Writing elucidates rationale, and allows one to articulate and properly explain themselves to others.
This is also how Wayne Rukero regards writing. He said writing and reading too are powerful tools that can be used to influence law and policy, the geopolitics of the day as well as key institutions and offices responsible for decision-making that have both direct and indirect effects on the well-being of Namibians.
The 24-year-old Rukero told Youth Corner that he loves reading, and likens readers to superhumans.
“There’s just something about them. Not only that; I believe when you can transpose healthy reading habits into writing, you become a double-edged sword – potent in every way,” said the LLB (Hons) graduate from Unam’s Justice Training Centre.
Just last month, Rukero emerged as a joint winner of the Best Paper written for the Afronomicslaw Academic Forum's inaugural conference. The forum brings together undergraduate and graduate students as well as early-career researchers from across the world interested in international economic law issues as they relate to Africa and the Global South.
“This award has also reinstalled a firm belief in me that we as young Namibians are indeed forces to be reckoned with. We have to brace ourselves with that reality, and inject ourselves into spaces that will enable us to compete internationally,” he said.
His contribution was titled “AfCFTA Investment Protocol Negotiations and the case of Namibia: A call for regional regulatory harmonisation vis-à-vis investment policy in Africa”.
Rukero stated that Africans’ fate is in their hands, and that the young and daring Africans must consolidate their voices and actions.
“Whether it is through writing and speaking, activism or politics, academia, civic leadership or industry expertise, we need to act now and stand together. Let’s curate the Africa we want to see”.
The keen writer noted that he has always been militant in going after his dreams, and praised his lecturers for honing his writing skills. The boy from the dusty streets of Khaxa-tsûs (Gibeon) started reading very early on in his school life, and has since received awards for best law student in Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law; was voted best speaker at Unam’s Annual Moot Court Competition; and went on to represent the Unam Faculty of Law in the SADC Moot Court competition in 2019.