---

Strategic Milestone for Afro-Colombian Heritage

CALI, COLOMBIA – February 26, 2026 – We are proud to announce that the Pan-African Council, has been formally invited by the City of Cali in Colombia to join the Advisory Committee for the 30th Anniversary of the Petronio Álvarez Pacific Music Festival.

This invitation, extended by the City’s Secretariat of Culture, marks a significant step in strengthening the bridge between the Colombian Pacific and the global African diaspora.

Why This Matters

The year 2026 represents a historic milestone. For three decades, “El Petronio” has served as the beating heart of Afro-Colombian identity, honoring ancestral memory and cultural power.

Our participation in this committee aims to:

• Scale the Legacy: Project the 30th edition as a world-class celebration of Pan-African heritage.
• Strategic Vision: Collaboration with leaders to integrate international perspectives.
• Cultural Diplomacy: Solidify Cali’s position as a central hub for the global African diaspora community.

Stay tuned as we prepare for our first session on March 12, 2026, to begin mapping out this historic commemoration.

---

---

Queuing The Century of Prosperity

LOME, TOGO – December 15, 2025 – The Pan-African Council is honored to have contributed to the 9th Pan-African Congress hosted by the Republic of Togo and the African Union, 125 years after the inaugural summons in London. To witness the closing of one historical epoch and the violent birth of another during this timely and momentous occasion, represents a fundamental turning point in the dialogue of human development. The world is witnessing the dissolution of old hegemonies and the emergence of a new economic paradigm, where Africa’s role on the global stage is finally being defined not by its capacity to endure history, but by its undeniable power to shape it.

During the Congress, Council Chairman Fabien Anthony offered a 4-pillar, Pragmatic Pan-African Action Plan for a Multipolar World in his plenary discourse to nudge Global Africa in the right direction, this included:

1. Defining African rejuvenation from struggle to sovereignty:
   This is an act of reclaiming narrative and demanding agency. It requires moving conceptually from the historical necessity of struggle to the imperative of sovereignty. The 21st century must, therefore, be unequivocally declared Africa’s Century of Prosperity—a designation that mandates a profound ideological and policy shift. This means replacing the limiting discourse of poverty reduction with the proactive ambition of comprehensive wealth creation, demanding sustained and integrated capital formation across every sphere: intellectual, social, physical, spiritual, and financial.
2. Navigating the complexities of a dynamic multipolar landscape:
   Recent geopolitical shifts present Africa with a paradox; unprecedented opportunities to leverage its strategic importance, alongside acute vulnerabilities to new forms of economic dependency and geopolitical maneuvering. African countries will need to shift from a passive recipient of external solutions and development models to becoming an active negotiator setting new terms of engagement.
3. Freeing the youth:
   With a median age of 24 years old in our Africa Equity Group portfolio of 5,000+ businesses and projects financed to date, we must massively scale access to seed funding, strategic capital, and entrepreneurial ecosystems that allow for young entrepreneurs, startups, and enterprises to thrive. The definitive financing of this structural transformation must be anchored in the decisive mobilization of the African diaspora, complementing important Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows by leveraging the sub-class of Diaspora Direct Investment (DDI) to seamlessly translate current consumption remittances into a structured, sovereign source of development capital. This necessitates the parallel issuance of intentional financial instruments, such as Continent-Wide Diaspora Bonds and Investment Funds, to securitize this wealth. To facilitate deployment and scale, the continent must urgently prioritize the simplification and harmonization of business policies across the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), coupled with the creation of a continent-wide skills bank and mentorship network designed to optimize human capital flow and accelerate the transfer of essential technology and knowledge to African firms and SMEs.
4. Accountability:
   We must stop planning in short, reactive cycles. Our plans must be backed by a public, transparent and long-term Pan-African scorecard that measures: Economic integration, diaspora integration, resource control, human development, value-added industrialization, technological sovereignty, institutional resilience, among others. We must move beyond the era of rhetorical declarations to an era of empirical verification, where progress is judged not by the aspirational GDP of individual nations, but by the granular reality of our collective structural transformation.

