Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
AWARD-WINNING poet Obert Dube recently charmed the whole continent when he performed at the All-Africa Youth Conference held at Desmond Tutu Conference Centre in Nairobi, Kenya recently.
Being a Pan-African poet and reveling in the popularity of his Africa Day poem called Africa, Dube said the trip to Kenya penned his eyes in many aspects.
“I was invited to perform the poem Africa at the conference which was attended by youth influencers from across the continent. I was supposed to perform twice but they realised I could also do comedy and I ended up performing six times throughout the whole conference. They loved the performance and it was a worthwhile trip as I leant a lot of things from the conference proceedings,” said Dube whose acts have attracted more international attention than local.
All Africa Churches, a mother body of all traditional churches headquartered in Kenya, organized the conference.
The theme was: “Africa my home, Africa my future” and ran between 25 and 29 October.
The focus was on how youths can play a part in ending child marriages and prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases among other challenges in the continent.
Dube said some of the concerns at the conference included youth’s unwillingness to take part in decision making in their communities especially in politics where they prefer to take a back bench approach saying politics is for adults only.
It was recommended that youths should be active in politics and in decision making to help develop themselves and their areas.
The conferences also expressed concern about some abuses that take place at the hands of the so-called “Man of God” and how congregants protect church leaders at the expense of the victims.
Meanwhile, Dube said he had an opportunity to meet and discuss with Kenyan Pan-Africanist professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba who drove to the conference venue to pick him up at his home.
“He took me to his home where we spoke about a lot of things as he advised me to write a book of my work so that it can get into academic institutions. All his family members bought my CDs,” said Dube. @ncubeleon
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