COBAF2021:Building Bridges Of Unity For African Immigrants And American Blacks

As publish in Afrik Digest Magazine The long history of racism and anti-black inclination in the United States has caused so many Americans Blacks to be at the bottom of the economic and social ladders, concentrated in dysfunctional “hoods” and struggling to make ends meet. By Mohamadou Cisse Community leaders from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and other countries of the continent engaged on July 9th with an audience composed of various segments of the African Diaspora of Colorado, in a conversation that was aimed at building bridges of understanding and developing friendship between people, for better living. The discussion panel was part of the agenda of 35th edition of the Colorado Black Arts Festival’s opening day; the day of celebration of the diverse cultures of Africa and its Nations.

Community members of various parts of Africa came together to showcase culture and share traditions. One cultural highlight in the program of the day was the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. The audience watched Mikias and his crew demonstrate how coffee is traditionally made in his country and show some of the coffee rituals practiced in the East African country for ages. The freshly brewed coffee was passed around for tasting. Mikias owns Lucy Cafe, located in Denver metropolitan area.

Disk- jockeys and singers entertained the crowd throughout the afternoon. The culminating performance of the day was provided by the Sing Sing: A group of five incredibly talented-Senegalese -percussionists, based in Boston.

Colorado black arts festival is a highly anticipated three-day event which showcases black talents, cultures and traditions,. The festival draws visitors from all over the country, as a major venue to celebrate cultural and artistic contributions of blacks in the Rocky Mountain region.

In dedicating the opening day to the celebration of African Nations, the leadership of the festival asserted the importance to provide a dynamic space for Colorado African Diaspora and Americans to thrive and work together towards improving amicable relationship between the two groups. American Blacks and African immigrants have complex relationships, sometimes characterized by fear and ignorance, other times expressed in solidarity, based on the acknowledgment of a common plight.

As the result of the long history of anti-black hatred in the United States, so many American Blacks are at the bottom of the economic and social ladders, concentrated in dysfunctional “hoods” and struggling to make ends meet. Also, when they arrive here, most African Immigrants often find themselves living in rundown neighborhoods, the only places they can afford. So the first impressions these groups have of each other are mostly formed in competitive settings where they contend for scarce resources in order to make it through. Rather than a development of understanding and amicable relationship, competitors tend to engage in adversity, which can generate feelings of animosity.

Mainstream Media’s bias against Africa feeds the ignorance and prejudice, so prevalent in a country where a sitting president had no problem referring, publicly, to African nations as shit holes countries or calling a black athlete ‘son of a bitch’.

The audience enjoyed a highly electric drumming performance by the Sing Sing. The session reminded some in the audience when, in the 90s, legendary percussionist Mor Thiam and his wife, Ndeye Gueye, parents of Senegalese-American rapper AKON, played at the Colorado event.

Coordinated by Sharon D. Diop and fashion designer Amadou Dieng, who is also media strategist at ALG, the celebration resulted from a partnership between African Leadership Group and Colorado Blacks Arts Festival, based on exploring ways of building goodwill bridges throughout the diaspora, .

Founded in 2006 by Papa Marie Tew Dia, African Leadership Group is a Denver-based non-profit organization which provide support to various communities in Colorado and is also a strong advocate for the African Immigrant community.

Perry Ayers and his brother Baba Oya founded the Black Arts festival more than three decades ago to celebrate the dynamism of black heritage and Culture in the Rockies. In his welcoming remarks, Perry spoke of his dream of creating space for continuously strengthening relationship and of a greater collaboration between the African Diaspora and Americans. His dream is being carried on by niece Dana Manyhotane, who is working tirelessly alongside with many volunteers who made Colorado Blacks Arts Festival the success story it has become.

AHC2018

Dakar's New Museum Celebrates Blackness.

