#WalkTogether: 100 Years in Mandela’s Light
The world celebrates Nelson Mandela 100 birth anniversary today, July 18, 2018. Amidst a series of Pan-African movements, Africans Rising for Justice, Peace & dignity is proud to have been one of the hundred ‘Sparks of Hope’ selected by the global campaign #WalkTogether - to celebrate
initiatives that work to continue the long walk to Freedom and are guided by Mandela’s legacy.
The Elders,
a group of independent leaders founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007 to
work together for peace, justice, and human rights, originated the
#WalkTogether campaign. They will present the work of all of 100 ‘Sparks of Hope’
at the Nelson Mandela 100 Activities today in South Africa, and to the
world leaders gathering at the UN in New York in September 2018. The
100 Sparks of Hope are communities working in solidarity to realise the
freedoms that Mandela dedicated his life to achieving and embody the
values of compassion, empathy, and
unity that The Elders wish to promote globally in the face of increasing
divisiveness, fear, and xenophobia.
“We
invite you, Africans Rising, to be part of this year’s #WalkTogether
Sparks of Hope platform. For we have seen your demonstrated commitment
to amplifying broad demands in connecting struggles, building
solidarities and cooperation within and amongst campaigns for social
inclusion, economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, and gender
justice for all.” – The Elders.
Our
decentralised movement is working across the continent to foster an
Africa-wide solidarity and unity of purpose of the people of Africa to
build the future we want – a right to peace, social inclusion and shared
prosperity. Over the years, through pioneering a fresh approach
to tackling Africa’s pressing challenges and creating shared solidarity
for all, the movement has reached over 15 million people through both
its online and offline platforms. Major collaborators on this journey
are movements, people, civil society organisations, trade unions,
governments, artists, business leaders, entrepreneurs and others – based
on our shared resonation with the Kilimanjaro Declaration.
We
thus see a great deal of hope in being part of such a walk for freedom,
today is an opportunity to reach out to as many people as possible in
an attempt to actualise Mandela’s dream. Our media platforms – created
on the path of campaigning for the Africa we want – will swell
throughout the day with Mandela's legacies. Our Collaboration &
Engagement Coordinator, Farida Nabourema
will be representing Africans Rising in the 16th Nelson Mandela Annual
Lecture delivered this year by former U.S President Barak Obama and the #WalkTogether for #Mandela100.
Africans
Rising, too, crave to leverage the same vision across the continent -
peace, justice, dignity, and
solidarity amongst all Africans. With the spirit of Pan-Africanism and
joint-action from the most committed minds across the continent, our
movement remains unflaggingly willing to actualize this vision.
Speaking
at the launch of the #WalkTogether campaign on the 18th July 2017 in
South Africa, Graça Machel, co-founder of The Elders with her husband,
Nelson Mandela said, “The long walk to freedom is the flag Madiba has
left for us to carry forward. Grassroots organisations around the world
are delivering these freedoms to their communities every day, around the
world, often outside of the view of the media. They deserve to be known
for their courageous moral leadership. They are the forces we should
never leave behind in the actualising the vision of Mandela. We will, at
this point, celebrate one hundred of these inspirational
organisations like ours, which we will call the ‘Sparks of Hope ’. They, too, are small movements that keep sparking actions for the better hope for the Africa we want.”
Finally,
the Sparks of Hope platform was launched online in September 2017 and
has garnered the engagement of over 65 million people on social media
channels. The Elders have undertaken public activities in cities around
the world in Europe, North America, Latin America and Africa to showcase
the ideas the 100 Sparks of Hope offer toward addressing key global
challenges. We hope to play the needed role in adding up to the series
of activities the others have been doing to making it all possible.
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