Geingob says through collective vision and unity of purpose, Africans will usher in the 'new Africa', an Africa where more than 1.2 billion sons and daughters of the soil can live in peace, unity and harmony.
We owe much of the spirit of Pan Africanism within which we celebrate 57 years of African unity to our founding fathers, the extraordinary personalities, who I refer to as the first wave of African leaders," Geingob said.
He said their successes and Pan-Africanist vision also played an instrumental role in molding the minds of younger cohorts within the settler colonies of southern Africa, from where a later group of first wave leaders emerged, such as, Agostinho Neto of Angola, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane of Mozambique, Sam Nujoma of Namibia and South Africa's Nelson Mandela.
Geingob says the second wave of African leadership surfaced during the height of the Cold War, when geopolitics divided the world into the East and West confrontation.
"This was followed by a transition, where new leaders emerged, who I refer to as the 'third wave of African leadership'," he said, adding that the focus in the third wave is to instill strong democratic principles and to strengthen processes, systems and institutions in order to deliver shared economic prosperity.
