#RECANNW2019: The Android Generation Letter From mottanni That Didn't Miss It's Target.

Martial Gnoukapasi

Tanni Desmond
Awa(mottanni)

If there's one phrase that youths of today's comtenporary society are very familiar or vest with, it is that which reminds them more often and I quote "The youths are the leaders of tomorrow". 

This statement, used by most administrative authorities & politicians in Cameroon when given the opportunity to address the youths is so true. But the question has always been:

- are the youths equipped with the much needed tools, opportunities and the environment to shape this very future our leaders keep talking of-?

An answer from a youth will be a big NO while the aforementioned category of persons will say ALL THE TIME. 

     This differences in opinion and way of life between the Android generation (youths of today) and our parents of the traditional society/generation seems to have widen, leading to the misunderstanding and misrepresentation of who a youth of today's society really is.

 

Reason why when the youths of the theater department at the ongoing 4th edition of the National Artistic and Cultural Relaunch (RECAN) in the North West Region were given the platform, they drove their message across using a poetric letter in an attempt to help the older generation comprehend who a 21st century youth is.

Letter From The Android Generation By Tanni Desmond Awa(mottanni) - coutersy of maikem's Diary.

Dear Father

You think, I don’t like and do not involve in politics

Yes, this is because you have abused power and call it politics

So I prefer and engage in politics on social media and reliable channels

You say I don’t listen to or watch the news or political talk shows or read the newspaper like you so I am not current but I get my news raw as it is on social media like twitter and blogs

You say I do not go to church so I am not committed to religion like you but I prefer to single handedly 

study, know, talk and do the word unlike you so your believes don’t get to me but his, for I want to be the church not just go to church

I want to be the miracle not just wait for a miracle

You say I don’t care about my country’s growth and development because alI I do is castigate, help

negate, fail to relate, devaluate it in my eye and that of others.

But if I remember vividly, you are still playing America’s dv lottery and hated Trump for trying give it

another look or modify 

Father,

So what if I hash tag everything, use short hand, ignore punctuation, can’t you just understand that tradition only connects us to the past but creativity and innovation links us to the future and we have migrated from not looking at where we have been to looking at where we can be?

Rather than knowing a lot about a little, we have decided it’s better to know a little about a lot for in that we can fit in any sphere and feel comfortable and free

That is why we create businesses online, do marketing, get customers, sell ideas/goods and make profit without having to leave our house or is it too hard for you to understand that staying at home we are working and doing less and achieving more and that does not mean we are lazy? 

And yes we have apps to pay electric bills, water bills, buy clothes/shoes and electronics, we even have apps to help us find life partners and yes we know to you that is crazy.

You keep complaining about the world today. Children of nowadays, criticizing my generation, calling us android, advising us to go the farm forgetting who raised us. 

You either accept us or reject us but there is no way you are going to make us understand with the

manner in which you address us

Because you keep telling us to look up from our screens and little machines just for us to see you look down on us, it seems

According to you we are the lost generation, so you can stop blaming us for finding something to do whether is posting pictures on snapchat and Facebook that always show our buttocks or us drinking alcohol and smoking always hurting your feelings.

Guess what

The world is no longer yours, we took away a piece and created our own part so it’s ours

Now we question everything with a “why” before we do, which to you is so annoying

That we spend hours in front of machines, little IPad/IPhone just to find something that please us

And we don’t care about which tribe he/she comes from, his/her religion but we believe in Ubuntu, respect for humanity, and wherever things don’t make sense we question the rules because we believe the rules are meant to be broken and we would rather watch other TV shows like Bad Angel, Rumble, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead because it’s better than that government propaganda you call the news.

Can you blame us for wanting to learn something that we can apply in real life in schools, things like how to give intelligence to our emotions and that all laws can be bent which does not necessary mean being unethical as believed by fools.

I mean I group up learning from you that faced with a challenge, I either fight or flight but we, the android generation is learning to synergize not compromise

We are taking over and hear are our demands 

Not that you leave for us exorbitant houses, cash or wealth as heritage but that you listen

For it’s a new day, and even though we grew up in different generations, we are facing the same challenges disguised in different situations

So instead of you saying, I was once young like you so I know exactly what you need to do, you need to think about it

“Is that the kind of reason a younger version of yourself would respond to.”

Just allow yourself to see at the far end and see we are not that different

What if I replace books with Laptops, hardcopy dictionaries with Wikipedia/encyclopedia, emails with letters, androids with ledgers, all the wise men you ever know growing up, Mwalimo Julius Kambareger

Nyerere, Mzee Jumo Kenyatta, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Rolilahla Madiba Mandela, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Patrice Emry Lumuba with Google

May be If I replace Paul Biya with Amadou Adhijo or John Ngu Foncha, Daphney with Grace Decca, Salatiel with Kotto Bass, then may be you may understand our way of thinking.

For in today’s world there is positive and negative, for every plus, there is a minus or may be if you focus more on our multiple successes, we wouldn’t be as divided.

 Is my generation worse, 

Yes, let’s be honest

But he without sin cast the first stone so please gives us an opportunity to grow for it takes time for a caterpillar to metamorphose into a butterfly, not overnight.

This is the android generation and these are our only demand

Listen and learn to trust us before you judge us

Before criticizing us, remember you raised us.

                                    End.

Adapted from Spoken Word by Sullibreak’s Ted talk on AN ODE to the Millennial Generation

Mottanni is also a public speaker and a computer scientist, created this poem from the back drop of the cold war parents usually have with their kids nowadays because parents don’t understand that things are changing and youths don’t understand that, parents have a lot of wisdom to give them.

He says!

“My art is design to address this problem so parents should understand that youths are not against them but just that they see things in a different life while taking on their advice. This is to avoid conflict and promote development.”

                                   

A situational anaylisis of the impact of the ongoing anglophone crisis on culture has indicated that the sector is one of those that has been hit the most. 

The colourful traditional dances and annual festivals that use to crown the traditional end-of-year  calendar has been absent since the advent of the crisis. 

Thanks to RECAN 2019 North Westerners are living that ambiance again.

“Our youths should go back to their roots though we are matching ahead and looking at the future, our roots are very important because if you don’t have a foundation, you don’t have a future – Culture is not as bad as the youth think. There are good and bad aspects of culture but we should pick out those good aspects and make a better future. Knowing culture doesn’t mean you are backwards”. Says mottanni.