African Consuls General Group Celebrate Africa Day In New York City
On Friday, June 10th, the African Consuls General Group and the New York City Mayor’s Office for International Affairs celebrated Africa Day. The in-person celebration for Africa Day, which commemorates the founding of the organization of African Unity on May 25th, is celebrated globally by Africans. This year marked the 59th Anniversary of the formation of the Organization of African Unity and the 20th year anniversary of its successor, the African Union.
The African Union theme for this year’s event was “THE YEAR OF NUTRITION — Strengthening Resilience in Nutrition & Food Security on the African Continent.”
The African Consuls General Group is chaired by His Excellency Motumisi Tawana, the South Africa Consul General.
The Program Director for the Africa Day event was El Hadji Amadou Ndao, the Senegal Consul General. The event featured live music from musicians hailing from the entire continent including Algeria, Burkina Faso, and South Africa. As part of the celebration and appreciation of cultures, a few African countries featured tastings of their cuisine at the event.
The African Union Ambassador to the United Nations, Her Excellency Fatima Kyari Mohammed, attended the event and gave remarks. Her Excellency Fatima Mohammed also graciously conducted the raffle sponsored by Ethiopian Airlines who generously donated a full round trip ticket to anywhere in Africa.
Other notable guests included Ngande Ambroise, Board Member of the African Advisory Council, Hermann Some, President of the Association of the Burkinabe in New York, and El Hadji Ndao, President of SunuAfrik Inc.
Still on Africa Day Celebration…
In his remarks, South African Consul General Motumisi Tawana touched on the potential of Africa, a continent with 55 sovereign states and 1.4 billion people. “We further pride ourselves of being a Continent with one of the youngest populations, which makes it an attractive territory for major economic initiatives, hence we call ourselves the Continent of the Future”, said Consul General Tawana.
He continued, “While the African Continent has effectively displayed the political unity, it has also replicated this unity in the economic front, through the launch on 01 January 2021 of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is a flagship of the Agenda 2063 of the African Union. Accordingly, the AfCFTA aims to build a single integrated African economic market of over 1.4 billion people with a combined GDP of approximately US$3.3 trillion.
Most importantly, the AfCFTA is anchored on a developmental integration approach, which places emphasis on market integration, infrastructure development, and industrial development to boost intra-Africa trade, support economic development and facilitate structural transformation in the continent.
These values are also expressed in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that has, since its launch in 2000, significantly strengthened the U.S.–African relations.”
The unity between African communities at the event was palpable. Africa is alive with possibility. Africa is open for business.
