An Old Soul: An Exemplar for The Great Growing Up

Adebayo “Bayo” Clement Akomolafe is a lecturer at Covenant University in Nigeria. He is also Coordinator of the International Alliance for Localization, a project of Local Futures, a non-profit organization whose mission is to protect and renew ecological and social well-being by promoting a systemic shift away from economic globalization towards localization. Bayo, as he likes to be called, is an international speaker, author, poet and activist for a radical paradigm shift in consciousness.

Bayo is very articulate with a compelling presence. I happened to catch a YouTube video of him a couple of months ago and found a way of contacting him. Since then we have had several conversations over Skype in which I have come to see something very special in this man of 31 years. The experience I have of him is that he is an “old soul” – a wise elder in a young body. Given the critical need for maturity in our world today, this makes him a major asset in birthing of a new level of consciousness that I and like-minded others are working toward.

As such, Bayo comes across to me as another partner in my work, bringing about a new consciousness on this planet. He joins many people I have come to know around the world who are part of this conscious leadership movement which has been gaining momentum over recent years in tackling the challenges we face as a species. What sets this young African apart, however, is that he comes at these challenges from a different generational and cultural perspectives than the majority of us.

One of the best ways of getting an understanding of someone and where they are coming from is to hear their message directly. The following five-minute video will give you an opportunity to do just that. Here, Bayo is being interviewed during the Global Conference 2014 in South Africa last November, at which he was a keynote speaker: