IONS Review #55 • March 2001

Spirit in Action

The Next Generation of Leaders

One woman, Hafsat Abiola. One man, Mirsad Jacevic. Their lives have been shaped and sharpened by human conflict. They have experienced the tragedy of friends and family being killed, witnessed political corruption and, all in all, have known first-hand the worst side of human nature. Yet because they have seen the worst in us, they now seek the best from us, and both have received global recognition for their efforts to help humanity. Twenty-six-year-old Hafsat and thirty-year-old Mirsad belong to the generation of young people who intend to transform society in the twenty-first century. But the most inspiring story of all lies under the surface: the story of why they do what they do.

Lynne Twist, an IONS board member who has developed a close relationship with Hafsat and Mirsad, reflects, "These two young people are bonded by the horrors they have seen, but they have turned them into gifts that have given them strength and stamina. Hafsat has tremendous stature for her age. She generates joy and happiness around her, despite the crises she has been through and the giant responsibility she carries. As for Mirsad, he is one of the most effective and powerful activists I've ever encountered. His actions come right out of the soil of his spirit; he's not just fighting against something; he's taking a stand for life.

"The two," she continues, "represent the finest voices of the generation of young people who are coming of age at the beginning of the twenty-first century. They move through the world with love just like Gandhi and Martin Luther King did, just like Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks did. Hafsat and Mirsad live rooted in a deep connection to spirit. Most people in their age group don't speak about that openly, nor do they understand their power. But these two do. And they realize it's a divine right."

Hafsat was born into a Nigerian family known for their courageous action to preserve freedom and justice. Her father, Moshood Abiola, was a famous philanthropist in Africa who used his money to promote positive societal changes. In the 1980s, he sponsored the movement against the military regime in Uganda, and he also was one of the key financiers of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. Because of his support during a crucial time for the ANC, he was invited to be with the heads of state at Nelson Mandela's inauguration. In 1993, Moshood Abiola decided that the best way to address the severe poverty in Nigeria, where the average income of citizens was about $300 per year, was to run for president. He won the election.

"Unfortunately," recalls Hafsat, "the military didn't want to leave power, and so they incarcerated my dad. They also attacked the activists who were marching and demonstrating for change, killing many."

"There is a spiritual foundation to the work I'm doing. I believe in meditation in action. If one's actions stem from a center of stillness and love, one is more likely to sense how we are all interconnected."

It was then that her mother, Kudirat Abiola, started her own movement to pressure the military to leave power. The pain hovers over Hafsat's words as she tells the story of what happened next. "Nigeria is a very sexist society in many ways, and so in the beginning they ignored my mother because they didn't think much of her efforts. However, my mom organized a twelve-week strike of the oil workers in Nigeria because she knew that the Nigerian military depends on the oil sector for about ninety percent of its foreign revenue base. The government was nearly paralyzed, and the military went crazy. They bugged the telephone in our home, and started tailing my mother's car wherever she went. In May 1996, they incarcerated her for twenty-four hours, threatening her. But once she was released, she continued her work to build a democracy movement. Two weeks later her car was ambushed and riddled with bullets. She was killed."

At that time Hafsat was living in the United States. She was only twenty-one, a senior at Harvard University, preparing to graduate. Her mother had planned to be at Hafsat's graduation ceremony, held four days after she was murdered. With her father still in solitary confinement and her mother dead, Hafsat immediately arranged for her younger siblings to leave Nigeria. "We were concerned for their emotional well-being, as well as their physical safety."

Hafsat also informed her siblings of a decision she had made. "I told them I wanted to do the work that would honor our mother and continue to fight for the ideals she was killed for." She met with students, journalists, and individuals from all types of professions to discuss the options for forcing the military out of power. From these discussions Hafsat came to the conclusion that it was crucial to first build a stronger, civil society. She therefore created an organization, named after her mother, called the Kudirat Initiative for Nigerian Democracy (KIND). And in memory of her mother, she specifically worked with women and young people. "KIND had the mission of enabling and empowering women and youth in Nigeria to make a difference in the political and social economic development of the country."

In addition, Hafsat attempted to raise awareness throughout the world that Western governments should not support the Nigerian military so that they could take advantage of Nigeria's oil and resources. She started a radio show (again named after her mother, "Kudirat Nigeria") that was broadcast from Scandinavian countries since they couldn't broadcast from Nigeria. "We tried to let people know what the military was doing to resist democracy."

