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!

AFRICAN HERITAGE CELEBRATION 2015 CAMPAIGN.

The following is a summary of the results African Heritage Celebration’s (AHC’s) 2015 fundraising and distribution results. The distribution trip to West Africa was executed from October 27 through November 17. • Thanks to a generous grant AHC received from Baal Dan Charities and partnership with the Hyatt Regency of Denver, the 2015 campaign to support education has been completed and we have been able to provide support to a record number of children. • On November 3rd, AHC visited the central localities of Diourbel and Bambey. o Second graders at Cheikh Ibra Fall and Serigne Mbaye Sarr elementary schools In the city of Diourbel received supplies . o AHC went to five schools in the department of Bambey. Mr. Babacar Diouf staff member of the office of primary school inspection led the group to the villages of Mbattall, Ndimb. Ngueye-Ngueye, Sob-Sessene and Keur Meissa. o Altogether 762 students received supplies in the region of Diourbel.

• AHC group left Bambey and headed West to Foundioungne . We booked a 2-night stay at the beautiful " campement le petit bateau," a campsite, run by Mr Yague Fall which has a veranda-like restaurant by the Ocean water. • One of AHC’s objectives for 2015 was to expand our support to add children in schools in the very remote Delta of Saloum. We worked with education officials in Senegal to identify 24 schools of villages from Betenty and Diam Niadio to Dionewar and Niodior, where there is greatest need of educational supplies. • Getting the materials to many of the individual villages, which are on remote islands, would require much more time and resources than AHC had available Bringing the Headmasters to the primary school inspection of Foundioungne was more feasible than the difficult task of trying ourselves to put the supplies on the desks of students of these localities, isolated from each other by water and great distances. o On Nov 4, we met Mr. Nogaye Diop primary school inspector of Foundiougne. He introduced us to his colleague Mr Guedel Mbodj, manager of logistics and equipments. o The distribution of supplies was held in the courtyard of the inspection building of Foundiougne. With the help of Mr Guedel Mbodj, we were able to allocate supplies to headmasters of 24 schools, which are spread out in the various islands in the country's Southwestern part, called the Delta of Saloum ,

• Within three hours, the school Headmasters received each: Textbooks, slates, notebooks, crayons, erasers and pens for a total of 1260 students. • The next day , on Nov 6, AHC was scheduled to meet Inspector Habib Wade in the City of Diofior. After a Brief introduction to inspector Ba, who is the head of this educational district of the region region, Mr. Wade led our way to the departure platform in the village of Ndangane Sambou, located several miles west of Diofior. o A 35-minute-boat ride took us to Mar Lodj, the first of three Mars( island villages) we were supposed to visit. Mar Lodji seems to enjoy the comfort of nestling in a dense vegetation. White sands of the streets contrasted with green bushes along the pathways. o Upon arrival we loaded the supplies on horse-drawn a carriage and started for the schools.

o After visiting students in Mar Lodj and Mar Soulou, we were heading to the next village, when our carriage experienced a flat tire. We got off and walked the rest of the way to Mar Fafako, while the horse pulled the load to the last schools. o We provided supplies to 165 first graders, in this part of Diofior educational district. One must state the beautiful environment surrounding the islands in Delta of Saloum, especially Foundiougne and the Mars. • On Nov 09, Mr. Sileye Djiby Niang, a representative from a sister NGO, Denver Senegal Humanitarian Foundation and AHC delegation took a 12-hour journey to the Northeastern village of Diorbivol to deliver gifts of Colorado organizations to 210 students, from elementary to high school and college. • Diorbivol is the village of African immigrant Oumar Dia who was murdered in a hate crime in Denver. • Oumar Dia who worked at the Hyatt Regency Denver as housekeeper was gunned down on November 18, 1997. • Colorado organizations have been working with the village on various development projects, ranging from health to classrooms construction, since 1998. • The southeastern locality of Keur Samba was another village AHC travelled to on its 2015 campaign. 177 students from 1st to 6 grade were given supplies.

• On Nov 15, AHC provided supplies to 198 students of "Franco-Arabe" in Bargny. • On Nov 16, 442 first and graders received textbooks and supplies when we visited both Mixte A and Mixte B, and Secka Gueye elementary schools, in Bargny. • In the city of Rufisque, we visited several institutions: We presented 930 notebooks, 400 chalk slates, pens and erasers to Mrs Anna Gaye, founder of "Le Petit Prince d'handiscole", a special education institution. Lastly, at Mamour Diop I and Mamour Diop II elementary schools, we provided textbooks and supplies to 197 elementary students there. • African Heritage Celebration received appreciation awards from academic authorities and parents in Rufisque. The distinctions were given in recognition of AHC's continuous efforts to support education.

In summary for 2015, African Heritage Celebration (AHC) distributed 6,140 notebooks, 3, 050 chalk slates, 2,600 crayons, 2,600 pens, 2,700 erasers and 2,878 textbooks to more than 3,000 students across Senegal. It has been a highly successful year, thanks to the support and efforts of many individuals, as well as organizations such as the Hyatt Regency Denver Convention Center, the Mizel Global Cultural and Baal Dan Charities. Your ongoing participation and support has enabled us to make a difference in the lives of over 34000 young children since 2007.