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Thursday 7th March, 4pm GMT
Between 23rd and 28th December 2023, I rode my bicycle from Lagos, Nigeria through Benin Republic and Togo to Accra, Ghana, as part of actions for Africans Rising campaign for the free movement of African peoples (citizens and descendants) on the continent. If I was asked how I felt during the six-day ride, I would have borrowed the ungrammatical yet profound expression of the old lady during the movement led by Martin Luther King, when she said “my body is tired, but my soul is rested”.
During the ride, I had the opportunity to see a part of the beautiful continent more keenly and to interact with her people so closely. I would recommend the freedom ride for anyone, even though I would also warn of its high risk and tediousness. It is a fulfilling albeit tedious journey!
I did this as a pilot ride for the “Panafrican Freedom Rides”, recognizing that such dramatic actions help galvanize the people towards campaigns like the Free Movement Campaign. I had proposed Panafrican Freedom Rides as one of the actions for the Borderless Africa Campaign in 2022, with the strong feeling that physically transcending the colonial partitions called borders left by colonists will help our people in psychologically transcending them and thus commit to breaking them.
About Gideon
Gideon Adeyeni is a community mobilizer with interests spanning the entire development spectrum, pushing for economic equality, poverty eradication, environmental sustainability, climate justice, political reform, and cultural renewal. With over a decade of experience in community mobilization, movement building, and radical campaigning, Gideon has demonstrated his commitment to various causes.
Actively involved in social movements in Nigeria and globally, Gideon is a member and volunteer with organizations such as Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR), Committee for a Workers International (CWI), and Africans Rising (AR).
Despite facing victimization for his activism, Gideon remains steadfast in his commitment to the struggle for social justice. He believes that the struggle for justice aims to establish an economic system that is truly equitable, a political system that is genuinely democratic, an environmental system that is truly sustainable, and a cultural system that is truly dynamic for every people and for all humanity.
Gideon’s recent focus involves mobilizing young people to take a central role in creating change, recognizing the youth’s unmatched energy, inventiveness, and optimism as vital drivers of core change processes. While doing so, he emphasizes the importance of a cross-generational movement.
