We Will All Remember

On the Weaponization of Dialogue, the Price of Silence, and Why I Refuse to Heal What Harmed Me.

Most students reading this can attest to being told to ‘put their head down’ or ‘find another way’ after naming what they’ve perceived to be injustice.

We spiritualize silence, and task the injured with inventing the cure.

Similarly, institutions like the African Leadership Academy trumpet pan-African development, transformative leadership, systemic change but fall silent when their own students demand that same transformation within.

You are told to build the future of the continent,

but if you fall out of line, or out of favor, the institution might sabotage your application, smear your name, leave your records to rot, or exile you entirely.

All this, while they parade your image on glossy pamphlets, and your silence is secured by the limerence of their promises.

‘We develop leaders,’ they say.

Until those leaders begin to ask why some of their peers are still begging for a piece of paper, two years after graduation.

And when your pain finally breaks the surface, the institution offers a stage, containment strategies to help the institution feel good about listening:

‘Let’s have a conversation.’

‘Join a roundtable.’

‘Come sit in a panel.’

‘Thanks for sharing,’ accompanied by the token finger-snaps🫰🏿.

Then nothing.

No, I will not sit in your roundtable.

No, I will not offer solutions to wounds I did not inflict.

I will name the harm.

I will walk away.

And we will all remember.