PAC also joined the 4th Commission Working Group, titled ‘Reinventing African Citizenship,’ to contribute strategic recommendations. This collaborative effort culminated in the inclusion of the group’s findings in the FINAL DECLARATION OF THE NINTH PAN-AFRICAN CONGRESS IN LOMÉ available for download here.

Simultaneously, it was a distinct privilege to accompany the Colombian delegation, led by Vice President H.E. Francia Elena Márquez Mina and Vice Minister Mr. Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir, to the 9th Congress. To trace the arc from our Council’s initial advisory role during the Vice President’s first official visit to the continent in 2023, to now witnessing the culmination of her mandate with the establishment of relations with the Republic of Togo, is remarkable. It speaks directly to the maturity and laser-focused execution of Colombia’s Africa Strategy 2022-2026, marking a sophisticated evolution in South-South Cooperation.

---

---

Virtual – [December 5, 2024]

In preparation for the Education for Africa Dialogic Summit (EADiS), the Pan-African Council has partnered with Global Impact Industries and Africa Voices Dialogue to launch a virtual summit this December 6, 2024, which will culminate in a 3-day in-person summit and 2-day excursion in Nairobi, Kenya, or Johannesburg, South Africa, from May 26–30, 2025. The initiative will focus on the historical and educational connections between HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and African institutions, aiming to deepen Pan-African integration within academic departments, leadership, and students. This effort will foster a global network of Pan-African scholars and advocates across the U.S., Africa, the Caribbean, and the broader Diaspora.

The panel will feature vibrant discussions between leaders from African universities and HBCUs, focusing on strategies to champion the African education agenda globally. Building on the momentum of the recent Education for Africa Dialogic Summit, this initiative aims to lay the foundation for lasting partnerships in support of Pan-African education and connecting with the broader global diaspora community.

Project objectives include:

1. Bridge Pan-African History with HBCUs
   This panel will highlight the historical ties between Pan-Africanism and HBCUs, creating an avenue for
   educational institutions from the U.S. and Africa to integrate and collaborate. This will support the shared
   vision of uniting African and African American students and scholars in the global academic community.
2. Facilitate E-HBCU Panel with Academic Leadership and Students
   Host a virtual event scheduled on December 6, 2024. The event will focus on leadership from various
   academic departments, allowing both faculty and students to discuss important issues, exchange ideas,
   and develop strategies for long-term cooperation.
3. Invite 14 HBCU and African Universities Speakers
   Representatives from at least four HBCUs will be invited to speak on the history and future of Pan-
   Africanism in education while discussing potential collaborations with African universities.
4. Invite Key Agencies, Global Diaspora and Key Leaders
   Representatives from key agencies will be invited to speak on the resources, private sector
   emerging market commitments of HBCUs, while discussing potential collaborations with African
   universities.
5. Engage African Universities
   African universities within our existing network will be invited to participate. This will strengthen
   existing relationships and open opportunities for future partnerships.
6. Provide High-Level Administration and Support
   We will provide specialized administrative support throughout the event. This includes recommending
   and securing relevant HBCU panelists who are influential in Pan-Africanism and global education.

RSVP link: https://www.bit.ly/AVD_31

---

After a historic election, the Republic of Colombia seeks to build deeper political, social and commercial ties with Africa and the Caribbean region. The Council was honoured to be invited to join this effort and recognise Colombia’s new PAC Representative in Congress this past August 8th, 2022.

---

Colombia’s historic election and transition to a popular government led by President Gustavo Petro and Vice President Francia Marquez not only marks an unprecedented window of opportunity for improved diplomatic and economic relations within the region, but also the possibility of seeking further rapprochement with African countries on the other side of the Atlantic. This prompted the need to establish a new specialised presidential working group on Africa-Colombia affairs and a strategic summit in 2023 to embark on these objectives. The Pan-African Council has committed itself to join Colombia on this journey after being invited to Congress for the launch of the Africa and the Americas Summit Executive Committee.

