The Liberty to Pull it Off

The following blog post was contributed by Isack Danford, Charter Teams Member from Tanzania

During my freshman year of college in 2010, I saw a poster from African Liberty.org calling for an essay writing competition on several topics from selected essays on political economy by Frederic Bastiat. That poster caught my eye, and I wrote a three page essay on the topic ‘What is Seen, and What is Not Seen: Three actions by Tanzanian government and the hidden costs behind such actions’. That essay won me a scholarship to attend the 2010 Students and Young Professionals Liberty Academy (SYPALA) summer school, which inspired me and a few colleagues to start up a student movement for liberty known as the African Liberty Students Organization University of Dodoma Chapter, where I was co-founder and president. I was able to ‘pull off’ a vibrant student organization on my campus mainly because of that essay.

As I was preparing for my final year exams in 2013, I came along a post on our organization’s Facebook fan page about Students for Liberty’s’ 2013-2014 Charter Teams Program, to which I applied immediately. Among other things, my experience in running an effective student movement for liberty on campus secured my position in the Charter Teams Program. My passion for individual freedom and the will to serve others made me participate effectively all the way through in the Charter Teams Training. And because I strongly believe in the vision of a free society, I was able to once again  ‘pull it off’ and become one of the few Students for Liberty’s’ Charter Teams Leaders from all over the world.

After the training ended, the task became to ‘pull off’ my mission to achieve a vision of a freer Tanzanian society where the rule of law abides, property rights are upheld and voluntary exchange is respected. In achieving this I have initiated the first national movement for liberty in my country known as the Tanzanian Students for Liberty (TSFL), which has begun by identifying and training potential students who believe in individual freedom and are willing and ready to initiate their own movements in their respective campuses. These student leaders and others whom we are going to reach out to in the coming weeks and months will comprise a massive youth movement for liberty that will liberate this country from some few remaining tyrannical tendencies.

On September 09, 2013 I ‘pulled off’ the ‘First Tanzanian Students for Liberty Leadership Forum,’ where representatives from five universities got a chance to know our movement for liberty in details,  understand liberty as a political philosophy, and discover opportunities available to them from Students for Liberty and other libertarian organizations and institutions worldwide. Moreover, I provided them with Tom Palmer’s ‘Why Be Libertarian’ — an introductory to the book ‘Why Liberty’ and SFL’s handbook on ‘How to Start A Student Organization for Liberty’. These few students are going to initiate their own student groups in their respective campuses and spread these ideas.

Generally, with strong support from the Atlas Network, Students for Liberty and other supporting partners like African Liberty.org and the East Africa Policy Centre, I’ll be able to exercise my individual freedom to ‘pull off’ a massive movement for a freer society in my region. I believe that we are all called for freedom, and I’m using my freedom to serve others by initiating a peaceful and prosperous order in my country. Starting something without finishing is a sign of failure, and for me there remains the fulfillment of that greater vision which I’m sharing with many other individuals all over Africa, and the whole world. My liberty makes it possible to pull all this off.