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Latwell Nyangu-Youth Interactive Writer

Africa is the future and its young people have big plans for making it the greatest continent on earth.

With our limited resources we have lots of ideas and we should not hold back when it comes to our own ambitions.

Knowing that we have real shots at doing something that has never been done before, of being useful in a way that produces exponential impact and being able to inspire the next generation of young Africans, that is exciting.

Take a walk through a shanty or a capital city in most African countries and I assure you, you cannot fail to see children being embraced by problems.

But its the determination we have that has seen us making strides across the globe.

We have defied the odds as students. Our major focus is to make a breakthrough through academic liberalisation.

Experiencing life in developed countries such as the United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia among other countries is often an aspirational dream for many students born in developing countries.

But whether you wake up being there or not we are proud of being African because of the Ubuntu our continent holds.

Also, the African system is quite disciplinarian and strict regarding raising us.

The African mind dwells on the more intellectual and philosophical than the material.

The African is certainly more conservative, less showy, the African will avoid trouble and associating with the negative elements of society.

Also, if you are an African, you will tend to avoid issues that will place you on the radar and make you vulnerable to becoming jailed or deported.

As we strive to achieve career goals, some individuals, in some countries, have a special gift of grasping academic content more than others. It has been established that students of some countries in Africa have high intelligence quotient (IQ).

That makes us a unique continent.

This week, I am focusing on us being African students.

On May 25, the continent commemorated the creation of Africa.

The Africa Day is observed annually to commemorate the founding of the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) which was created on May 25, 1963 and it is a precursor of the African Union (AU).

Across the nation and continent various activities were lined-up with the people expressing selfless revolutionaries who sacrificed their lived and personal comforts for the liberation of the people of Africa.

But while the general populace was showing such a gratitude, I just thought of us to be part of this identity as students.

Let’s take pride in us being Africans and prove that we are the best in the world.

Despite all the challenges we face as students, let’s find pride in being an African.

Being a student is something else, we should also be thanked for waking up every day going to school.

It’s not an easy journey, worse still cold winter season, no wonder why Government had prioritized to pay students through grants. I hope and wish one day, it will provide for us.

Going to school is a not walk in the park. Some of the students have humble beginnings that they cannot afford going to school.

Some are orphans, some have no capacity, some are languishing in poverty, some travel long distances to get to the next school.

It is common that some students have no shoes, some have no food to eat at school.

But the most important thing is, we find pride in being Africans.

Industrialisation, affordable air travel, and the emergence of the computer age have aided this situation by reducing the world to a “small village” where students are mobile and traditional borders are more flexible.

And education is one sector of the developed economies that has been heavily influenced by transborder movement with a considerable number of students coming from Africa.

We play a very significant part in the future of this continent and we should equally be treated with respect and dignity.

I could talk about our incredible diversity as a continent, our beautiful climate, the warmth of our people, our resilience our gorgeous landscapes and fascinating wild animals, our interesting paradoxes, our wealth in natural resources and many other things.

According to some researches, given same facilities, same environment and academic syllabus, students from Africa always perform better.

According to some research, students from South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Senegal always perform better when it comes to intelligence and innovation.

The research shows that Nigerian students are the most innovative, and are followed by students from Egypt.

Students from Kenya and Zimbabwe are good in arts courses while those from Ghana and Egypt are good in science courses. Nigerian students have the capacity to perform better in business courses.

Students from Africa have been opting for international education in recent years. They aspire to receive better education and thereby secure their dream job. However, moving abroad has its share of challenges.

Students abroad might have primitive ideas about Africa and its people and thereby hold certain stereotypes.  Some people still think that countries in Africa are very backward and lack economic development. However, this is not true as most countries in Africa are making significant contributions to world economics, and governments are making efforts to strengthen the education system, the economy, and the standard of living in Africa. The students from Africa find such stereotypes absurd and offensive.   

The Intelligent Quotient is also reflected in university ranking  where South Africa,Egypt,Morocco and Nigerian universities are ranked the best in the continent.

But for me more than anything else, being an African student gives a unique identity.

We are proudly Africans and wish you Happy Africa Day!