This week we witnessed history as Obama took the oath of office as the country's first black president. For those of us who were at the National Mall in Washington DC (braving the frigid cold temperatures),we witnessed the almost surreal moment in awe and amazement. I could feel the anticipation and the excitement from the over a million people who had come from all over the country.
But we should always remember that Obama's victory is testament to the power of the youth movement in this country.
While acknowledging their important role in his election, Obama reminded those attending the Youth inauguration ball,that they were the ones who believed in him before anyone else took him seriously. They lent their time,money,expertise and commitment to the cause of electing him.Such a powerful youth movement is still to take a root in our continent.
Last week we spoke about such power and the need for African youth to challenge their leaders, and demand recognition.

It is evident that in many parts of Africa, governments don't trust that youth have the knowledge or maturity to contribute to public policy. So on Upfront this week,i asked our listeners about the level of consultations by government, before it makes decisions or policies about them. The answer is little if none.This is why most youth distrust government or doubt their abilities to understand their needs. Many experts agree that the more governments engage youth in the policy making process,the more trust and confidence they will place in them.

It is true that involving youth in policy making is one of several strategies gaining support within the youth movement. Look at the current make up of the Obama White House,many in his staff are young people. In addition to contributing good ideas to the planning and legislative process,youth make excellent members of boards and task forces that advise or implement public policies. So it is only fair that their expertise and advice be sought at all times,most especially if an issue directly affects them.

In most African countries youth make up more than 50 percent of the entire population. Behind such big numbers lies a lot of power and influence in determining the political direction in our countries. Unfortunately young people have been used as political tools by politicians for their own personal political goals.In many parts of Africa, much of the setbacks to a smooth democratic process is caused by violent outbursts by youth from the warring political parties.
The irony here is that they always claim to be fighting in the name of democracy. In Ghana's recent election a report from the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) warned that youth groups like 'Kandahar, Aluta and Azorka' boys in the NPP and NDC were posing a great threat to the otherwise smooth process. Just as in Ghana,we witnessed such youth groups in Kenya,Uganda and many other African countries,using violence as a form of expression during election times.

It is clear that these young people are pawns in a larger political game,often fighting on behalf of their political 'godfathers'. However when they get into office,these young people are forgotten until their services are needed during the next election.
So on the show we explored if these millions of young people around the continent could use their numbers, power and influence to positively steer their country's political and economic processes.

Our countries are still run by people from a couple of generations back. There is nothing wrong with that if these same people were nurturing young people to take over from them. However we find that they not only stifle young people's political growth,they also use them for all the wrong reasons. I challenged a couple of guests to tell me what it means when we say that 'youth are leaders of tomorrow'. This mantra has been repeated very often but seems to bear no fruit.

In fact it should be completed like this 'youth are leaders of tomorrow but tomorrow never comes'. Jesse Masai who ran for office in Kenya in the last elections seems to agree with me. He says that the 'old guard' is not interested in leaving office unless they are forced out. I personally object to any form of violence. There has to be a peaceful way of asserting ourselves on the political systems. This would put pressure on the political leaders into recognizing the power and influence of the youth vote. The most effective way of achieving this would have to be a consistent and regular engagement in the political process,with a clear understanding of what we need to see as change.
Most times,this type of change requires 'new blood' to take over from the existing leadership.The best way to achieve this is to back candidates that represent the youth demographic and speak to their issues. Fredrick Gateretse a young political activist from Burundi says that young people should stop relying on political 'godfathers' who in most cases take young talented people and exploit them instead of nurturing them.
In the U.S, hope and change were the themes of Barack Obama’s campaign, and as we head into his inauguration, half of youth aged 8 – 18 (49%) say his election makes them feel hopeful and excited. According to new research released by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Education (CIRCLE),schools can make a difference. in providing and promoting civic learning opportunities and developing civic commitments. They suggest that such opportunities include:
• discussing current events
• studying issues about which students care
• experiencing an open climate for classroom discussions of controversial topics
• studying government, history and related social sciences
• providing opportunities to interact with civic role models
• engaging in after-school activities
• learning about community problems and ways to respond
• working on service learning projects
Most of these have been already discussed and often suggested by listeners of Upfront. We hope that our educators are reading and listening to these suggestions and more.

