[Music]
I'm from a very proud town in a new
estates a land of warriors I tell you
[Music]
I'm from Aceh
you know jury of a local government area
of a new estates my people love
themselves so much and they take no
prisoners there's a popular saying in my
area in Buryatia and that simply means
that we can be consumed by foreigners
know that group would tell you the story
of our strength and resilience like the
west africa frontier force in 1906 the
white man showed up in my town we chased
them back no mean feat in 1918 they came
back this time around very well prepared
it was a war that would drag on for for
yes how was that possible how was it
even remotely possible that my
forefathers with their den Gon's and
matches could hold off the white man for
tafoya's we had a war strategy called or
Gaga agua we simply means that this
movement never ends there are 12
communities in my town and the war with
the white man we make sure that each
community goes to fight the white man
when they get hired the second community
comes and so somehow this white folks
couldn't figure out how this community
doesn't get hired so we fight them from
money tonight and the next day and the
next day because the 2 F communities
came together
and design this ingenious or Gaga guava
strategy it was a war that taught us
something even though we lusts after
FOIAs the one we bind together as a
people when we come together as a
community that's nothing we cannot
defeat the principal of Anja Ghana when
near nobody should be left behind kept
my people together and reminded us that
the sum of all of us is much much bigger
than anything anybody can envision I
imagine and so the white man did win the
battle we won the war because I'm sure
wherever they are today they will still
remember that small community that gave
them hell in the begin of the 19th
century it's just very clear that's in a
world of individualism in a world where
we are learning to be just by ourselves
every time we stretch our hand to
support somebody to hold somebody we are
holding ourselves and we're getting
stronger together my father was born
when his own father had already died he
wasn't there to see the bed of my father
and few years after my father was born
my grandmother also died Marie wacom I
stepped my father stepmother took him
and treated him like her own he had
nothing but he was extremely brilliant
my uncles noticed that this guy has
something extra and for more than 10
years in his life they relinquished
their stake in the cash crop in my
family and used every bit of it to Train
my father in school they didn't have to
do that but they realized and they
understood more than ever
that's Anibal and when you bury yourself
one of your hands will be sticking out
that's what we believe in we can only do
it together and the generosity of this
two uncles turned a poor orphan into a
teacher turn him into a supervisor of
schools and turned him into a king
before he died and his own life has
affected hundreds of others that
singular act of community that singular
act of community in the forties has
given modern hundred kids in my village
education for free whenever we come
together as a community something gives
we live in a world where we don't know
our neighbors I can tell you for sure
where I live in Abuja in that long
street I only know one family we live in
a world where were scared to have our
kids go playing the next compound
because we've lost the sense of who we
are
who've lost the sense of community and
we're making it incredibly difficult for
ourselves to survive in a changing world
in a wicked world and in a very very
difficult environment people are hungry
when we travel food in the last compound
kids go to school they're scared of the
molested people in a position of
authority exploiting the youngers and
under their care everywhere you look is
a culture of exploitation a quarter of
selfishness and things I had people are
going through difficult times people are
going through the pressure because they
feel alone in a world where they live
with many in a time when we are all
interconnected by technology we've never
been this lonely and because we are not
together we are not able to confront the
challenges we are facing my community in
the early part of the nineteenth
twentieth century understood the power
of community understood the power of
community in making sure that everybody
is taking care of my father is the
beneficiary of community I am standing
here before you today because I am also
a been
fish share of community I've been
blessed with three lovely girls in 2016
my father
bless his soul when to join the
ancestors he's been married to my mother
for 52 years
and that's yay every last Sunday of
August we come home to celebrate my
father's and my mother's wedding
anniversary in 2016 my mother was going
to celebrate that event alone for the
first time in 53 years when she lost the
love of her life
he had it's true she had a stroke and
barely survived we never knew who she
was gonna survive and so we all came
home to support her to let her know that
she still loved even though her husband
is no more dad we had an exciting events
went from Mass we had a lot of meals the
kids went to play in the swimming pool
it was fun sometime in the evening we
couldn't find my daughter Natasha
we felt oh she must be somewhere so went
looking the form of the evening was
shattered by a cry Escrima will never
forget from my wife and she said your
daughter is in the pool and when I
rushed to that pool my little girl was
lifeless I held her
I screamed her name and I begged God at
that moment to take my life and spare
'has we lost her at that moment my life
practically stopped the future was no
more how I managed to bring my family
back to Abuja I will never know but I
knew a part of me died with her that day
waking up in the morning was difficult
going to work was impossible smiling was
a luxury I cannot afford loneliness was
his constant companion because in the
midst of people I felt so alone I wished
for deaths you refused to come and when
I look at my daughter and my wife and
see the pain they were going through
everything in me was in pain every time
it was difficult for us to wake up in
the morning the love of the people
around us woke us up every time it was
difficult to take a step the love the
hands that were stretched out to us from
all over the world kept us up my
community people friends religions
taught me something that you can never
be alone if you have hands stretched out
to you and we embraced those hands we
embrace that love it made me wonder the
kind of love matter I would have enjoyed
in this world if she was here it made me
remember that the proud history of my
community of my town the proud story of
my parents has come a life in my own
life because love community concern made
it possible for me to take another step
it was a long journey of recovery but
every day that I was down somebody put
me up every day that I tried to cry
somebody wipe those tears and even in my
silence people stay happy I come away
from this experience understanding that
the only reason we're in this world is
that we are here for other people the
purpose of life is not just about what
you do for yourself is about what you do
for others and every time you open up
your hands somebody gets to hold it and
when they do they are stronger than they
were before they held your hands and
when they hold your hands were even
stronger than you were before and I can
tell you today that all the challenges
facing us as a people all the pain we go
through as individuals Audion settings
that confront us into the world that we
live in the onset into the fear
everything together together holding our
hands holding ourselves binding together
we can walk past every huddle we can
jump pass every hoop and as we open
their hands to receive and to give we
will realize that with community
everything is possible no darkness is
incapable of getting some lights thank
you
[Applause]