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It is incumbent upon policymakers, educators, guardians, and elders to ensure that the digital generation is not only empowered technologically but equipped ethically, politically, and constitutionally to shape a just and inclusive Africa, Chief Fortune Charumbira, the President of the Pan-African Parliament, has said.
He made the remarks on Monday 26 May 2025 on the belated commemoration of Africa Day in Harare while addressing members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Students Union (ZICOSU), at a meeting held under the resounding theme: “Empowering the Digital Generation: Advancing Justice, Reparations, and Resilient Education for Africa’s Future.”
He said the theme was not just a call to action but a declaration of faith in the genius, tenacity, and resilience of the African people.
Africa Day does not merely celebrate the formation of the Organisation of African Unity , now the African Union but affirms the collective spirit that binds Africans from Cape to Cairo, Dakar to Dar es Salaam. This spirit is etched in the bloodlines of freedom fighters, in the songs of poets, and now in the dreams and determination of a new generation: the digital generation.
Chief Charumbira said people are living in a digital epoch, a transformational age where algorithms shape realities, and information flows faster than ideology and Africa is not a peripheral participant in the global revolution but the epicenter of a new digital renaissance.
“Our youth ,who make up nearly 60% of our population are not just the leaders of tomorrow; they are the innovators of today. Across the continent, young minds are coding apps in Kigali, building renewable energy startups in Accra, and disrupting global fashion from Lagos. They are curating our culture online, challenging injustices through digital advocacy, and rewriting the narrative of what it means to be African.
“But with this power comes responsibility. It is incumbent upon us as policymakers, educators, guardians, and elders to ensure that this digital generation is not only empowered technologically but equipped ethically, politically, and constitutionally to shape a just and inclusive Africa,” the President of the Pan African Parliament said.
He added that transformative constitutionalism insists that laws must evolve to reflect the lived realities of the people that the governance frameworks must dismantle colonial legacies and socio-economic injustices while embedding equity, dignity, and participation into the very DNA of African states.
Chief Charumbira urged the students to work to shape the destiny of Africa, based on technological advancement and a just society.
“We must not outsource our dreams. We must not copy-paste solutions. We must write our own code socially, legally, and technologically.The empowerment of the digital generation is not a luxury. It is a necessity. It is the bridge between our painful past and our prosperous future. Let us walk it together — with justice in our hands, reparations in our hearts, and resilient education as our compass.May the winds of unity continue to blow from the shores of Senegal to the mountains of Ethiopia. May our youth rise ,not as beggars of aid, but as builders of nations.”