By Mohamadou Cisse The Museum of Black Civilizations, dubbed the world’s largest dedicated to Black Art, Culture and History, is an impressive building that sits on 150,000 square feet in the center of Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, to celebrate black civilizations across the world. The 34-million-dollar museum, financed by the Chinese government, was inaugurated by president Macky Sall in December 2018. It contains thousands artifacts and ancient objects documenting more than ten thousand years of black African civilizations and is also said to have room for 18,000 artworks. The exhibitions showcase findings from early antiquity to contemporary works, celebrating achievements of blacks in United States, the Caribbean, South America, among others. The museum is a testimony to the creativity and cultural accomplishment of very ancient African societies Lucy (Dinkinesh) one of the oldest human fossils ever found is among the collection of the museum. Pieces of Lucy’s skeleton were found in 1974 in Ethiopia by a team of French and American Anthropologists. She reportedly lived 3.2 million years ago. The exposition also shows routes early humans took to streak out of the continent, more than one hundred thousand years ago to populate Europe, Asia and other parts of the world. It is the will of Senegal’s government to gather all the artifacts that was stolen during the colonial era. Governments such as France’s have agreed to return some of the looted treasures, but thousands of them are still in museums of Western countries. The museum of Black Civilizations is the brain-child of thinkers such as Alioune Diop, Leopold S. Senghor and Aime Cesaire, who after the devastation of World War II spearheaded the ambitious project aimed at mobilizing the African Diaspora's intellectual and artistic resources, as a way of contributing to the progress of the continent. Owing to its reputation as a global center for Black History and Culture, Senegal's leadership, including former president Abdoulaye Wade, who started the museum’s realization, have always understood the fundamental necessity of restoring and preserving Africa’s glorious past as Humanity’s birthplace for the generations to come. Home for world renowned Anthropologist, Historian and Physicist, the late Cheikh Anta Diop, whose colossal, multidisciplinary works contributed to re-establishing Africa’s history, Senegal is also where the Island of Goree, which was declared World Heritage site by the United Nations Education and Culture Organization, is located. Millions of kidnapped Africans were held in Goree Island’s dungeons and forced through the infamous the “door of No Return”, into slave ships that took them to bondage in the Americas. Goree Island is well visited throughout the year, especially during the celebration called “.Diaspora Festival of RETURN.” The festival seeks to build the bridge between the continent and its Diaspora. Cuba was the festival’s country of honor last November.

Edited by Khadidiatou Cisse

African Heritage Celebration 2019 Report.

Two thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight students received each a textbook, notebook, pen and slate at 14 Elementary schools African heritage celebration during its 2019 campaign to support education of children in Senegal. African Heritage celebration visited the schools located throughout the country to meet with the students, teachers and parents.

African Heritage Celebration Kicked off its campaign at “le Group Scolaire” El Hadji Mamour Diop in the city of Rufisque, with a ceremony presided by Megueye Gueye, head inspector in charge of Education and Training in the department and in the presence of Ms Yacine Fall, inspector of Elementary Education, alongside parents and teachers. On November 14, African Heritage Celebration moved onto the city of Diourbel where Mr. Cheikhou T. Sylla, the district inspector led the distribution at both Cheikh Ibra Fall and Serigne Mbaye Sarr primary schools; distribution that provided to 1,233 children the supplies required for a good academic year. Principal Alassane Diouf of Secka Gueye primary school, who also serves as Bargny-Sendou’s Elementary Schools Directors Collective accompanied AHC to seven public institutions, where parents, teachers and students expressed their sincere gratitude for the humanitarian actions. The next stop was Keur Samba Ka, a small community, with 300 people, nestled in the savanna of the Nioro , in the southern region of the country. The AHC delegation arrived there after a 5-hour drive. Honorable Alassane Ka, the recently elected village chief welcomed AHC group, which stayed for two days and provided supplies to students from 1st grade to 6th grade.

The tiny town of Minam, right outside Bargny, along the Atlantic Ocean coastline, and Mamadou Diagne primary school of Ouakam, located on the outskirt of the capital Dakar, were the last public schools to welcome AHC during this year campaign to support Education. Based in Denver, Colorado, African Heritage Celebration is a nonprofit organization supported by generous volunteers. AHC intervenes in Senegal since 2007. Its humanitarian actions have reached more than 56,000 children across the country. Many of those students are now in pursuit of higher education degree or/and in training to become the country’s next generation of leaders.

More than 150 Americans have participated in AHC’s trips to Africa that take place usually in late fall, when the academic year has started. When African heritage celebration’s volunteers visit, they engage simultaneously in humanitarian actions and life enriching experiences. The joyous expressions in the faces of thousands of children; the joy of knowing that the precious tools of education they’ve just received, can help improve their lives, is contagious and deeply impacts the volunteers who are interacting with the them.