The Africa & The Americas Summit 2023 (AFAS), slated for the city of Cali, Colombia, from August 10–12, 2023 (tentative date), is designed to build new cultural, trade and investment relationships between Africa and the Americas with a special focus on the African Diaspora and Indigenous communities. The inextricable link between the two regions is well documented; a shared history, identity and philosophy bind them. These are the threads that African and American nations must draw on to write a new, positive chapter in the regions’ history.

AFAS 2023 will be held under the theme “A New Path to Cooperation”. The Summit aims to foster the development of strategic partnerships between the communities in Africa and throughout the Americas, to bolster bilateral cooperation and increase engagement in trade, investment, technology transfer, innovation, tourism, culture, social engagement, and other sectors.
Additionally, AFAS 2023 is expected to contribute to the implementation of Colombia’s South-South objectives, namely the Strategy for Cooperation with the Caribbean Basin, Regional Cooperation Program with Mesoamerica, and the International Cooperation Strategy on Integral Security.

In addition, the Council designed a new Council Representative for the Republic of Colombia, Ms Cha Dorina Hernández, Congresswoman and Educator, who will lead the Summit Executive Committee and have shown exceptional leadership in building relations with Africa and Diaspora.

 

 

Her work continues to be an invaluable contribution to the Council’s mission to empower people of African descent within Belize and throughout the world.

---

In light of her leadership excellence and outstanding contributions to society, the Pan- African Council will officially recognise Ms Sheran Palacio, Mayor of the City of Belmopan in Belize as a Council Ambassador.

Her work continues to be an invaluable contribution to the Council’s mission to empower people of African descent and to strengthen the institutions that positively enhance national and social life by building relationships, exchanges and interactions with civil society, business leaders and institutions throughout Africa and regions of the wider global African Diaspora.

Council Ambassadors are informed and enthusiastic advocates who share the objectives of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent as well as the Constitutive Act of the African Union which declares the Diaspora to be all people of African origin or descent “willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union”. By serving as change agents and leaders in their communities and internationally, Council Ambassadors also:

• Inspired others to take action and become ready, responsive, and resilient
• Create innovative ways to engage their community, their workforce, and/or their
  networks
• Form unique collaborations with other ambassador organisations to achieve goals
  they alone could not meet
• Provide informational tools to diffuse knowledge of our shared history, rich heritage, societal contributions, shared struggles, culture, language and current developments important to Pan-African affairs

The recognition was officially conferred to Miss Sheran Palacio by the Chairman of the Pan-African Council, Mr. Fabien Anthony, on July 14that the Belmopan Civic Centre, City of Belmopan, Belize.

About Sheran Palacio:

Sheran “Sharon” Palacio, Ms P or Shar-P is a Belmopan pioneer having lived here since the age of thirteen in the 70s. Her early introduction into the political arena is quite colourful and goes back to the 2003 when she first served as a PUP City Councilor in Belmopan. However, this does not mean that her political history is only marked by wins and not losses. In 2006 she lost the position of City Councilor in a PUP Convention. Still this did not deter her, and Sharon Palacio continued to work for the benefit of her party and the people of Belmopan.

Miss Palacio holds a Master’s Degree in Psychology from the Universidad Central de Villas in Cuba. Sharon’s passion is farming and specializes in producing soursop and coconut. She has served for 18 faithful years as Director of Student Services at the University of Belize where she was able to increase her global connections and help numerous students. Miss Palacio is well known for her role in the fight against Diabetes and for successfully operating a home-based business from 2004 to the current date called Youth for World Peace (YWP) homestay Network which provides business support unities to many fellow Belmopanese. She has been titled “Champion of the Americas” which enables her to recruit groups and provide Belizeans the opportunity to study and working Canada. She is presently appointed as a liaison for the Cross River State Carnival Commission for international groups from the Caribbean and Central America.

Miss Palacio is known for her selflessness and her willingness to help and assist people in anyway she can. She is trilingual and is most passionate about promoting cultural diversity and establishing linkages for a lifetime. She brings her experience and her strong networking skills which will no doubt work for the betterment of Belmopan.

By Danait D. Tafere, Conflict Analyst

The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Pan-African Council.

---

Mainstream media is often so focused on tragedy that we barely understand the significance of a particular segment of news. We instead receive a constant influx of grim headlines and traumatic episodes that flood into our homes. These types of fear-based media campaigns desensitize us to violence and human suffering. This consequently manipulates us into staying isolated and atomized in our thoughts and communities, fearful of our neighbors, let alone have sufficient emotional energy left over to help or care for them. According to a study at the Pew Media Center, approximately 90% of the news we hear is negative, leaving us with a sense of confusion, misinformation, and powerlessness. In this article, I will focus on some truths experienced from a local woman’s perspective in the hopes of demystifying the misinformation around the Tigray crisis through a historical lens of the region as well as shed light on its significance for all of Africa.

When 32 freed African nations came together in 1963 to create the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, their biggest challenge at the time was colonization. In the course of time, African countries were progressively “decolonized” and achieved independence, at least on paper. Nonetheless the ground reality left villages split in to two, oftentimes three different countries while their lands and natural resources became the private property of former colonizers and their corporations. The new face of systematic colonization much like systemic racism in the US, where the freedom of African-Americans achieved in 1863 was followed by draconian Jim Crow laws that obliged newly-freed individuals to work on their former slave masters land and share up to 100% of the profit. Developing this new form of oppression through the use of capital, became the defining feature of American globalized capitalism. A hundred years later, in Africa, newly freed nations also found themselves restricted by an evolving systemic colonization. In his essay, The Last Stage of Imperialism, the then President and Doctor Kwame Nkrumah named this ‘neo-colonialism’ and stated “the essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside…by monetary control over foreign exchange through the imposition of a banking system controlled by the imperial power. The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment under neo-colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and the poor countries of the world. The struggle against neo-colonialism is not aimed at excluding the capital of the developed world from operating in less developed countries. It is aimed at preventing the financial power of the developed countries being used in such a way as to impoverish the less developed.” Poor countries today receive about $130 billion in international aid annually while $2.4 trillion is extracted in resources via colonially imposed mechanism that obscure legality around these practices.

Reflecting on Abyssinian history, the Queen Sheba was a prominent figure in the Judaic, Islamic, and Christian traditions. Her kingdom was referred to as both to the south and to the east of Israel. The Aksumite Kingdom’s, Solomonic Dynasty used the name “Ethiopia” as early as the 4th Century and which is also the current resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. The Empire also at times extended across most Western Yemen, Southern Saudi Arabia, parts of Eastern Sudan and Northern Africa. Hosting one of the oldest mosques in the world, Al Nejashi Mosque. It is said that when “The Prophet Mohammed realized that he could not protect his followers from the attacks in Mecca. He told them to go to the Habesha land, there is a Christian king there. There is justice in his kingdom. – Inspired by the Ethiopian hospitality, Prophet Mohammed instructed his followers to respect and protect Ethiopia as well as live in peace with Ethiopian Christians… Al Nejashi mosque is considered by many as the second most sacred place of Islamic worship and rightly dubbed by Ethiopian Muslims as ‘the second Mecca.”

Since the Abyssinian Empire, Ethiopia claims it was never colonized, however today’s borders are not organic borders, rather they are borders imposed upon the country. To the east we have the Somali-Ethiopians, to the west we have the Gambella–Ethiopians – who are much more like the Sudanese and in the north the Tigray’s – who are the same as most Eritreans, similarly in the south and the Kenyan border. During colonization Ethiopia fought against the Italians but instead of pushing them fully off the coast of the Horn of Africa, Amhara King Menelik II, fearful of the strength of the Tigray speaking north and their rivalry, for the King of Kings title of Ethiopia allowed the Italians to keep current-day Eritrea by splitting the Tigray speaking population of Abyssinia who were the epicenter of the Solomonic Dynasty in the holy city of Axum.

In the 60s, a military coup assassinated King Haile Selassie and the Derg assumed power. This led to a 17-year era known as the “Red Terror” – a bloody era of economic hardship and suffering in Ethiopian history. This period also gave birth to the TPLF and several other PLFs (people’s liberation fronts) like the OLF in Oromia, WSLF in Somalia, ALF in Afra, representing different regions of Ethiopia – these PLFs jointly overtook the Derg and created a collective federal party EPDRF and maintained their own regional autonomy. Each region designated their own leader and appointed them to Addis, in contrast to the New Prosperity Party’s proposal of a top-down decision-making process that undermines indigenous nuances among the 80+ diverse ethnic groups of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia’s Contemporary Rise and Decline

Over the last three decades, Ethiopia became a commanding force on the Africa continent, leading sustainable development both internally and externally. Ethiopia’s close political ties with China, was extended to the rest of Africa creating competition for pre-existing colonial powers that monopolized vast areas and sectors of the continent. Ethiopia’s economy grew at a remarkable annual average rate of 10.8 percent. GDP increased from US$122 in 1999 to US$794 in 2015, poverty declined from 44.2 percent in 1999 to 23.5 percent in 2015. Illiteracy among adults fell from 20.4 million in 2011 to 7 million in 2016. In an ongoing effort to modernize the financial system which only had 16 private banks and two government banks in the 90s, by 2015 Ethiopia had 363 private bank branches and 131 government bank branches. In rural areas, 18,000 Savings and Credit Cooperative Workers Associations were established serving 11.8 million customers. The government also heavily invested in infrastructure development i.e. freeways connecting different regions, train systems that travel to neighboring countries. With rapid building of massive industrial parks in several major regions, Ethiopia also became a preferred location for cheap labor, safe investments and an influx of hundreds global manufacturing industries. The country’s national carrier, Ethiopian Airlines (with its slogan “The Spirit of Africa”), became the pride of not just Ethiopia but the whole of Africa. Africa’s largest dam, the GRED, is a $5 billion project that no international financial institution such as the World Bank and IMF wanted to support. It was launched by P.M. Meles Zenawi of Tigray who mobilized the Ethiopian Diaspora to get the project going, using 100% of Ethiopian labor, financing and material made in Ethiopia. Ethiopia was developing at an even faster pace than China and with the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia also became the world’s third largest political hub after New York and Geneva. In addition, Ethiopia served as the main peacekeeper in the Horn of Africa fighting Al Shabab and other “extremist/terrorist” groups across East Africa and the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region while providing the highest number of UN peacekeepers internationally.

Despite all of that, the status that Ethiopia once enjoyed is becoming increasingly unrecognizable under the country’s new leadership. From the arrest of OLF’s Oromo political leaders in the south, to the assassinations of the Amhara regional president and the head of the Amhara region military in the west, to igniting an all-out civil war in the North. A good question to ask here is, why does a country that was clearly on the right path to economic and political prosperity need new and rigorous reforms? The answer that comes to mind for me is, Nkrumah’s explanation of systemic colonization – the breaking up former larger united territories into a number of small non-viable and manageable states which are incapable of independent development and must rely upon colonial power for defense and even internal security.

