The past should guide us into the future - E.T. Mensah

 Accra (Greater Accra), 24th July 99 ?

 Mr E.T. Mensah, Minister of Youth and Sports, on Friday urged the youth of Africa to put the difficulties of the past behind them and look into the future with optimism.

"It is relevant to know and appreciate what went on in the past but that does not mean we should be glued to it. It should rather guide us to create a better tomorrow."

Mr Mensah was closing the first Pan African youth summit in Accra which brought together over 40 youth leaders from Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and the United States.

The week-long summit was organised by the Dubois Memorial Centre for Pan African Culture and sought to create a platform on which young people of African descent could exchange ideas.

Mr Mensah said certain bad practices that characterised colonialism, such as tribalism and elitism, still plague the African society because most people seek solace in the past.

"The circumstances of slavery, slave trade, domination of one ethnic group over the other are all lessons we should heed and resolve never to travel that road again."

He said there is evidence to prove that certain people resisted slave raids "so it goes to prove that even in the so-called uncivilised era somebody somewhere cherished human dignity."

Mr Mensah called for an informed leadership for Africa, "a leader who truly understands the circumstances around him and seeing his people as the most potent and available instruments of development.

"As young people we must eschew mediocrity and unnecessary comparison. We should always question to find out reasons why what is being done ought to be done."

The delegates called for a central African government that will break all barriers to African unity and prosperity once and for all.

In a communiqué read by Master Yomi Ademola, the summit asked that Africans in the Diaspora be given unlimited access to the mother continent in order to play a more meaningful role in the development of Africans.

They called for a human rights regime based on the United Nations Charter where the African could live in dignity and develop his or her potentials in an atmosphere where fear has no place.

"We ask for an unconditional cancellation of Africa's external debt."

The Summit urged African people to pay more attention to their environment and put the African culture on a right footing."