The First Lady of the United States of America is currently on a six-day tour of southern Africa. She is accompanied by her family. On her trip to South Africa, she talked about women’s development and youth development. On June 22, 2011 Mrs Obama made a keynote speech at a conference of the Young African Women Leaders’ Forum, which brought together 75 women aged 16 to 30 who have leadership roles across the continent.

As part of her speech at Young African Women Leaders Forum, Mrs Obama also paid tribute to those who sacrificed their lives during apartheid era. In her remarks she said:

“You can be the generation that holds your leaders accountable for open, honest government at every level, government that stamps out corruption and protects the rights of every citizen to speak freely, to worship openly, to love whomever they choose.

You can be the generation to ensure that women are no longer second-class citizens, that girls take their rightful places in our schools.

You can be the generation that stands up and says that violence against women in any form, in any place – including the home – especially the home – that isn’t just a women’s rights violation. It’s a human rights violation. And it has no place in any society”.

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This entry was posted on June 27th, 2011 at 12:04 pm by Lenard Kamwendo and is filed under Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.