Changing Times

When I moved to Ethiopia in mid-2018 it wasn’t my first experience. In 2015 I completed an internship at IGAD (The Intergovernmental Authority on Development) in the office of the Special Envoy for South Sudan under the leadership for Ambassador Seyoum Mesfin and reported to Ambassador Tewolde Gebremeskel. In 2016, I operated a farm in Agena, in the Southern Nations region as well as an AirBnB business in Addis Ababa that catered to tourist from all around the world. When I returned to Ethiopia in May 2018, I dedicated myself to an all women-owned and operated honey farm with a solar powered processing plant in Hagare Selam, Tigray, as well as teaching workshops at Mekelle University. The atmosphere in Addis at the time was very tense. There were rumours about the death of the Grand Renascence Dam’s lead engineer, Simegnew Bekele, being that of an inside job. He was found dead in broad daylight in Meskel Square, and the police reported it as a suicide. Prior to that, P.M. Abiy Ahmed Ali was invited to meet with Donald Trump, this time in Egypt and was given an award for reasons that still haven’t been made public. The Tigrinya speaking population of Addis Ababa began selling their homes and business and relocating to Tigray. By the end of 2018 there were already over 200,000 Tegaru who were internally displaced from other regions back to Tigray. Today we have 2.5 million internally displaced people in Tigray with 4.5 million at risk of starvation. When the Eritrean border opened, thousands of deprived Eritreans fled into Tigray. This inflated market prices creating problem for locals in Tigray who were now paying up to 200% more for goods and services. With persecution from the other parts of Ethiopia leading to an influx of Tigray populations moving back to Tigray and the flood of Eritrean migrants by the tens of thousands, conflict in other regions had also scared foreign tourist and investors, many of which headed to Tigray which was one of the only safe region in Ethiopia. Threatened by the influx of activities in Tigray, the federal government attempted to discourage travel to Tigray by denying investors from boarding a flight to Tigray, and even arrested some of them. In June 2019, the head of the Federal Army General Se’are (Tigrayan) was murdered in his home, as was the retired General Gezae who was also of Tigrayan ethnicity. Both were killed by General Se’are’s own bodyguard who was reassigned to him a few months before the killing by the P.M.’s office for undisclosed reasons.

The Escalation

Timeline of the escalation of conflict between the Federal government and both the leadership and people of Tigray:

• Apr. 2018 — After years of anti-government protests, Hailemariam Desalegn steps down Abiy Ahmed is elected leader by the EPRDF for the remaining 2 years until Aug. 2020.
• 2018–2020 — Abiy implements wave of reforms.
• June 2018 — Abiy travels to Cairo and makes a deal about GRED.
• July 2018 — GRED Head Engineer Killed.
• Mid 2018 — 1.4 million Ethiopians internally displaced.
• Sep. 2018 — Eritrea –Tigray Border open, heavy Eritrean migration into Tigray.
• June 2019 — Generals of Federal Army Assassinated.
• Oct 2019 — Abiy awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for resolving the long-running conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
• Aug. 2020 — Abiy postpones the much-anticipated August 2020 general elections.
• Sep. 2020 — Tigray holds their own election, electing their regional leaders. 2.7 million people voted.
• Oct. 2020 — Abiy cuts the Tigray Regional Budget accuses the TPLF of unlawfully holding their own polls. When a General was sent to Tigray to take over the Northern Command post, the Tigray Defense force sent him back to Addis.
• 3 Nov. 2020 — Tigray Defense Force takes over Northern command.
• 4 Nov. 2020 — Abiy makes a statement saying the TPLF has “crossed a red line” and a military offensive will be launched.
• 7 Nov.2020 — Parliament declares Tigray government illegal and Eritrean Force entered Tigray

Currently Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers have sealed off the borders of Tigray, prohibiting both entry and exit. Cities in the region have implemented curfews with harsh penalties, some punishable by death. Meanwhile, Eritrean and Ethiopian Soldiers are deliberately destroying historical artifacts like Al Nejashi Mosque which was bombed, university labs and hospitals have also been destroyed and being blamed on the TPLF. There are also gruesome atrocities and violent killing sprees in MaiKadra, as well as massacres in the holy city of Axum and a spike in gender-based violence and violence against children which has left the region devastated with over 50,000 dead, and 60,000 fleeing to Sudan – just before the borders were sealed. The federal government continues to deny these occurrences and has pushed the blame onto the people of Tigray themselves for the conflict. Displacement, ethic cleansing, sexual violence and destructions of artifacts are common tactics in times of war. There have been several reports on the atrocities committed in Tigray, but we have yet to see the international community take action by creating a special envoy for Tigray and Ethiopia. On February 19th, 2021 the Tigray-elected government released a statement regarding a peaceful resolution laying out their eight preconditions for negotiations, the top ones included: 1. The exit of ALL Foreign Troops facilitated by UN peacekeepers. 2. Full Humanitarian Access 3. Restoration of Elected Leaders Legitimacy. 4. Third Party Investigate of atrocities committed.