After the schools visits, foreigners spend days living with families in the host villages and communities, sharing foods, drinks and stories. Villagers often hold festivities to honor and entertain their guests and through drums, songs and dances, visitors and locals engage one another in discoveries of different ways of life. The cultural and social interactions that take place during the stay in communities provide spaces in which Americans as well as Senegalese learn to understand and appreciate a common Humanity. The foreigners return home, enriched by the exposure to hospitable cultures and traditions, and many look for opportunity to relive the life-transforming experiences. Mohamadou Cisse Ahcchildren.com

AHC and DSHF Team up for Education in Senegal.

African Heritage Celebration and Denver Senegal Humanitarian Foundation traveled to Senegal late this fall to visit communities where they have been working, building classrooms, providing teaching aids, and also to hold meetings with local authorities and residents to assess the impact their actions have had in the development of the various localities. The trip was from November 8 through 30th.

The Colorado-based non-profit organizations have been supporting schools in the country for over a decade now. This year African Heritage Celebration(AHC) distributed 1,240, textbooks to Elementary school children, along with notebooks and slates, Ouakam, Rufisque Bargny and Diorbivol, Senegal. Supporters and volunteers make it possible for African Heritage Celebration to raise funds during annual events and provide to students the supplies needed for a good academic standing.

Forty nine thousands students of more than 42 schools in different regions of the country have directly received school supplies so far and many of those students are now in pursuit of higher education degree and/ or in training to become Senegal's next generation of leaders. AHC hopes they will help improve living conditions in their respective communities.

On November 15, when Denver Senegal Humanitarian Foundation's representatives Theresa Neuroth and Jordana LaChance led a group to Diorbivol, a festive atmosphere was reigning in the northern village, as is it always the case on such occasions. During its 5-day stay, the group enjoyed delicious food, great hospitality and a friendship Coloradoans have developed with Senegalese since November 1997, when a senseless act of hate crime ended the life of Oumar Dia, in Denver. Oumar Dia was an immigrant from Diorbivol. He worked at the Hyatt Regency hotel. Coloradoans and Diorbivol residents gathered at the village chief's house on November 18, which marked the 21st anniversary of the murder of Oumar Dia. Through various meeting sessions with elders, teachers, parents and students, Coloradoans learned about the enthusiasm for Education and the important academic achievements students are making. Diorbivol schools' success rate is among, if not the highest, in the region. The children's motivation and the good quality of their education are attributed in part to the teachings aids and support Colorado groups provide each year to elementary and middle school students. In 2010, Denver Senegal Humanitarian Foundation funded the building of a classroom in Diaocounda, a small village in the Southern region of Kolda. The school supplies DSHF provides serve also students in Anambe-Couta and Kounkane, in the area.

The Colorado group arrived in Diaocounda on the evening of November 22, to witness a parade of people singing and dancing that had formed along the main pathway leading to the Elementary school, at the other side of the village. It seemed that everyone was there to accompany the delegation to the school where it enjoyed a welcome ceremony of music and dances and series of wrestling matches, where students exhibited their prowess. The entertainment continued after dinner and well into the night. The next morning, performances by talented local musicians and dancers were the opening acts to the gathering. As in Diorbivol, students and teachers made testimonies of real progress and academic improvements. Parents expressed gratitude for the humanitarian actions.

The Colorado group ate good community lunch, drunk a lot of beverages, and left for the bigger village of Kounkane, late in the afternoon of Nov 23rd.

Theresa Neuroth, the president of DSHF spent three years living in the village of Kounkane, where she was assigned as a volunteer of American Peace Corps. One can observe and feel the warm relationship she built with the villagers, based on cultural values of hospitality and love are genuinely strong and have probably contributed to her yearning in finding ways in which she could be involved with development project for the communities,

AHC and DSHF volunteers, along with hundreds of Americans who traveled to Senegal over the years have established strong solidarity links with people in communities throughout the country. The period of time spent in rural environment and cities, sharing food, participating in ceremonies, enjoying songs, dances and rhythms , allow travelers and locals to engage in conversations of discovery and inquiry that result in mutual self-enrichment, the learning of life experiences and a better appreciation of a shared Humanity.

Mohamadou Cisse

2017 School Supplies Distribution>

African Heritage Celebration provided 3, 351 textbooks to elementary school children during its annual campaign to support education this year, in Senegal.

From October 30 to November 14, AHC visited 22 academic institutions in various parts of the country and delivered the supplies to students between 1st to 6th grade, during ceremonies attended by school authorities, parents and staff.

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Thirty Nine Thousands Students Impacted...

