Purple Lipstick

What is Africa Youth Day?

Purple Lipstick is so excited to be joining the rest of Africa in celebrating Africa Youth Day 2016! The day is officially set for the 1st of November.  This year the African Union is encouraging young people to commemorate Africa Youth Day in their communities under the theme, ‘Promoting Youth Mainstreaming as a Catalyst towards Harnessing the Demographic Dividend’. This may seem a bit hard to understand so I'll try explain it as best I can :D

 The demographic dividend can be defined as the benefit that can arise when a country has a relatively large proportion of working-age population due to declining fertility. Africa, Zimbabwe included can be categorized as having a demographic dividend that results in a large number of youth. The importance of the demographic Dividend has been repeatedly acknowledged by African and global leaders. Investing in the young people produced by the demographic dividend is super important in order for Africa to achieve our economic, social and sustainable development goals!  The African Union is thus encouraging its partners throughout Africa to accelerate the youth agenda, with youth, under four key pillars that are part of what they are calling "the Demographic
Dividend Road-map."

Helping raise awareness for this is one of the reasons the Africa Youth Day has been put into place. The purpose of the celebrations is to promote an increased recognition of youth as key agents for social change and economic growth in all aspects of the African society, to contribute and channel the youth motivation, energy and idealism, and to reinforce the efforts towards the achievement of a sustainable development in the Africa.

 

 This Thursday our team will be celebrating by sharing a video focusing mainly on the 4th pillar of the road map, Rights, Governance and Youth Empowerment.  We will also be posting about African women who we think have been changing the trajectory of Africa. Make sure you keep an eye out for our video and posts by going over to our Facebook, Instagram and YouTube pages.

How Can You Get Involved?

Love Always,
Marlene

You may be reading this and may recognise the title as being   J. Cole’s song “Love Yourz”. This article will indeed be about the wise words J. Cole dropped in this song. If you don’t know this song…please go listen to it. It may be worth your while if you are ever feeling insecure about where you are in life.

So basically J. Cole opens with the lyrics “No such thing as a life that’s better than yours.”, and everyone has those days when they look at the girl/guy next to them and think, “I wish I could look like her/him”. Or if you are a student like me, you have probably thought “I wish I was as clever as student X”.

Well I have been having quite a few thoughts like this of late, and listening to J. Cole helped me. So, I just decided to share my insecure thoughts that I had lately because I feel a lot better when I know that I am not alone, like when Ashley Graham said that she had cellulite too! (LOL)
So, in one of my tutorial classes there is a guy who makes everyone feel inadequate by showing his knowledge. I do not think he knows it though (or maybe he does)! He just says stuff like “I did all the required reading and the additional reading” (by the way the required reading itself is quite a lot). Anyway, so I then shared with him that I had barely managed to finish the core reading and he straight up called me lazy! Obviously, I caught feelings at first but then I realised that his path is his to walk and I am on mine. I am certainly not an over achiever but I know I am doing the best that I could possibly do. So why would I want to be him when I am just outchea doing me. (well we probably all want to be like him but who knows maybe he is lying)!

The second issue is an issue that is very touchy for most women. Me included! And writing this is so hard for me. But here goes…I have continued with my love for rowing, something that makes me very happy and helps me a lot when I am stressed. When I rowed at Arundel, I was never self-aware cause well the meaning of “fat” and “thin” in Africa is very different than in the first world. When I rowed back home (and to be fair I have gained a little bit of weight) I was not fat. I was not thin but it wasn’t a situation where standing among people smaller than me would make me feel out of place. But here, the rowing girls are literally all size 2’s, maybe, if you are lucky, you’ll get a size 8 every now and then. Since, I am not a size 2 or 8, some people may consider me to be “fat”. I have put quotation marks because I love my body (sometimes- except when I’m having one of those days where it’s like the apocalypse in my life!)

I am not fat; I prefer the term “thick”. Yes, I wish there were parts of me that were not on me. But this is me. Take it or leave it. How I hate that I get cleavage, even when I am not trying to get it (because I am a 34E/F) is some other woman’s dream. Even though it is my nightmare it is still me and who I am. There is certainly no such thing as a life that’s better than yours.