Why “Do Your Little” No Be Small Thing
And How Little Things Can Help Change The World
This October, 2021, Msingi Afrika Tv (www.msingiafrika.tv) launched the “Do Your Little” campaign, a series of inspiring short videos with messages that are designed to encourage Afrikans to do, even if it is just one thing, to change the environment within themselves and/or around them.
Oftentimes, circumstances in Afrika can seem to be so overwhelming, weighing people and communities down in a sense of hopelessness, frustration and even despair. When one focuses on the seemingly unending cycles of coups, loans taken by governments, policies that fail to address the need on the ground which are written by people who should know better, corruption and thievery of the public coffers – with the real perpetrators getting away with it, while petty offenders are dealt hefty fines or terms of imprisonment. The overall narrative that has been portrayed about Afrika being futile, hopeless and useless can seem to be a painful and heart wrenching reality. The kind that begs the question, “Why bother?” or decisions like: “Why should I stay here? I’ll take my talents elsewhere.”
The truth is, it is not easy to live under the circumstances that many Afrikans live under, as a handful of people parade themselves around, behaving like they are better than everyone else, while they are the ones oppressing their brothers and sisters, in full cooperation with the globalists. Sometimes it can feel like every last ounce of our resilience has not only been tested, but drained until there is absolutely nothing left. Increasing cases of suicide, domestic violence and murder, child abuse and other forms of social violence indicate a society that is under intense strain, and threatening to succumb altogether to the ungodly pressures that they face on a daily basis.
With all the chaos and confusion around us, it is easy to remain focused on what appears to be the cause of our pain: the government, the Bretton Woods Institutions, multinational corporations, big pharma, big agriculture, big finance, a corrupt police and justice system, poisonous food crops, crazy economy and so on. It is easy to do so, but doing so only limits our reality to focus on things that do not actually determine our identity, purpose or destiny. They certainly can serve as impediments, but impediments are only ever meant to be overcome – even as we use them to triumph over the darkness of the soul, to gain victory over our own weaknesses and fears. Focusing on them actually becomes the one thing that prevents us from looking beyond the challenges to the opportunities that exist DESPITE the challenges. This is one of the things that has kept Afrika down and bound.
But what if we could do things differently? Think differently? Talk differently? Relate differently? Love differently? Teach differently? Act differently? Take back control of our lives in some way that helps to restore our sense of dignity, that helps us to reconnect with our identities, destinies and purposes? What if, despite all the pain and the torment that we have suffered, we could actually find light, hope and joy in the circumstances we are in, simply by creating them ourselves? With sheer determination and commitment to succeed, no matter what? What if we could redefine ourselves, our families and homes, our communities, nations and continent – by pushing back against the lies that have held us bound for so many generations? Now, wouldn’t that be an amazing and worthwhile use of our time, physical, emotional and spiritual energy? What if we could just say “you know what, I am tired of wasting my life waiting for that big break, let me just do the closest things I can, with the much or little that I have right now.”
That’s what Do Your Little is all about. Taking our eyes of the seemingly overwhelming mountain of social pressure that surrounds us and focusing on one thing or two things that we can do to change things within or around us. For example, instead of repeatedly asking the government to step in and rectify a problem with the sewage in your community, when you are being repeatedly ignored – find that young engineering graduate and work out a solution that can help keep your environment clean and healthy for you and everyone else around you. It is not something that necessarily takes cash to solve, because in your midst you may have someone who owns and runs a hardware shop, some able-bodied men and women who are willing to do the manual labor to get things cleaned up, some taxi or matatu drivers who are willing to foot the bill for rudimentary road repairs once the area has dried off, and so on. And, even if you end up being the only one working on the solution for the sewage in your community – you will not only have made a difference within yourself by resolving something you were frustrated about, but you will also have demonstrated to your community that it is possible to resolve issues around you without succumbing to emotional or social stress. No, that action does not absolve the government from its responsibility or failure to perform, but what it does is remind you and others that the power to actually change things rests with you, not a faceless, nameless bureaucrat in an office somewhere who is not keen to manage his or her responsibilities well, or a Member of Parliament who only values you when it is time for him or her to try to get your vote.
Do Your Little is a reminder of social responsibility that requires you to get out of the little universe that you have created around you and to see what is really going on in the society, to care about it and its significance to you, your family and the entire community and to find a way to do your part to resolve things. So, if your part is knocking on your neighbor’s door during lockdown to find out whether they have food that night or not and offering to share something to help push them through to the next day, then do that. Many people are giving in to despair because they do not know where else to turn. But, instead of finding your neighbor’s lifeless body hanging from the ceiling one morning, because they could not hold on for one more moment, perhaps your intervention – will be the reason why this person regains hope and is able to push forward with renewed zeal, just because somebody (i.e., you) took the time to check on them – even though you might have felt this was an inconvenience. One woman in Marsabit who cared enough to find out more about a young mother living with an old woman was able to save both her and her infant child from death, just by asking a question. That’s how this works. That’s how immediate the results can be.
Do Your Little is a demand for you to come out of your shell and to stop assuming that working for a corrupt government and doing nothing about it – even if you yourself are not engaged in acts of corruption – is acceptable. It puts pressure on you to activate your desire for positive change by causing you to have conversations with your team members or even your administrative superiors that may be difficult or even awkward and may put your job on the line. Because, remaining quiet and acting to the contrary means that you are complicit in the activities of your office and government in fleecing the tax payers who keep you fed. Do Your Little causes you to be dissatisfied with complacency and apathy and turns you into a force for good, right in the heart of darkness, as it were.
It can be as simple as picking up litter, or choosing to throw your trash in the dustbin as opposed to the drain, or the road – or it can be as bold and brave as picking up the microphone during an international conference and disputing the lies that you know are being presented there by the governments of the world. Either way, it is a choice not to comply with mediocrity, cowardice and failure and it is a mighty decision to tear down the walls of evil that are threatening our Afrika each and every single day, and that are narrowing the spaces within society where the current and future generations are able to interact and live.
Do Your Little is about choosing not to ignore the plots and schemes of darkness that are being rolled out with such singular focus against Afrika and the world – choosing to call them what they are, instead of joining in with others to sugarcoat the facts that our world is being poisoned by people who do not care to stop, our children are being programmed to become slaves of a system that will devour them and spit them out once it is done with them, we are living out a lie and building a system that is based on lies and oppression, instead of creating something that is actually real and beautiful – that the freedoms that we were told we are entitled to, based on the different constitutions and international treaties and covenants are non-existent.
Most importantly, Do Your Little is a reminder that every single person under the sun is ultimately responsible for the state of and the nature of the world around them – and that it will be incumbent upon them to step forward and create life for themselves, their families, their communities and nations… and Afrika as a whole. And by each doing their ‘little’ and teaching the young ones to do the same, we will see a transformative revolution take place that will create the environment we need in order to thrive.
So, if you do see the Do Your Little videos online, take a moment to watch and listen to the messages, get in touch with Msingi Afrika Tv if you have ideas you would like to share, share the videos with friends and family alike, and have conversations around them. But, more than anything, if they stir something within you that causes you to want to respond by taking some positive action in yourself and the world around you – step forward and Do Your Little … because your ‘little’ can change the world.
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