Our first show this year focused on the debate about the relevancy of the tradition of paying bride price. Bride price is a fee that is paid by the prospective husband's family for the hand of the bride. Some people argue that Bride price symbolically represents a women's submission to men in African culture. Others say that regardless of the symbolic undertones of exchanging money or property for a woman,bride price is a vital element of our culture. Such proponents claim that this tradition is the cornerstone of the institution of marriage. Its necessity is however debatable,and as usual on Upfront,we sought out your opinions from around the continent.

As expected, we had interesting and diverse opinions on the show,with listeners making their case on both sides of the debate. In anthropological terms, bride price is described as payment made in exchange for the bride's family's loss of her labor and fertility within her kin group. That description was my main contention with this tradition.If bride price is meant to replace lost labor that the woman will transfer to her new family,does this mean that her new role is akin to servitude? What about the man,does his family also deserve compensation too?

I am all for keeping our traditions and cultures,especially those that are meant to advance our societies,however the implications of exchanging money or property for a woman does not sit well with me. In this modern African society; where women have the same roles as men,the line has been blurred on who is the bread winner. Thus the 'traditional roles' of either sexes have been dramatically changed by our new economic reality.
I expect that as our societies advance and we acquire more education,our challenge is to look at such traditions in hopes of either reforming them or entirely scrapping them. Now,don't get me wrong here, i am not in any way advocating that once we are educated,we should discard our tradition,to the contrary,education should help us appreciate the best in our cultures,but at the same time we should be able to examine those traditions that don't make sense.
I am all for the tradition of bride price,if it is meant as a compliment and sign of gratitude to the bride's parents. But that was not its original intent,so the question of its relevancy is still up for debate. Whats your view?

This week's show was the closer to a busy and rather historic year for Africans and the world in general. However as a general consensus,we believe that much more needs to be done to pull Africa out of its development predicament.

Analysts agree that our continent is pegged at the bottom of the global development tree. The recent UN’s Human Development Report, which indexes 174 countries on the basis of literacy, life expectancy, schooling, population growth, and per capita GDP, the bottom 20 countries are all African. This is mainly because living conditions have not improved, and in other cases they have declined.

So the questions we attempted to answer on the show are;if our continent is so rich in natural resources,and we supply much of the raw materials that industrialized nations use in their industries.What is the one single thing responsible for Africa's failure to get on the same developmental path as other continents such as Asia.

Areas of interest were demarcated without regard to the diverse and independent groups of Africans living there. People with no common history, customs, language or religion were forced into colonial units. Antagonisms and latent hostilities between groups were ignored. Some people point to western policies bieng the primary cause,stating that the west has no interest in seeing a developed Africa. Others like Todd Moss--who was a guest on the show--an author of the new book "African Development: Making Sense of the Issues and Actors" point to colonialists who by hastily drawing our borders,ignored the geopolitical impact of grouping together people with nothing in common.

Thus as Meredith Martin states,the modern states of Africa were borne out of a " geopolitics of ignorance and presumption"-- with 10,000 African polities amalgamated into 40 European colonies and protectorates. 'It was a firestorm just waiting for a match.' she concludes.

We all know that this does not fully account for our problems.I believe, and so do many others,that the heart of our developmental malaise lies more than a single issue. We have fundamental problems that require a leadership ready and cognizant of the need to change the direction of our continent. We basically have failed to muster that type of leadership mainly on a political level,willing to put aside petty political interests for the greater good of a nation.

Most importantly,we need an education that gives our people the right set of skills and knowledge to compete in this global environment.Change is not going to come if we remain ingrained with the same philosophy and attitude as the past fifty years.