Quote of the Day
“It is not our diversity which divides us; it is not our ethnicity, or religion or culture that divides us.”
— Nelson Mandela
The Nelson Mandela Foundation’s archive preserves these words from Mandela’s Conversations with Myself. In the passage, he argues that the real division after South Africa gained its freedom was between those who cherished democracy and those who did not.
That distinction is worth sitting with.
It is easy to blame difference.
This person speaks another language. That family worships differently. Those people come from another region. Someone belongs to another ethnic group.
Difference is visible, so it becomes an easy explanation when a society is struggling.
But two neighbours do not need to have the same surname, mother tongue or religion to want the same basic things.
A safe street.
A school that works.
A government that does not steal from them.
A fair chance to earn a living.
The freedom to disagree without becoming enemies.
Cameroon knows something about difference. We have hundreds of ethnic communities, many languages, two official languages and several religious traditions.
That diversity can be manipulated.
It can also simply be what it is: millions of different people sharing one country.
The harder question is not whether we are different.
We obviously are.
It is what we choose to do with those differences.
Source: Nelson Mandela Foundation — A selection of Nelson Mandela quotes
Did You Know?
Africa has only 3% of the world’s registered vehicles—but suffers about 19% of global road deaths.
That comparison from the World Health Organization is difficult to ignore.
The WHO African Region recorded an estimated 225,482 road deaths in 2021. Its road fatality rate—19.4 deaths for every 100,000 people—was the highest of any WHO region. Between 2010 and 2021, road deaths in the region increased by 17%, even as global deaths fell.
But road safety can sound like something that concerns drivers.
It does not.
Think of the child walking beside a busy road to school.
The woman crossing the street after leaving a market.
The motorcycle rider carrying a passenger home.
The cyclist sharing a road with buses and trucks.
Globally, more than half of road deaths are among pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
And this is why calling every collision an “accident” can sometimes hide the questions that should follow.
Was the road designed safely?
Was the vehicle roadworthy?
Was the driver speeding?
Was there a pavement?
Could somebody cross safely?
Would an ambulance arrive quickly enough?
A road is public infrastructure. Its job is not simply to move vehicles.
It must also bring people home alive.
Sources
For discussion: When a dangerous stretch of road repeatedly kills people, at what point should we stop calling each death an accident and start asking what needs to change?
Continue the conversation in the Good Governance & Accountability room →
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