by Peter ssebulime
The Pan African Pyramid will on its 2nd Pan-African Pyramid global Awards and 3rd Anniversary BonFire Dinner ceremony honor the heroic works and Pan-African ideals exhibited by former Sudan Vice President late John Garang De mabior (June 23, 1945 – July 30, 2005) who even at the time of his death in a plane crash was from Uganda on a peace finding mission for his country. According to Pap’s Chairman and Speaker Andrew Irumba Katusabe, Garang will be awarded as African Revolutionary Leader.
Also on the list of recipients is late John Komuruyange Kalekezi,father to IGP Gen.Kale Kayihura as African Revolutionary Life time achiever, Fagil Mande, Redpepper’s Arinaitwe Rugyendo,South Sudanese Grace Andrua Anasio and Rtd. Justice Patrick Tabaro as African Veteran Educationist, African Young Social & Dev’t Entrepreneur,African Woman Pan-African & Young Entrepreneur and African Renaissance respectively, Irumba revealed.
The event will take place on 28/8/2017 at fairway Hotel Gardens by the swimming pool.
The Ambassador of South Sudan H.E Samuel Luate Lominsuk is expected as chief guest.
“Because of the Pan-African spirit, comrade Kalekezi was determined to walk from Kampala to Khartoum- Sudan where he would pick a plane which was sent by his friend in Egypt where he was to meet his other friends to begin the Pan-African agenda. But when he reached Gulu town from Kampala, agood Samaritan gave him a bicycle which he rode up to Khartoum Sudan and then jumped on a plane to Egypt and indeed the struggle begun” Irumba narrated during the press briefing he addressed at Fairway Hotel last Friday.
According to the Organizers, the event is planned for two major reasons namely;
To celebrate together the achievements as pan-Africans while evaluating their performance and setting Goals for future generation to foster Pan-African ideals and to grace and honor the heroic works done by their forefathers in Pan-African struggle world over who stood up in the most difficult circumstances of their times and advocated for RIGHTS and FREEDOMS of Black people around the world, both yesterday and today.
Gen.Elly Tumwine, Prof.Kajabago Ka-rusoke, Ndere Centre’s Steven Rwangyenzi, Fort Portal Mp Alex Ruhunda, African Union veteran Muzei Peter Wankulu and former UN Ambassador Olara Otunu are some of the pioneer recipients of the historic award that was launched last August 2016.
Irumba said the idea behind is to begin re-constructing and changing the youths mindset that Africa is not third world as mis-Educated by our very own schools which are still ‘infested’ with colonial syllabuses.
“We have the most mineral deposits in the whole, Congo is the richest with the most minerals in the world, but up to now they are the ones telling out our stories the way they want as if we are dumb, and the story is that we are third world, that we are soo poor, that we are merely consumers of everything from west without question, we need to begin this mindset change with the youths to believe in themselves that the future of Africa and their destiny depends on their actions or inactions, not in ‘them’(west) and that the future is today,” he warned.
He added that they will use the same occasion to recognize and empower the young generation who are trying their best to emulate and move in the footsteps of their fore fathers in Pan-Africanism in various ways, giving examples such as Arinaitwe Rugyendo, Hon.Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentumu a.k.a Bobi Wine Grace Andrua Anassio etc.
“We need not to be held back by our history alone, we also need to encourage and groom the young generation as good future African leaders in various aspects, by mixing the generations on the award ceremony is to bridge the struggle and pass it unto the our generation to take up the task from our fore fathers”, Irumba explained.
The Pan-African Pyramid is an intellectual non-partisan discussion forum built on the pillars of Pan-Africanism, patriotism and nationalism whose ideal/pre-occupation is to revive intellectual discourse among the youths with a bias of re-constructing our lost Pan-Africanism, Patriotism and Nationalism values and spirit.
Pap debates, powered by Fairway Hotel and Splash are held every Friday from 5-9pm at Fairway Hotel, Kampala.
Topics are deliberately conceptualized to address deficiencies by filling in the perceived gaps in the levels of awareness to generate knowledge and solutions to African problems, first by Africans themselves.
Pan-Africanism is an ideology and movement that encourages the solidarity of Africans worldwide. It’s based on the belief that unity is vital to economic, social, and political progress and aims to “unify and uplift” people of African descent.
The ideology asserts that the fate of all African peoples and countries are intertwined. At its core Pan-Africanism is “a belief that African peoples, both on the continent and in the diaspora, share not merely a common history, but a common destiny”