One thousand and eighty five primary schools students received textbooks this year as part of African Heritage Celebration's campaign to support education in Senegal. Colorado native Nora Sullivan joined Yacine Fall on Thursday November 7th and together they visited 5 schools in the cities of Bargny and Rufisque to deliver textbooks to young students, during presentation ceremonies in the presence of teachers, parents and administrative staff, marking the 10th year that AHC has worked to improve educational opportunities for children in Africa.

Nora is a former American Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal. Her many years living in a country known for its legendary hospitality and rich cultural traditions have impacted her positively. Like many who have had an extended stay, she is yearning for opportunities to reconnect with the community that hosted her and she agreed to represent AHC for this year's campaign. " The gratitude and hospitality I experienced visiting the schools, I will guard forever", Nora said. Yacine Fall is an educator who taught for 30 years in the public school system and now holds the position of Inspector of Education and Training, with the Ministry of Education of Senegal. She has supported and directed AHC's educational projects since the start.

Thirty nine thousands students enrolled in more than 43 schools across Senegal have received textbooks and accessories . Many of the beneficiaries of AHC's actions are now pursuing post- secondary education, training to become the next generation of leaders and will help improve lives in their communities. AHC intervenes in academic institutions and communities throughout Senegal, since 2007. In the Northern region of Matam is the village of Diorbivol, one of the first primary schools AHC visited. It is also the home of Oumar Dia, an African immigrant murdered by racists in the streets of Denver, in a freezing night of November 18, 1997. The skinheads gunned Oumar Dia down because he was black. He was employed as a housekeeper at the Hyatt Regency Denver. The village of Diorbivol lays on the edge of the Sahara desert. Its arid climate and short rainy season explains the scarcity of trees and bushes. The landscape is mostly flat. The main activity of the villagers is fishing along Senegal River, which runs, on the borders the country shares with Mali and Mauritania. Using an irrigation system , the villagers grow rice, millet and vegetable in their fields. Keur Samba Ka is another village that AHC works with; located in the South central tip of Saloum region. As an important agricultural center, the area benefits from fertile lands . The vegetation is very dense in rainy season. Tall trees along the trails run between fields, providing abundant shade. The air is fresh and pure, remote from the pollution of the big cities like Dakar, the capital.

Keur Samba Ka is a beautiful rural community of farmers and cattle breeders, fifty-seven kilometers from Koalack, once a commercial exchange hub; where for a long period of time, especially before the country's independence, foreigners and locals engaged in the trading of peanuts, an export commodity. Last year, AHC had the opportunity to travel to the Delta of Saloum and serve 1,425 students of 24 primary schools; located in 22 villages, between the city of Fatick and the Atlantic Ocean, a few miles north of the Gambian border. Diofior and Foundiougne are major cities in the area. AHC delegation visited Mar Lodj, Mar Soulou and Mar Fafako (Mar meaning island-village in Serer, the local language.) Mar Lodj is approximately a 35 minute-boat-ride from the mainland village of Ndangane Sambou, and the other island villages stretch out beyond this. Mar Lodj is nestled in the midst of mangroves. The white sands of the beaten tracks leading to the villages, contrast with the green bushes bordering the pathways. The remoteness of the island villages is both an asset and a liability, and life of the villagers has changed little over many years.

Participating as a delegate in African Heritage Celebration's annual undertaking has the benefit of exposing travelers to rural environments and providing opportunities to engage in life changing experience. Travelers stay with hosts family, usually for a duration of 3 to 4 days. While there, the travelers share meals with villagers, and enjoy the dances, the songs and drumming sessions that are held at welcome parties. Cultural traditions of the communities are displayed during the festivities. Visitors and hosts engage in mutually enriching-learning experiences, exploring the history, geography and life style of the localities, and are prone to developing the kind of understanding essential for forging the necessary solidarity, based on the premise of a common humanity; that is needed to build a better world.

November 2017 will mark the 20th anniversary of the killing of Oumar Dia and African Heritage Celebration is gearing up for programs to commemorate his life in United States and the realization of meaningful projects that have had a positive impact in the lives of tens of thousands of children in Senegal. The funds are raised by efforts of volunteers and contributions from generous supporters such as CVentures, Inc., the Mizel Global Cultural Fund , Baal Dan charities, the Miller Family of Littleton, Colorado, Hyatt Regency Denver, many individuals and families who have chosen to help children in Africa by improving educational opportunities, literalizing the proverb, "if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, ... if you teach a child to fish, you feed a generation". Please help to feed a generation, too, by donating to AHC a 501(c)3 non-profit!