CWM Moderator urges youth to lead with transforming leadership at all African Youth Congress

and mo�va�on to use their talents and gi�s to build a thriving con�nent.

Africa has the largest youth popula�on in the world, with more than 60 percent of the vibrant con�nent below 25 years of age. As this popula�on con�nues to rise, there has been uncertainty over the con�nent’s preparedness to tap into this resource for economic growth.

ev. Lydia Neshangwe, Moderator of the Council for World Mission (CWM) delivered a Goodwill Message to the All Africa Youth Congress in Pentecost Conven�on Centre, Ghana on 1 November 2022, where she exhorted the young people to “take your place and lead us with transforming and servant leadership”.

Calling this ini�a�ve of the All Africa Conference of Churches’ (AACC) a “viable space for energising young people into meaningful ac�on”, the CWM Moderator was among those who brought gree�ngs to the Youth Congress themed “Africa: My Home. My Future”, which was intended to increase awareness of the poten�al and opportuni�es for youth in Africa, thereby inspiring their patrio�sm With the West indebted to Africa for its current prosperity, Rev. Neshangwe quoted Ghanaian female theologian Mercy Amba Oduyoye who said, “Our ancestors were busy helping the North when they began to develop their economies. Now the �me has come for us to concentrate on our development.” Affirming African Chris�anity’s “deep spirituality, intellectual capacity and commitment to diakonia and transforma�on”, she said that when it comes to mission, Africa should be mutually encouraging and suppor�ve to construct their future with their own hands and from their well. African Chris�ans must heed the divine mandate of unity and peace to achieve las�ng change, and overcome ethnocentrism and conflicts, she added.

Rejecting the portrayal of Africa as a hopeless and miserable continent by the international community, the CWM Moderator, who is also a Minister of Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA), proclaimed, “We are gathered here to declare that Africa is full of dynamism and many hopes. Africa is a beautiful continent and known as the hometown of all humanity.”

The Congress was convened under four themes – “Youth and African Patrio�sm; Ac�ve Ci�zenship; Jus�ce and Peace; and African Dignity”, unveiled by the Presidency of the Republic of Ghana in a colourful opening ceremony that included the arrival of the climate jus�ce torch on the way to COP27. The climate jus�ce torch is an ini�a�ve of the Pan-African Climate Jus�ce Alliance, with whom AACC recently signed an agreement to cooperate on environmental jus�ce and ecosystem issues. The torch is aimed at engaging youth climate ac�vists and boos�ng their influence in climate jus�ce making decisions, among other objec�ves.