Page 77 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 8

CUMMUNITY

continent, we have been delivering
far below our capacity as a con-
tinent and people despite being
blessed with an abundance of hu-
man capacity and natural resources.
Africa presently constitutes approx-
inflation. the Plague had on the region and
its people, critical societal transfor- imately 17% of the world’s popula-
At the time, the African presence mations began to take shape in the tion. Over the next three decades,
in the Southern Mediterranean, period following the Plague, which the global population is expected
Maghreb and Iberian Peninsula was ultimately ushered in the age of the to increase by 2.2 billion people,
firmly rooted, with Africans having Renaissance in Western Asia. with half of that increase attributed
established flourishing civilizations Once again in 2020, the world to the African continent alone. In
in these areas for the past 700 years. is in flux, and grappling with the thirty years’ time, one in every four
The African presence in these areas COVID-19 pandemic. Howev- people in the world will be African.
led to great societal advancement er, this pandemic isn’t confined Africa is also home to the world’s
as Africans introduced ground- to specific areas of the world but youngest population, with 60% of
breaking innovations in the fields of has spread across the globe. As the continent’s population under 24
mathematics, science, architecture Africans, it is imperative that we years of age. Annually, the nations
and medicine. It was, in fact, Afri- understand the world, our collective across Africa have millions of young
can scientists in the Iberian Pen- role in it, and embrace that times people entering into a labor mar-
insula who, led by Ibn Al-Khatib, of great turmoil and upheaval also ket that is ill-equipped to handle
having studied the Plague extensive- present tremendous opportunity. the continent’s growing youth
ly, wrote treatises on the Plague’s Just as our African ancestors saved bulge. This is of course primarily
origin and began to institute strict Central and Western Asian civili- due to the rapacious appetite of
public health measures to quell its zation from complete destruction the continent’s elite, who work in
spread. The treatises’ content was through sharing public health cahoots with foreign conspirators
widely disseminated and studied science and other forms of knowl- to steal our commonwealth and in
across Central and Western Asia, edge, we must grasp the great wheel turn, steal our present and future.
and mitigating measures were of history with both hands and Given the yearning of our youth
adopted, culminating in the halting steer our beloved continent and the for opportunities, it is saddening to
of the disease’s spread and even- world to a place of stability. Given see our young people underutilized
tual termination of the disease. our rich history as being the cradle and become disaffected, and this
Despite the devastating aftermath of humanity and the world’s oldest is to our detriment as a continent,
because Africa’s greatest resource

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