In 1998, the Nigerian military ruler, General Abacha, died. "We had hoped the military would now release my father, but twenty-four hours before he was supposed to be released we were told my father had died of a heart attack. We believe he was killed. When that happened, the country exploded. There were demonstrations in the streets, lots of riots. People demanded that the military leave power."

Finally, the military was forced to step aside in 1999 and, at last, a democratically elected government held the reins. For Hafsat, this victory introduced a new phase. "I wondered how could I help the people of Nigeria see that the work had just started. We may have a democratic government, but in a democracy you have to influence the government, tell them what you need, hold them accountable, and make sure you stay informed of what they're doing, and what is possible."

Today, Hafsat spends her time exploring "what is possible." She has initiated numerous projects in Nigeria, including a computer training program so youth and women can learn how to access information, develop leadership roles and, in general, build skills necessary for an economy guided by technology. In addition, she started a "youth parliament" and a "women's parliament" to address issues such as the lack of investment in education, young girls marrying and having babies at age thirteen, females forced into prostitution, and the abandonment of sick children because their parents are too poor to take care of them.

"There are all these challenges," she acknowledges, "and we have to get organized and start working in small ways and big ways to meet them. The one thing I'm very clear about is that there is a spiritual foundation to the work that I'm doing. I don't believe in just meditating. I believe in meditation in action. There's a saying I heard: 'Stillness is not being still. That is a false stillness. Stillness is being still in the middle of turmoil, in the middle of a lot of action around you.' "

If one's actions stem from a center of stillness and love, explains Hafsat, one is more likely to sense how we are all interconnected. Hafsat feels that many global problems occur because of a "disconnection" between people. When you look at the history of Africa, from slavery to the fight for independence, she observes that what you find is a disassociation between the African people and the rest of humanity. Africans, she says, have been regarded as "sub-human beings" by other countries. Their dignity, she points out, has not been honored; too often the world saw Africa through the narrow lens of its resources—the gold, diamonds, and oil, and not the richness of its culture and people.

Similarly, Hafsat adds, the corrupt Nigerian military regime consisted of leaders who were disconnected from the general population. "General Abacha stole about four billion dollars and transferred that money to banks in other countries. One man decided that it was in his own interest to steal that money when the people of his country were living on $300 a year."

As Hafsat travels around the world talking to different groups, she tries to inspire others by stressing the need to nourish relationships and establish caring connections between people—not just within a community, or within a country, but between all races, all individuals.

"There are certain ways in which we can make a difference, and I think it starts with the spirit. How do you practice a higher consciousness? Isn't that the critical question? We have done so much in the world and to the world that we really ought not to have done. If we don't work to transform ourselves through a higher consciousness, if we don't put into practice what we have learned, then the transformation of our world is impossible."

A final personal note: Hafsat Abiola has asked Lynne Twist to be her adopted mother. They are planning a trip to Nigeria to attend a tribal ritual ceremony to formalize a connection born from the heart.

Mirsad Jacevic believes his destiny was kindled before he entered this world. He was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia, to a mixed family of Christians, Jews, and Muslims who couldn't decide what to name him. They argued constantly over a choice of names until finally his grandmother intervened. "Peace now!" she pleaded. "Peace now!"

It made sense. The family finally agreed that the baby's name should be Mirsad—which happens to mean "peace now."

Today, thirty-year-old Mirsad (known as Miki) is involved in peace-building activities around the world. "The story of how my name was chosen is symbolic," he acknowledges, "because it gave me the consciousness to spend my life working for peace on any level—internal peace, external peace.

"This story also reveals," he adds, "how important it is, even with the unborn, to work with positive thoughts. What do you want this child to be?"

While he was still a child, Miki's leadership skills surfaced. In 1984, when he was just twelve years old, the Olympic games came to Sarajevo. Miki discovered to his dismay, however, that the games were for adults only, and so he decided to organize, with the help of his friends, an alternative event that would be fun for children. "Within six months we created this wonderful children's village in Sarajevo, bringing together different cultural experiences. It was a breakthrough for me; it brought into my consciousness that you have to take action, and you have to do it yourself."

Prior to the war in his country, Miki also ran the youth chapter of the UN, and was president of the International Association of Students of Economics and Business, the largest student and youth-led organization in the world.

