LOOKOUT FOR GREED!

“The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning.” Nelson Mandela

Mandela preempts that the journey is going to be even more difficult, though they may have given their lives, Mandela seems to suggest it was easier to give their lives than to overcome greed. Casper Nyovest, a 33 year old South African Rapper shared in a podcast that it never ends, the wanting bigger and better and when you think your better is the bestest, the goalpost moves and there’s yet another thing to acquire and own, it’s a losing game, rather not play it at all. Many, many people are beginning to say this. In our society, we’ve heard it from Will Smith, Warren Buffet, has said it many times, he often ridicules the values, norms and standards of the so-called high-ranking social class. It’s an empty life of pursuing stuff no one actually cares about. So, I’m not sure why we are so insistent on pursuing something that is a zero-sum game. Mandela anticipates that this is going to be hard to perceive and overcome. But we know that we are conquerors and this too shall pass.

Each generation needs the audacity and courage of previous generations, each generation has their own generation of Mandelas, the generation of Steve Bikos, the generation of Kwame Nkrumah, each generation has the generation of Martin Luther King Jr. We have them in politics, but we also have them in music as symbolized by Miriam Makeba, Brenda Fassie, Bra Hugh Masikela, we have them in literary works as seen in James Baldwin, Tony Morrison, Maya Angelou among others. We have them in business, Mohau Polo Leteka of IDF, Gloria Serobe and Louisa Mojela of Wiphold, we have them in international politics, Kofi Anan, we see them in Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and each industry and space has them. Ours is to step into the work and do it. May we not be overcome by greed!