The federal government must accept these conditions in order to stop the violence immediately and create a space for real dialogue. It is only through dialogue that devastations like the famine Tigray experienced in 1977 can be avoided. The aftermath of war and trauma from that era still weighs on the collective mind and ethnic identity in Tigray. 30 years later, the same war is now plaguing a younger generation of Tigrayans that are on the ground fighting and putting their lives at risk, while the diaspora feels helpless. Unfortunately, this war in Tigray is not the only war on the African continent, there are armed struggles in various regions around the world –  from Central and West Africa, to the Caribbean, South America, US and everywhere Black people are present I leave you with the words of Malcolm X: “We are not outnumbered, we’re out organized”.

We encourage people of African descent everywhere to observe and oppose these neocolonial wars that serve exogenous interests and actively destabilize of the Horn of Africa which further threatens security and prosperity on the African continent.

The Pan-African Council (PAC) – Caribbean Region is launching its webinar series Caribbean Futures: A Youth Centred Approach on March 4th, 2021 @ 2:00pm EST. The series launch is in partnership with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies (LA&PS).

The COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the recent spotlight on anti-Black racism has created a paradigm shift in the global discourse of neoliberal policies, which in turn has positioned the Caribbean in a familiar situation of alienation, where the region must reach internally to conceptualize solutions to address its current crises. As such, Caribbean Futures: A Centred Approach series acts as a bridge to foster intergenerational dialogue between Caribbean leaders and youth in thinking of Caribbean futures.

The overall goal of the webinar is to host a series of 8 conversations, in the hope that they that will lead to practical actions spearheaded by Caribbean youth in partnership with scholars, activists, political and community leaders. The dialogues and proposed action plans will address the following themes: anti-Black systemic racism; Education in the Caribbean; Access to Capital; Climate Justice; Food Sovereignty; Arts and Culture and the Tourism Industry. Part of the overall goal of the project is for participants to leave with the necessary tools and resources to disrupt the cycles of discrimination and exploitation that limit the progress and development of the Caribbean and its people.

Webinar attendance is free, register today!
www.panafricancouncil.org/carib2021

Uncovering investment opportunities that impact economic participation from the African diaspora.

Osa is a Nigerian-American entrepreneur and impact investor based in Oakland, CA. As a former executive of Growthexpertz and Co-founder of​ ​Black Ice Media​, he has extensive experience scaling and launching venture-backed startups in positions across the C-Suite. This includes developing private portfolios of joint-ventures and launching companies for corporate innovation groups such as +1Labs (Match Group) and BBVA. His primary focuses are on operational efficiency, growth strategy, and systems implementation.

Domestically, he works with private and public entities to co-develop​ ​Blended Capital​ models and research geared towards helping underrepresented entrepreneurs in the US access venture capital investment. Internationally Osa conducts private equity investments in high-growth sectors across Africa through his work with the Africa Equity Group. Osa is dedicated to developing policy and capital models that enable economic empowerment across Africa and regions of the African diaspora.

As Economist-in-Residence (EIR) for PAC, Osa will be embedded at the intersection of the Pan-African Council’s economic investment and policy advocacy initiatives. In this role, the EIR will conduct research on various investment opportunities across Africa and the policies governing them. More specifically, the EIR will explore how these opportunities impact economic participation from the African diaspora.

Research areas include:

• Diaspora economic policy across Africa.
• Equitable and sustainable investment models.
• Innovation and growth in leading sectors across Africa.
• Methods of economic participation for diaspora communities.
• Macroeconomics (political economy, policy, systems, governance, etc).

