Akala urges graduates: develop good habits

The BAFTA and MOBO award-winning hip-hop artist, writer, social entrepreneur and co-founder of The Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company, was speaking during awards ceremonies at the Brighton Centre after receiving and Honorary Doctor of Arts in recognition of his major contribution to empowering young people through learning.

Akala did not attend university but he now regularly gives lectures on campuses. He told graduates: “I can’t lie, I often envy those of you who do get to go, people like you … who are about to remake the world, or at least this country. That’s how serious these four years are. What will you do with the time you spent here and the education you have been privileged to be loaned by the rest of society?”

Akala with Vice-Chancellor Debra Humphris

He offered two pieces of advice: “The first would be about the importance of developing good habits. You cannot control your life outcomes as much as we’d all like to believe we are solely products of our own brilliance, but we can control a good deal of how we use our time.

“If there was one thing I learned from the time I spent playing football and for the little time I spent flirting with being a naughty boy with my friends in the street is that habits both good and bad tend to accumulate.

“Once I realised I did not love football anymore and I stopped pretending I was a bad man I decided to use my art to try and spread what was really my major passion – knowledge – and to that end I started keeping a reading diary with a minimum amount of hours per week, per month, and per year that I would spend studying. That was 10 or 12 years ago and to some extent my presence here today is a result of that.

“So when you leave here today try and practice every day towards goals, dreams and things you would like to do, even if it is only half an hour per day. And when you look back in 15 years I have no doubt that you will see the results.”

His second piece of advice concerned people’s obligation to not stand idly by if they see something wrong. He left graduates with questions: “What do university graduates owe to the  society that has subsidised and educated them – how best can you use what you have gained here to make the world a slightly better place and more liveable for other people even if it is only in small ways.

“So good luck on your journey and here’s a big up to habit and obligation.

“Knowledge is power. Safe.”