“Succeed at all costs” a slogan that haunts the minds of the young Malian generation (and the entire sub-region), a label that marks the globalized African youth.
On the giant graffiti on the walls that ignite the sidewalks of Dakar (Dakar, Senegal), if there is one thing that I remember well, it is this crazy ambition of African youth, who want to move forward and succeed at all costs .
Credit @mohaventure
My friend Moctar will not tell me otherwise! He who tortures my ears every night with his mad desire to become a footballer, despite the difficulties and all the risks that entails… He dreams and wants to believe in it, from the top of his twenty years of existence on this Malian land, the land of eternal fighters for freedom and change (Mali). Moctar wants to leave his university studies at the Faculty of Public Rights, to embark on the ocean, hoping that his dream will come true.
In this vast country that is Mali, my friend is not the only one who dreams of a better future elsewhere
In the Sahel, increase in repetitive seizures for more than a decade makes life even more difficult. Malian land suffers from a scarcity of opportunities for young people. The poor governance of political decision-makers accentuated by military putsches which have exacerbated the security and economic challenges, not to mention the many corruption issues which create distrust of the authorities and make the population suffer. In Mali, the hope and chance of young people to come out of it with dignity diminishes daily. Young Malians are without prospects. I am saddened and horrified every time I hear the echo of the death of an acquaintance, a friend, someone close to me, compatriots or even young Sahelians or Africans, on the sea joining Europe. A feeling of helplessness mixed with revolt seized me by the chest.
But how to prevent this tragedy?
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: 22 MALIAN NATIONALS DEAD IN A SHIPWRECK IN LIBYA – #Mali
The Minister of Malians Living Abroad and African Integration has the immense pain of informing the public of the death of twenty two (22) of our compatriots… pic.twitter.com/AXUjpBLMdb— maliactu (@maliactu) July 7, 2022
I write, but my poems are still struggling to convince these thousands of young people exposed to the unbearable in their own country. My verses remain so far inaudible to the ears of our leaders to take seriously the issue of young people. It is always the same speeches and the same promises of a better future for young people, which are struggling to materialize. That’s why I give reason to the words of my friend Sidi, with his chats worthy of an Afro-pessimist: ” they only need us to mobilize during the elections, or during the big meetings and demonstrations. Those who represent young people are actually against us… »
You can’t convince someone who has zero hope in their country not to take the illegal immigration route. People who take the boats, the road to the USA … are well aware of the danger but at a certain moment making dangerous choices remains the only one …
— Sory (@IbrasoryA) September 2, 2023
I’m going to describe the situation to you, and swear it’s the truth!
In view of everything that is happening today in the Sahel, which is going through many crises, it is relevant that young people are manipulated. They are often manipulated and misdirected. This is why I warn them through my prose, I lecture them to dissuade them, I tell my friends grin » (chat room for young people around tea) that our development depends above all on us, and that it is in no way controlled by any foreign power. I tell them not to believe these new pan-Africans who are blackening their brains, because they are simply serving people who want to create disorder in our house. And not just clutter! It’s even more serious, they also seek to stuff people’s minds with colonial resentments, they stuff people’s minds with identity resentments that are beginning to instil selfishness and revenge speeches. The fake takes the real by the collar!
This crisis situation does not push young people only towards illegal immigration, it leads them to other slippery and dangerous grounds, always with the aim of success. Let us talk about the security crisis: the market to recruit young warriors is open today. Either it’s the jihadists who manipulate young people into following them, with a huge salary, or it’s the self-defense groups, with all the sermon of defending their country. Young people also seek success on social networks. Some find work through the “videomania”, as we can read in the press, these “”video-men” are increasingly called upon to broadcast propaganda messages, convey false information or invective. This in total disregard of the rules of good conduct, ethical and deontological principles, very dear to any professional journalist. Young people who follow this path become web-journalists without training or web-activists without really having a major cause to defend.
Succeed positively
Despite the difficulties in the Sahel, linked to the security crisis and the tense political context, a mechanism should be adopted allowing young West Africans to be able to dream freely at home. Dreaming of a possible and happy future at home. This inevitably involves valuing the human resource that young people represent for their countries. This also involves the opening of specific places and spaces, which would allow young people to assert themselves as young people, and which would allow them to speak freely by addressing all the subjects that affect them specifically.
As Barry-Flow, a human parrot that I used to see at the “Chicha House” in Titibougou, a district of the Malian capital, said: ” young people need training, coaching and guidance today in this country. We are the future of the country and it is unacceptable to see young people beating the pavement for a new colonization that does not speak its name in the Sahel today… »
During a demonstration against the French presence in Bamako. Credit @Ousmane Traore aka Makaveli
Young people are an asset for the development of any nation. It is important to instill in them safe and healthy values for the world of tomorrow. This necessarily involves support, training, coaching and good orientation. In my humble opinion, accountability within organizations (through volunteering at first) could be a solution for young people. This would perhaps allow them to reach the ideal of success they dream of, without getting lost on “wrong roads”.
Today, despite all the stereotypes that we stick to the African continent and more particularly to its youth, let’s be optimistic and hope that things change. On the entrepreneurial, cultural, media, environmental and even political scene, young people innovate and want to make success a credo. Young people are a dynamic forcethe new face of the continent is needed!
So agree to succeed at all costs, but positively…!