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Do we have any one in this gathering who does not have a family? Or experience family life?

Jane Howard in one of her speeches said, ³Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a
family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one´.

Even if I wanted to be sceptical of the fact that all of humanity have a common origin in Adam and
Eve, the expansion and contraction of my own family tells me that those whom we know so well
and are so closely related to today will at some point in history become total strangers to us.

I was lucky to find one of my great grand mothers alive. She was hale and hearty and up on her feet
when I grew to know her. Even though she had only two children of her own, the two children grew
into big families. She was the rallying point for all the family members. ³Unite! Make yourselves
one. Do not fight one another. Hold onto each other´ she would admonish!

Yet each person has a path to follow, a destiny to fulfil and whether we like it or not, water must
find its own level.

I witnessed few members of the family becoming emotionally and ideologically alienated. I
witnessed members of the family marrying into other towns, other cultures and other tribes. I
witnessed members of the family taking up appointments in far away lands, children of whom
most members of the family never saw, not to talk of these children¶s own children. Many of them
have become totally absorbed into the places and cultures of their new abode.

Branches continue to branch out till today. Such that children of the same roots are now
total strangers. They do not know me, I do not know them; neither do our children know
each other.

We are total strangers.

On the other hand, while i yearn for the loving feel of far way relations, I have people from towns
other than mine, cultures worlds apart from mine whom I see everyday, relate with all the time,
support one another in time necessary, share times of joy and times of sorrow. They are the first to
hear or know anything about me.

This is paradoxical. It makes me conclude that Jesus Christ was right after all when he asked,
³...And who are my brothers?´

You are my brothers, you are my kinsmen.

Let us unite to save humanity, shun behaviours that aggravate human suffering, promote love.
United in love is it. Any other classifications or divisions are artificial and mundane for God
created people and not tribes.

The next person to you wherever you are is your brother, your sister, and indeed, your kinsman.
You are my brothers, you are my kinsmen.

Thank you for listening!!!!!!

Kafilat Oloyede

Global Initiative for Community Development Awareness (GLIDA)