Without doubt, peace is a fundamental component for development, invention, investment, innovation, personal growth, and ultimately the survival of the entire Africa. At the heart of every faith community, and culture, lies a need to advance peaceful co-existence to enhance productive, meaningful lives and sustainable societies. Peace underlies far reaching quality of life and the fabric of our communities; and as our weaponry becomes ever more powerful, our very survival as Africans on this planet depends on it.
Sadly, the modern world is becoming highly fragmented, less peaceful and unsafe for both present and future generations. The world today is engulfed by an environment of tension, violence, declining values, injustices, reduced tolerance and respect for human rights, threatening the future of the youth who deserve a peaceful and better quality of life.
Whilst it became necessary to stem this ugly tide, a former Federal lawmaker and a visionary/distinguished leader of thought, Hon. Bimbo Daramola has identified musical consert as a cultural diplomacy to promote human rights, justice, to reunite Africans and global peace, and more importantly using it as a catalyst to promoting cooperation and easing conflicts especially the incessesant xenophobic situations in the rainbow nation, South Africa and other parts of Africa.
The Ekiti born entrepreneur, politician and business mogul is the CEO of Bridge Concepts Nigeria Limited, a public relations and mass communications firm that is driving this stakeholders initiative to complement the diplomatic and bilateral efforts being taken to find a lasting solution that will lay to rest permanently the seeming perennial xenophobic attacks on AFRICANS BY AFRICANS as triggered from South Africa recently.
The recent resurgence therefore compels very strongly too, that while diplomatic and bilateral talks has its crucial place, it may not be a ‘one cure all drug’, rather every governments and interest groups need the deployment of other creative efforts from concerned stakeholders to accentuate renewed social – reconnection, re-engagement, re-orientation and re-integration strategies that will complement diplomacy, and other initiatives that will re-connect Africans with a ‘’renaissance of our Africanness’’ and strengthening of the chord that binds us as Africans with shared history of brotherhood, as sustained xenophobic attacks will rip apart the fabric of our ‘’Africanness’’ and Africa will continue in under development and remain the butt of global opprobrium, ridicule and jokes.
Drawing from the benefit of the hindsight, this latest move has full potentials to close gaps and create enduring peace that can engender a desirous atmosphere of love, peace, cooperation and prosperity.
Retrospectively, the Bridge Concepts Nigeria Limited, is conscious of the effective roles that music and arts played in the fight against apartheid regime, where continental music giants sang songs of mobilization that united the resolve against apartheid regime, songs like FREE MANDELA, WE WANT TO SEE YOU BACK IN SOWETO, FIRE IN SOWETO by Nigeria’s Sonny Okosun, and much later performances like the world famous UMOJA-spirit of togetherness, etc.
Those songs and performances were strongly laden with messages of oneness, togetherness, mobilized all Africans, and above all was a call to action in the days of apartheid, today xenophobia deserves to be frontally taken headlong with the same tools that helped in the days of apartheid.
-Oyin Princess