The Njema Manifesto, by Moses G. Njema.
Muthomi placed the book on his lap. The toilet seat was cold and uncomfortable, but where else could he be alone?
He had twenty minutes before his next tutorial. The girl from the bus had stood in the corner of the classroom throughout the first lesson. Her lips never moved, but Muthomi heard the word: Read.
He brought up the Wordlist and typed the first curious word into the search bar.
Manifesto: a written statement that tells the public what a political group plans to do.
On the second page of the book, there was a single line:
For posterity.
He typed this word into his search box, too:
Posterity: the people who will be alive in the future.
The list on the next page made Muthomi’s head ache.
One: The Free Education Hoax
Two: The Middle Class Hoax
Three: The Curriculum Reform Hoax
Four: The Digitisation Hoax
Five: The War Ahead
Of all the unfamiliar words, one recurred:
Hoax: a trick in which someone tries to make people believe something that is not true.
Muthomi typed in more words into his search box, mouthing the words, trying out their sounds: curriculum, digitisation… Sweat beaded his brow, veins on his forehead bulged, his eyes watered…
He turned to the next page.
Preamble: a section at the beginning of a book that serves to explain its purpose, aims and justification.
Muthomi squinted at the lines that followed. He asked his Creator for strength.
I have seen the future.
In one generation, maybe two, Eastern Africa will see a near-irreparable rip in the fabric of society. There already exist the Haves and the Have-nots, with the division in their economic wealth. What is coming is a division between the Knows and the Know-nots, with the division in the knowledge economy.
It has already begun. Look around you; listen to the data. For decades, our governments have betrayed us, and we have become complacent to it. It has gone without saying that when our governments offer us any service, we automatically assume that it will be poor. Anything that the government offers for free, in fact, is worse than poor and is completely ignored—it will be a waste of time and taxpayers’ money anyway. This has been our attitude, and it will be our ruin. Why?
Simple: those with resources can counter the government and provide private alternatives, but only for those with equal resources who can access said alternatives. Private is better, and more expensive, which makes it better still, and more trustworthy. This has also been our attitude, and it will also be our ruin.
You may say that this is just our lot, that public systems, from healthcare to transport to education, are all broken, and we should be grateful because other nations have it worse. You may say that nowhere on Earth are resources equally distributed. But I will pose a question to you: is it our lot for our government, our leadership, our Authorities, to betray our children long before they are conceived?
The fault lines run deep, set in the oppression of the imperialists that invaded our sacred lands centuries ago. We were, and still are, so oppressed that we cannot visualise our future—the present is hard enough. But will you not, for once, think of the world in which our unborn will live? Will you not, for once, curb the selfish, self-preserving strategies that run our lives, and empathise, indeed grieve, for our children? Will you, any one of you, have the courage to do something about it?
I have seen the future, and I have refused to take it lying down. My...