic Mentoring and Volunteering. CIYDA currently has a network connection of over 500 Zimbabwean youths in many countries amongst them, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia and Canada.