- The multi-talented artist recently announced his resignation as president of the movement
GOSEGO MOTSUMI
Following the announcement of his resignation as president of the Upright African Movement last week, award winning actor and author Donald Molosi says his last assignment is to translate and publish the “Dear Upright African” book into Setswana.
The Upright African Movement is a pan-African activist collective that Molosi started in 2017 that seeks to decolonise the modern African in innovative ways. In the same year, Molosi penned the movement’s manifesto which was published in book form by The Mantle Book in New York.
“I am currently working on completing that book project for May this year,” he said in an interview. “I am ending my tenure with the same love letter that I began it with because the state of the African classroom remains limiting to the African child.
East Africa
“I thank Batswana for being open-minded to my education activism. I also thank Tsitsi Dangarembga for being my mentor throughout my presidency and writing the foreword for our manifesto.”
Titled “Dear Upright African,” the book won an African Authors Award in the Best Story category in 2018. Still in 2018, the book was launched throughout East Africa when Molosi travelled and launched it in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.
After the tour, the manifesto was launched by Molosi alongside Tsitsi Dangarembga and in Germany at the African Book Festival of Berlin.
Younger generation
After serving the movement for seven years, Molosi recently said he was stepping down because he wanted to create room for a younger generation of activists to use the established platform to keep fighting for the decolonisation of the curricula.
One of Molosi’s most profiled causes was his quest to create awareness about the lack of African history in the African classroom, which spawned a radio show on Gabz FM in an effort to reach a larger youth audience.
“During my tenure as president, I pushed the movement to globalise and I am now happy to take an advisory role as a board member while a new generation of upright Africans puts those networks to use,” he said.
New president
“I cared most about the curriculum above all, and I think it is time for a new generation with different concerns to teach us all something new.”
Molosi said he is confident in the incoming president of the movement who will be announced in March. The incoming president is a social entrepreneur based in Zimbabwe and Botswana and is as passionate about decolonisation.
The president will oversee execution of the mandate in Kenya, Botswana and Tanzania. The president is the glue between these offices and reports to an international board.
Well-wishers
“The board is in one voice about the incoming president,” said Molosi. “African youth are ready to lead. The incoming president will be free to announce his focus, but I believe it will include facilitating trade and business between African economics as a form of decolonisation.
“Later in the year, we will also announce our diverse board to reintroduce them to our well-wishers. We wish to put educational reform on the minds of voters this election year.”
Says one of the volunteers of the movement, Clive Ganess: “Under Molosi’s leadership, this movement now has a branch here in Trinidad. He has energised a generation of Black and Brown youth. We wish him well in his next chapter.”