READ, WE NEED YOU TO!

Sometimes in 1941, Franklin Roosevelt (President of The US then) and Winston Churchill (Prime Minister of UK) met to decide how the future of the world will be after the world war! They released a statement afterward. This statement will become known to the world as "The Atlantic Charter". The Atlantic Charter had 8 Principal points. The third says “all people had the right to self-determination”. You must remember that the Atlantic Charter was written for people in Europe. When they wrote this, they weren’t including the Africans and the Asians who were still forcefully part of the empires, especially the UK.

Mahatma Gandhi

A tiny looking man will READ this document and it will become a powerful tool in his advocacy against British rule in India. 6 years after signing the charter, India would achieve Independence from the UK. That lanky man was Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi had studied law at the Inner Temple in London.

Somewhere in Ghana, a child was born to illiterate parents in 1909. He attended his elementary schools in Ghana and left Ghana to America for his tertiary education. He arrived in America with about 50$ in his pocket. He would spend the next few years of his life getting an education. Although poor, he worked hard and spent his time reading the insight of ages. One day, he began to cry out that he needed to go back home that there was some work that needed to be done there!

He would return home, join a nationalist movement of his people and mobilize his people in an unprecedented way.  On March 6, 1957 Ghana became an Independent Nation and Kwame Nkrumah, the son of the illiterate parents who got an education became the first Prime Minister! In fact, the story of Kwame Nkrumah is common amongst many of the Independence fathers of Africa. Many of them received education in Europe, returned home and used that education to fight for the freedom of their people.

Frederick Douglas

Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes, most times, your reading and understanding will have an influence on not just yourself. Your ability to comprehend can become a major tool needed to set many free. The education we receive is meant to empower us to continue the battle for a better world.

So, I want to remind you dear reader that we will need your learning in the coming years. The world will need your learning. What is at stake is more than you can imagine. Be reminded that your understanding may become crucial in the affairs of men and maybe the ONLY thing that could change the destiny of your people!

The Bible speaks of a man named Daniel. In Daniel 9:2, the Bible says “In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the books according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet that the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be 70. So, I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.” The Children of Israel had been in captivity for 70 years and many of them had gotten accustomed to this, but one man OF BOOKS. A man who had read understood the times and began to intercede for deliverance.

During the years that Slavery was at its peak, many whites said that black people were not having the capacity to live normal life. They said that black people were of lower species, that they cannot live on their own- in essence, they were born to be slaves. It took the life of one man to change that. That man was Frederick Douglas. Born into slavery in Maryland. His master’s wife, Sophia would begin teaching him how to read. Her husband disapproved of this telling that reading will make the slaves desire their freedom. He was right. Frederick would teach himself to read and write. In the intervening years, he became a free man. A popular abolitionist, a social reformer, a writer and a statesman. He became a symbol of what black men and women could achieve when free. His life was an example for the abolitionist. He often said “knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom” and “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free”. He was instrumental in ending slavery.

I do not need to state again what role reading, learning, and education can play in the formation of transformational leaders! So much was at stake, so much is at stake. We cannot afford to fail, we cannot afford to not be ready when the time comes! 

In the immortal words of Che Guevara, “The first duty of a revolutionary is to be educated”.

PS: This essay was inspired by a sermon preached by Dr. Mensah Otabil.