I love reading. And I’ve been savoring as much of local content as I can. Most promising is the fact that we’re slowly moving from just targeting the locals to producing pieces that can compete globally and address pressing issues facing our generation.
Which is why I was pleased to get my hands on ‘The Unstoppable Youngsters’, a book by Takatso Kumi. A masterpiece! Masterwork, I think, must not only look beautiful, but must also provide valuable insights. Takatso Kumi, a leader in our generation, understands this better.
He delivers his message with absolute precision. Driven by a single passion, a single obsession: to see to it that our generation is guaranteed to succeed and makes use of various opportunities and resources available; starting with our minds.
This he describes as being ‘an unstoppable youngster’; a process of becoming not an instantaneous event.
Professor Himanshu Narayan on his foreword in the book writes, ‘This is a book about positivity. The motives become clear in the very first chapter: Basotho youths no longer want to treat the same paths that have been walked and followed by many generations. They want to believe they can and they will, bring about change.’
Takatso Kumi amazingly builds the core of his book metaphorically on a checkmate situation. In chess, checkmate is game position where a player’s king is in a threatened state of capture and there’s no way to remove the threat.
He enlists major problems facing our society today and how we can best move our pieces to win against them. This also strikes a chord in terms of our approach to life. He gives suggestions on improving our thinking and keys to unlocking our potential. Thus, checkmating the opponent wins the game.
The book also makes reference of and spotlights some of the brightest minds in Lesotho. Each chapter conscripts a quote or two from leaders in our society. Other chapters give simple examples on how individuals in our community continue to tackle some of the greatest issues facing Lesotho.
There are a few passages or quotes in the book that I’d love to reproduce here:
Men and women who will make a positive impact in Lesotho are people who have a sound judgement and understanding of themselves and their country.
We are considered poor because we have not defined who we really are. We lack proper self-definition. We have allowed other nations that know themselves better to come and define us in their term, not our own terms. So they have failed us, they are failing us, and they will no doubt keep on failing us.
Everyone who teaches you how to have more than enough in life will always teach you about YOU! It is a universal rule.
Children should no longer be asked the question ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ Rather, they should be asked this creative question, ‘What contribution do you want to make to your country and the world when you grow up?’
All of us want to do something for our country. We have gone through the school system but have not come up with a tangible thing to change our status quo from this system simply because of its poor practices, so we have been compelled to move out of our comfort zone.
It really sucks that I can’t share as much as I’d love to from the book. The same goes for my friends who’ve read it, and I’m sure millions of others. Hence it’s advisable to get your copy of the book on Amazon, Smashwords or Kindle Stores.