An Account of Manifesto's Addi "Mindbender" Stewart's recent journey...

As I read about brother K-Naan and brother Sol Guy’s trip to Somalia, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own recent trip to Ghana. There are a thousand life lessons embedded in the multi-faceted madness and magic that is happening in the world today. Personally knowing K-Naan and Sol, and having shed tears to the original revolutionary version of the World Cup anthem "Waving Flag," I felt their heavy pain and anger, yet it was oddly juxtaposed against the enlightening pinnacle of bliss I experienced when on the other side of the African continent. If one thing has become vividly clear in the midst of this, it is that selfish greed and systemic mismanagement is festering at the core of the crisis in Africa, and all nations in the world struggling to serve even the basic needs of its citizens. This is not the first famine in Somalia. Yet the truth remains: if we don’t learn from the past, we won’t learn, or change, in the future.

I see the picture of them walking when they reached the motherland, reflecting on the time since K-Naan has been back home. “Ten years since we dreamed of this day, not under these conditions....but we're here nonetheless.” I was born in Toronto, Canada, and my parents are both Jamaican. Personally, I have waited 33 years to receive the blessing of my first trip to Africa. When I reached Ghana and stepped off the airplane, the first thing I did was kiss the ground. I was in Ghana to teach and inspire children at a variety of schools in Awaham County, a beautiful village found two hours outside of Accra. The conditions of the community when I arrived were like nothing I had ever witnessed in my existence. It was like the evolution of the National Geographic conception of another country. In Awaham, there were some one-room mud huts with non-insulated walls and straw ceilings, no paved roads, no street lights, chickens and goats running around… an opposite universe compared to the concrete chaos of a major metropolitan city like Toronto.  Strangely, without all the accoutrements of modern civilization, life feels more REAL. More pure. More sacred.

As I look at “The longest shoreline in Africa” picture, I am reminded of one of the most heavenly visions I have ever known: flying over the clouds of Mali and Burkina Faso. Maybe it’s the lack of industrialization, but they don’t make clouds like that in Canada, not anywhere that I’ve seen. It’s breathtaking to see that shoreline. I also saw what was obviously an area that was pure desert land, and there were only the vaguest parallels to the flatlands of Saskatchewan and Alberta, ha ha. Nature is magnificent.

Now, seeing the pictures captioned: “(1) When the world refuses to take notice”, “(2) When the world refuses to take notice” and “(3)The boys in the hood” were like nothing I experienced in Ghana. The moment I saw them, I thought of the disparity between… everything. Between oppressed and impoverished people and blissfully privileged people, between beautiful tropical environments and war-torn and violence-ravaged communities, between countries with some semblance of law and order and countries without governments, and thought about how much sacrifice, social change, and spiritual healing is going to be needed to move towards the day where Somalia knows the peace and stability of Ghana. In Africa, I felt TRUE LIFE CONNECTION to all the people I crossed paths with. And seeing these pictures in Mogadishu, I think: if one person in this world is suffering unimaginable agony in life, we virtually all are. Especially in this circumstance: one soldier’s victory is another civilian’s suffering. There is no rich without poor, like there is no famine without over-consumption.  The solutions are so very complex, as Sol Guy said, but if there’s one thing that is certain: this world is unimaginably imbalanced. The only people I saw with an AK-47 in Accra were patrolmen (and a woman), who were clearly in a state of peacefulness and service to the community. The one soldier I spoke to joked of being attacked by too many mosquitoes. Sadly, Somalia’s soldiers don’t have the same luxury at the moment. I pray for the day to come.

And finally, this is the part that opened my eyes the most. These pictures: “(1)The Eyes -- Impossible to look away”, “(2) A young Somali doctor doing everything he can to help under the most extreme circumstances, explains the needs to K'naan and I at Banadir Hospital, where K'naan was born” and “(3) The vibrant colors of an IDP Camp (Internally Displaced Person) in Mogadishu” immaculately illustrated a lesson that informs all I will ever know and learn about Africa: even in the midst of excruciating struggle, economic  instability and even genocide, there is always divine beauty within every person, and they express it without words. The dignity, the humility, even the royalty of the people is without parallel, considering the circumstances. In Accra, the worst problem I experienced was the mad traffic jams, a result of still-developing cityscape infrastructure. Few streets were paved, and it was more like “exciting adventures in automobiles” than “a drive to the mall”, when travelling. But that’s a world apart from an IDP. I admittedly have little understanding of that concept, but even the homeless have some sort of home here in Toronto: the streets, and the shelters. Apparently, an internally displaced person does not even have these options, and that is beyond unthinkable to me, as a problem to solve. But the beauty remains. The clothing is colorful, and the faces aren’t painted with endless pain. I saw the same thing in Awaham county: no matter how little money or clothing or possessions any person had, they were ALWAYS abundant in hope and love. Thus, they were rich. Their material needs just were not completely taken care of. And that’s what I believe it is our life mission to figure out: how to take care of each other better…

There is a patient path understanding unfolding in Africa, learning from the problems of the past and manifesting the best possible solution in the present while finding a righteous future, and it’s amazing to behold. How can hope exist where so much death and destruction has been created? How can we, the world, get out of perpetuating such selfishness and properly distribute the wealth and resources of the planet to each other? Because that’s one last thing I thought about Ghana: IT IS THE RICHEST COUNTRY I HAVE EVER BEEN TO, as far as natural resources go. Gold was literally under my feet at one point of my journey, and that wasn’t even the most valuable mineral at the site. I experienced fresh water streams so clean I drank directly from them, while swimming in them. Ate delicious natural foods, directly off tree branches. I have never seen such a rich country. Rich in what sustains life. So why is Ghana abundant in some resources, while Somalia is suffering? Like it was said before: “selfish greed and systemic mismanagement” of the immense riches of Africa. On an individual level and a national level, there is much change that must occur.

On an international level, this is even more true. But ultimately, I want to send love and hope to brother K-Naan and brother Sol Guy for their efforts to help the Motherland heal from this moment. I believe we can do anything we care about doing, as individual people and collectively across our planet. Picture the most beautiful world you can imagine… and hold on to that vision until it is what you feel in the world outside your mind, instead of the dreams inside your heart.

Love,

Addi “Mindbender” Stewart