Then the young man who had been named for peace found himself in the middle of a war that killed family members and many friends. His grandmother, whom he considered his spiritual teacher, starved to death because she lived in an area where there was no food.

War also ended Miki's normal way of life. "You don't go to school anymore. Everything you knew before doesn't count. The people you trusted and thought were your friends turned out to be your enemies who tried to kill you. People you thought were not your friends, or relatives you hadn't seen in years, turned out to be angels who saved your life. It's just an amazing shift that happens."

Part of that shift was finding the jewel of the human spirit embedded within the tragic events. "Just to focus on the trauma," he reasons, "would not do justice to the immeasurable resilience of the human spirit which is able to pick up those pieces and say, 'We lived through this, but it is the reality of life.' Life is not simply a goody-goody experience. Life is not just about joy and happiness, where the end result is nirvana."

Miki's voice changes as he emphasizes his next comment. "A lot of people don't get the point I'm trying to make. For me, spiritual knowledge and consciousness fully include experiences of evil and experiences of joy. They're not separate. It's a paradox of living. You have to take into account the totality of human experience. It takes great human skill to negotiate daily what life is going to be about."

"Spiritual knowledge and consciousness include experiences of evil and experiences of joy. They are not separate. It takes great human skill,daily, to negotiate this paradox of life."

During the Bosnian war, Miki led a movement to reopen schools and universities, encouraging his generation to actively pursue a peaceful existence. His campaign, which was called "Academic Life for Bosnia," succeeded in providing support for more than 15,000 Bosnian students, and for these efforts he and his team were awarded a Peace Prize from the World University Service in 1993.

Miki now holds an MA degree in International Relations, an MS in Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and is completing his PhD. He presently lives in the United States, but due to his active involvement in conflict resolution, he spends a great deal of his time traveling around the world to hot spots. "Tragic appearances of evil are seen on this planet on a daily basis. It happens everywhere." Yet he stresses, "I claim that encountering evil has been the greatest learning experience for me. What I know today came through the path of seeing the full-blown face of suffering and evil."

Miki also feels that being born into a family of mixed religions widened his view of humanity. "In Northern Ireland, in the Middle East, everywhere in the world, you find people from mixed marriages of different racial and religious backgrounds. We are what you call 'the third culture.' We don't really belong to anybody. Yet we belong to the world in a more conscious way."

Furthermore, he says, the fact that he can sit on a plane and travel to the other side of the world in twelve hours makes the world seem incredibly small and interconnected. Raising our level of consciousness to a global consciousness, he contends, breaks down the sense of separateness that has been the cause of so many conflicts around our planet. And on a practical level, he notes, today's speed of travel, and the technology of Internet communication, make it possible to accentuate the small-world vision by actually participating in each others' lives.

"It's not just about rich people going to help poor people. It's about all of us sharing resources of life and finding ways to enhance life. That is the spiritual task of our time. It's that level of consciousness, thinking, and contemplation that helps us get to the point of asking the right questions. What do you think your purpose in life is, and what actions can you take to bring good into the world?"

On the other hand, he cautions, the task isn't just about what you do in life, but how you do it. He has met, he says, many activists throughout the world who are inspiring speakers, and have done some amazing things, but they don't always live their own lives consistent with the message they deliver. "For me, that is just a missed opportunity. It's not that I discount everything they've done that is great, but I believe the most important thing is who you are as a human being, and what speaks to the soul, rather than what you do."

During the nineties, the Kellogg Foundation presented Miki with an award for being "one of the most promising leaders of the next century." Fittingly, now in the twenty-first century, Miki has turned his attention to "an emerging leaders program" for young people.

"What I keep seeing globally is the incredible knowledge of young people, which often goes underutilized. The other night I had a gathering at my home of individuals from Mexico, Bolivia, Palestine, and South Africa who were all in their late teens. It was just amazing to hear what these young people know, and what they can teach us."

Miki's goal is to connect young people to others who can enhance their mission and vision for the world. Through the Institute of Noetic Sciences, he is exploring the creation of a "Wisdom Bank" that invites adult mentors to give their time to emerging young leaders who want the chance to develop their skills.

Miki is also active in several other programs, all directly involved with introducing and furthering peace in areas where the flame of conflict requires the talent of a man who was aptly and prophetically named Mirsad.

What's in a name? A world of possibilities.

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Recently, Hafsat and Mirsad joined the board of directors at the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

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