The Hope of Africa (Sept 11, 2012)

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Africa has so many problems – poverty, HIV, poor education, corruption, war – why would you want to go there? Because I have hope.  And I have hope because of people like Joseph, Kerubino, and Lino.

I met Joseph, Kerubino, and Lino in January 2007 in Pokot, a remote area in the Rift Valley. The story of how I met them is a long one that some of you may remember me writing about. It was during the last Kenyan elections – the election that erupted in violence and once again put Africa in the news for it’s display of political instability. But the short story is that they became my friends and they are a story of recovery.  I had the good fortune of seeing Joseph and Kerubino again this week, five years after our friendship began.

Joseph, Kerubino, and Lino were Sudanese refugees living in Pokot. They did not know how old they were, but guessed that they were in their mid-twenties.  They did not know what had happened to any of their family. They were a little trio living in an extremely remote part of Kenya. They shared a small house with each other and one January they shared ugali (maize meal) with a young American woman who also found her way to Pokot.

Joseph, Kerubino, and Lino are students. Joseph is currently working towards a diploma in Business, with aspirations of then completing a degree program in Business. Kerubino is double-majoring in Community Development and Peace & Conflict. Lino studied economics through secondary school and then returned to Sudan when he failed to find a sponsor for university.

Joseph, Kerubino, and Lino are the hope of South Sudan.  It doesn’t take long to figure these guys out. They want nothing more than to return to Sudan with the skills to help rebuild their country. Just this past January (2012), South Sudan gained its independence from the north, after over five decades of struggle and conflict. The country is young. The current president describes South Sudan as a baby that needs to be nurtured. And just as the infant mortality rate in Africa is dangerously high, so is the collapse of new governments. A little unrest… a coup… a power vacuum… a cycle of political instability. I’m no political scientist, but it’s not too hard to see that pattern playing out over and over in several African states. It makes you scared, makes you cynical, makes you lose hope…

But then you meet Joseph, Kerubino, and Lino, the future leaders of South Sudan… and you see the glimmer. You see three young men burning with an intensity, with a singular focus: to become educated to the highest possible degree and then return home to develop their country to the highest possible potential. You can hear it in their voices and see it in their deep dark faces. They speak of bridging gaps between ethnic groups, of developing the economy, of living peacefully with families. And you just have to believe in them. You just know that they will do it. You just see them and see hope.