By Kristi Pelzel
Events across West Africa highlight historical reckonings and serve as a reminder that people can unite around a cause in partnership, despite what is happening in politics.
400 Years: The ‘Door of Return’ and the ‘Year of Return.’
The ‘Door-of-No-Return’, made famous during the transatlantic slave trade in Africa, became ‘Door of Return’ in 2017, in Nigeria, marked by an oversized stone-framed door; welcoming descendants back to their rightful homes, ripped away from their ancestors. Nigeria’s efforts, in support of the 2017 Diaspora Festival in Badagry, part of Jamaica’s Door of Return pan-African initiative, were proceeded by Ghana’s successful ‘Year of Return’ in 2018-2019.
This marked 400 years since the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to Jamestown, Virginia, encouraging African diasporans to visit and invest in the African continent.
The diaspora community spreads across the globe. For example, it is reported that over 360,000 first and second-generation Nigerian immigrants were living in the U.S., having arrived before 2000. (Migration Policy Institute 2015) And although it’s nice to be the first country to launch a successful initiative, inclusive campaigns that include international partners and, more importantly, neighboring countries are key. It takes a joint effort to support diaspora communities, helping them realize social embeddedness in their country of origin while maintaining connectedness to their country of residence.
It doesn’t matter who came up with the idea first. What matters is that countries supported all efforts resulting in success.
100 Years: ‘The Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World.’
To mark the 100th anniversary of the Universal Negro Improvement Association’s first international convention, presided over by the Honorable Marcus Garvey, where the ‘Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of The World’ was adopted, global partners are coming together to find ways to support the diaspora community beyond welcoming them home to their countries of origin.
The Caribbean-American Political Action Committee (C-PAC) will host a Summit, the Africans Unite Summit on Eventbrite, to explore how Africans, including the diaspora community, can unite to create a plan of action for 2020 and forward.
How can we realize Marcus Garvey’s dream without coming together as a global community? We need bridges of communication and effort that look around, under, and over the politics to make change happen.
This Week: ‘AAU African Academic Diaspora Virtual Homecoming.’
The Association of African Universities (AAU), in collaboration with the African Union and the Government of Ghana, held their first Virtual AAU-Academic Diaspora Homecoming September 28-30, 2020. The homecoming aimed to strengthen cooperation and partnership among research and educational institutions in Africa, the United States, and the African Diaspora to advance education and the wellbeing of all persons of African descent.
There was a sentiment in the comments section of one program indicating that not enough was being done to strengthen relationships between U.S. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and African Universities.
“The gap is with HBCUs and Africa higher education partnerships- needs to be filled.” – Attendee.
“Oversight of global university collaboration lacks leadership, and it’s not clear who is overseeing the efforts.” – Attendee.
Another discussion focused on the challenges and opportunities for women of African descent in higher education, asking what institutions can do for women. The panel supported the idea that instead of asking women what they can do; we need to ask what conditions institutions are willing to create to support women first.
Last, there was a call to build a qualified teaching capacity. “Learning crisis is real in Africa and has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic, millions of kids in Africa are currently at home, and some are roaming about doing nothing.” – Attendee.
Partners Not Competitors: A reminder that we need to keep finding ways to work together
There were no easy answers and no magical quick fix to the issues West Africans have faced for the last 400 years. However, these events help to support collaboration, unifying people around a cause. It reminds everyone not to forget how long progress sometimes takes, and that a global community is stronger than tackling challenges on our own.
As we move forward, leaders must change to continue frequent, high-level communication, ensuring that opportunities are realized, and larger communities share innovative ways to solve problems.
Uniting, especially in these times of isolation & division, is key…the U.S. should take this advice!
Very revealing article. it’s quite surprising that most western cultures still today are unaware of many of these century-long atrocities that took place even with their easy access to sources throughout the globe.