If the youth are the future, their dreams are the blueprint for it.
These dreams; the great, and the not-so-great, are reflections of societal ambition.
In the last five years, I have variously studied at university and worked in Australia, China, and Japan. Currently, I am an aid worker in Kenya.
With little effort on my part, a suburban quarter-acre block complete with a Hills-hoist drying the nappies of 2.3 kids seems a likely future prospect. With this and the almost stereotypical university travels under my belt, I feel like I am living the modern Australian student dream. This has led me to investigate the dreams of my peers throughout our global village.
Everyone knows the Great American Dream. The dirty-poor-to-stinking-rich story is still the mould of many American personalities. In politics there is the ultimate dreamer Martin Luther King or, more recently the Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards. For entertainers there is J.Lo. For business icons, look no further than Bill Gates. In all fields, the list is long.
The Japanese Dream is just as formulaic but otherwise unlike the American Dream. As a student of a Japanese high school, I heard my peers talk of their desire for a stable job and a nuclear family. My host sister studied abroad only briefly to improve her English before returning to Nara to begin what she hopes will be a lifelong career in economics. This dream is reflective of a fiercely modern society that continues to pride itself on sustaining traditional values.
But what of Africa and its people? The lack of consideration of this dream seems to indicate, yet again, that the continent is condemned not to dream but to suffer.
Either way, there are perhaps two dreams for young Africans—what one might call the Great African Dream and the Not-so-great African Dream.
I should note that the following comments break a self-imposed rule not to discuss Africa as if it is one country. Of course, it is not. It is, for the moment, 55 countries. But for present purposes, my travels across six African nations indicate that there is a consistency in the hopes of its people that justifies use of the generic title.
The Not-so-great African Dream is to escape the African nightmare. It is, therefore a stepping stone to other dreams: the Australian Dream, the American Dream and many others. By way of illustration, in 2003, one-third of Kenyans