Research objectives:

• Bridging the diaspora divide by highlighting pro-diaspora policy.
• Bridging the diaspora divide by highlighting opportunities for economic participation
  across Africa.
• Dismantling miseducation through research and publications on diaspora-centric policies.
• Dismantling miseducation through research and publications on impact-driven African
  investment.
• Promoting economic empowerment by proposing models for sustainable diaspora
  investment.
• Promoting economic empowerment by proposing equitable investment models to deploy
  across the African continent.

A virtual forum on leveraging African cultural heritage as a strategy for integration and regional development

---

QUIBDO, CHOCO, REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA — On Thursday, September 17, 2020 the Pan-African Council alongside the Government of Choco, Colombia is co-organising a virtual forum entitled “Cultural Heritage as a Strategy for Integration and Regional Development”.

The Chocó Department is a region of Colombia known for its overwhelming Afro-Colombian population, nearing 90% of the total population. Located in the west of the country, it is the only Colombian department to have coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. The Fiestas de San Pacho (The St. Francis of Assisi Festival) is held annual in the department’s capital Quibdó, which consist of sixteen days of barrio-based parades and religious observations, with other activities that begin a month earlier. These celebrations have served as an affirmation of community and a claim to belonging and ownership of African heritage, as a form of cultural resistance.

This virtual forum will be carried out with the objective of commemorating Heritage Month in the Department of Choco, Colombia, where local, national and international speakers will be invited to address the issue of cultural heritage as a regional integration and development strategy. Special guests will discuss ways in which culture can be used a catalyst for development and the lessons that can be learned from a global perspective that involves the experiences of people of African descent in the United States and Brazil. This forum is geared towards artists, creators, cultural managers, members of the area, culture and heritage councils, municipal cultural coordinators and secretaries, and the general public.

The event, held in Spanish, is free and open to the public. For more information, click here.

On Monday, September 21, global leaders and notable personalities will be convening for the launch of one of the most important projects of cultural and historical significance of our time, the Pan-African Heritage World Museum.

The brainchild of Honorable Kojo Yankah, founder of the African University College of Communications (AUCC), The Pan-African World Museum will be a uniquely curated virtual and physical space located in Ghana, West Africa. The museum is dedicated to sharing the true story of Africa and its people under the watchful eye of the world’s most noted scholars from the birth of civilization to present day. The vision of the museum is to curate, preserve and communicate the history, ideals, philosophy, and cultural heritage of people of African descent within a 21st century context of social, economic and political development.

“After centuries of separation, people of African descent have an obligation to share a common space that helps to bridge the wide gap that exists among them as a result of deliberate mis-education and historical oppression. The Pan African World Heritage Museum fulfills this obligation,” said Honorable Yankah.

With a projected completion date of 2022, the museum is supported by an international NGO governance model with board of directors and the most prolific group of academic scholars overseeing the development. It has been endorsed by the government of Ghana, UNESCO, the African Union, the Association of African Universities, and more.

The virtual conference which is being organized by pan-African media company Face2face Africa, a partner of the project, will take place on Monday, September 21st from 11am to 12:30pm.

“Centuries ago when enslaved Africans walked through the “Door Of No Return” in Cape Coast to a world unknown, it was not simply an abduction of human resource. It was a symbolic moment that severed ties between those home and away. At Face2face Africa, the quest has been to mend these ties as well as be the loudest voice telling the story of Africans separated by chains and by choice. And that is why we are proud to be a part of a historic Pan-African Heritage World Museum project in Winneba, not far from the Elmina Slave Sastle,” said CEO of Face2face Africa, Sandra Appiah.

The vision for the museum including plans to raise $30 million to complete the project will be unveiled at the launch. President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo will be delivering the keynote address. Other speakers include Eminent African Traditional Leaders, some of the major Scholars on the Academic Council, and Coordinators from across the world. Ghanaian artist Sarkodie, and American rapper and singer Mos Def, Ambassadors of the museum project, will perform. Media Partners include Africa.com, Media General of Ghana, Africa 400 Radio, and DSTV.

The event is free and open to the public. To register, click here. To learn more about the Pan-African World Museum and how you can support, visit www.pahw.org or email info@pahw.org.

[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]