NewsHour Extra covers the conference with Global Kids and Manhattan Neighborhood Network

Video from
Durban

Diaries from Durban

Diaries from Durban
Dezroy "Dez" B.
Global Kids

When I think of Africa…

When I think of Africa, I think of a history untold. The only thing we know is when slavery began and how Africans were taken to America. But we don't know what happened before that. What were Africans before they were enslaved? How did they live? How did they get along?

I think about the things they went through, the battles they fought to be free. Africa, a place with so much history untold. I don't know what to think. I can only ask questions.

On the film "Cry Freedom"

Is it a crime to say what you believe? Steven Biko was an African who said what he believed. The "Whites" (I hate to use that word) were mad by the fact that everyone was listening to what he had to say. It is great to see how one voice can make a difference, but the problem is, what effects will the difference create. What did I see? I saw that during Apartheid it was all right to hate someone because of the color of their skin, even to beat them. And it was a crime to listen to some people, to hear how they felt and learn their story.

On the "Ghandi"

Ghandi was a man who tried to beat the system with non-violence. He was a man who tried to liberate India from the British. He fought violence with non-violence, fire with water. If a man hit you on the right side of your face, turn the left side to him. What does this have to do with South Africa? Ghandi began what he did in South Africa. And like Ghandi, leaders in South Africa tried to beat the system with non-violence.