Director of the Commission for Pan African Affairs, Dr. Ikael Tafari, speaking at the Youth Millenium Breakfast Meeting at the Hilton Barbados today.

Scores of young people attending a Youth Millennium Breakfast at Hilton Barbados, hosted by the Commission for Pan African Affairs (CPAA), as part of a week-long bicentennial global dialogue, were told that they should be more knowledgeable about their history having benefited greatly from the struggles of their ancestors.

The sentiment came from CPAA Director, Dr. Ikael Tafari, who told his audience that “your generation is probably the most beautiful, talented and intelligent of all the generations of our history”.

Noting that this generation of young people was important because it represented the goals and the visions that his generation was not able to achieve, he said: “Your generation has some challenges to face and you can only face them if you are equipped with knowledge.

United Nations Youth Ambassador, Chad Blackman, addressing the audience at the Youth Millenium Breakfast Meeting at Hilton Barbados today.

“Don’t let anybody fool you, there is no greater weapon than knowledge. The most important thing you can ever accumulate in life is knowledge of self. When everything else in life passes on, there is one thing you will always have, that is your self,” he said.

United Nations Youth Ambassador and featured speaker, Chad Blackman, said the biggest opportunity for global success remained the renewal of our collective minds as an African people.

“Some of us today underestimate the real power of the mind, those who have won the mind, have won the war. … Our values as an African and Caribbean People must not be driven by the mainstream of the western world and that of the pseudo-black versions of who we are as a Diaspora,” Blackman said.

A section of the audience at today’s Youth Millenium Breakfast Meeting at the Hilton Barbados.

He recommended that the CPAA and the Division of Youth Affairs, facilitate an Afro-Caribbean think-tank to create strategies, solutions and the way forward to deal with the many challenges faced as two distinct, yet common regions.

“Certainly it must be underscored by the inclusion of the best academic minds, boys on the block, young businesspeople, artistes, upcoming cultural activists, faith-based organisations from both regions, among others,” the UN Youth Ambassador said.

The Walter Rodney Youth Foundation, one of the initiatives coming out of today’s CPAA Youth Millennium Breakfast meeting, was officially launched by his son, Shaka Rodney, who delivered remarks on behalf of the family.

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