Fall at The Africa Center
Dear Friends,
As September unfolds, we welcome the beginning of the fall season—a time ripe with new ideas, fresh energy, and global focus. It’s a month when the world converges in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Every year, leaders, innovators, and changemakers gather to platform and challenge what is possible when we are, at the very least, in discussion with each other about solutions.
This year, UNGA offers a unique opportunity for Africa and its diaspora to step forward and showcase the progress being made toward a brighter future. Various programs will dive deep into Africa's promise and potential, examining the boundless opportunities to strengthen the ecosystem of individuals, organizations, and companies committed to addressing the continent's most pressing challenges while fostering an environment that offers more prosperity for all.
At The Africa Center, we are thrilled to contribute to this global conversation. In partnership with Afreximbank, we will proudly host the launch of our latest initiative, the Afreximbank African Diaspora Center (AADC), at the Future Africa Forum on September 23. The AADC will serve as a dynamic hub for connecting and empowering the African Diaspora, fostering pathways for meaningful engagement and collaboration across the globe. The launch event will be livestreamed, ensuring our online audiences can participate in this historic moment. Stay tuned to our social media channels for the latest program updates and speaker announcements.
Alongside the launch of the Afreximbank Africa Diaspora Center, The Africa Center will also open the exhibition Points of Resonance: Contemporary Photography in Africa on September 18. Curated by Heba Farid and Zein Khalifa, founders of Cairo-based TINTERA gallery, alongside independent curator Sarah Sarofim, this exhibition showcases the work of twelve remarkable artists living and working in Africa and its Diaspora. Employing the language and tools of photography, these artists explore the effects of colonialism, migration, and changing identities. Points of Resonance underscores common links across the African continent and its Diaspora, showing how the works resonate and echo each other, amplifying shared struggles, dreams, and aspirations.
We are also excited to host a series of public programs this season that expand our efforts to bring Africa's rich stories and cultural diversity to a broader audience. This fall I hope you will join us for Swahili language classes in partnership with the Swahili Cultural Institute, providing an opportunity to connect with one of the continent's most widely spoken languages, as well as our Films at The Africa Center series in collaboration with the African Film Festival. This series will showcase recent films that explore fresh perspectives through contemporary African narratives and voices.
As we countdown to Election Day in the United States, I’d be remiss if I did not mention how crucial it is for Africans in the diaspora to make their voices heard this season. We’ve all seen the stories and know too well the maltreatment of immigrants and asylum seekers who have sought better lives in the United States, across Europe, and in other cities across the world. Immigration is not a problem to be solved—it is a powerful force of potential. Now, more than ever, the growing number of African immigrants and people of African descent are shaping the future of our cities, states, and world. We are the next workforce, the next consumers, the next community members contributing socially, economically, and culturally. But we cannot be both dismissed and expected to thrive. It’s clear: either we work to make it better for all, or we all ignore the impacts to everyone’s detriment.
Immigration continues to be a flashpoint in political discourse, and it is critical that conversations on domestic and international politics include African diaspora perspectives. If we are left out of these discussions, we risk being sidelined at a moment when our contributions and voices are more critical than ever. Voting is the smallest action each of us can individually take with the greatest collective impact on influencing who makes the decisions that determine our future.
These next few months mark my final months as CEO of The Africa Center and this season holds particular significance for me. It’s a time of reflection and anticipation. Fall is always an exciting time of year, and we look forward to engaging with you—whether here at The Africa Center in Harlem or as part of our online community—as we continue to advance our mission and navigate these pivotal moments together.
Thank you for your continued support,
Uzodinma Iweala
CEO, The Africa Center
What I’m Reading: African and American by Marilyn Halter and Violet Showers Johnson and Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson
I’ve been doing a lot of reading and research for a collection of long overdue essays. These two books, both more academic in nature, are truly influencing the way that I have been thinking about immigration as a whole and more specifically recent African immigration to the United States of America. Clearly a hot button issue this electoral cycle -- and one that I think Americans and especially recent American immigrants from West Africa need to pay more attention to, these books explore how we build national communities and how we integrate “the other” into them. In short, as all of our communities are just that -- imagined constructions that we have control over and we can choose to imagine societies that exclude or societies that include.
What I’m listening to: Yardcore Born Jamericans
It pains me to say it but this album from my highschool days is almost 30 -- and it's still soooo good. In the spirit of celebrating the diaspora and for all of you out there looking for “reggae hip-hop combined” of an old school flavor, this one's for you.