Mission
"It is the top priority of the AU to embrace and encourage Africans
in the Diaspora to come home and fully participate in the social and economic
development of their motherland. The development of this important effort
will be a test of my success."
Alpha Oumar Konare, African Union Commission Chairperson,
and former President of Mali.
"Many may not fully recognize that the African Diaspora Nation
is within the top 10 richest nations in the world. We are coming home
with remarkable knowledge, talent, skills... We are absolutely abounding
with top scientists, engineers, military advisors, medical doctors, social
scientists, teachers, financial executives and hard workers. We have worked
in top institutions, both in the public and private sectors... We now
add to that knowledge African holistic connection to the land, the language,
the culture, the governing bodies, the civil society, and we will make
a powerful partner with our brothers and sisters at home."
Dr Erieka Bennett, Interim Chairperson of the Diaspora
African Forum, Convener of Accra 2004.
Background
As a result of the trans-atlantic slave trade of the 19th century and early 20th century, Africans have found themselves scattered in virtually every continent, with North America and South America topping the list. Many of the diasporas of today are second and third generations of family members who were forcibly taken away from African soil as slaves.
There is also the group who left Africa in search of ‘greener pastures’ in other countries abroad, and who have found themselves living there for the greater part of their lives. They and their children qualify to be called diasporas.
The yearning for a return to their roots prompted the idea of an African Diaspora, which today has evolved as a very strong phenomenon across the Continent and in their various countries of abode. Indeed, any African who was born, or who lives, works or is studying outside of Africa is considered part of the Diaspora.
Many Africans born or based outside the Continent have found themselves drawn to the need to be a part of as well as contribute to Africa’s new development. Consequently their ‘return’ may not necessarily be a physical return but a contribution of their time, financial resources, expertise skills and energies in:
- Alleviating the poverty of the poor countries of the Africa such that these countries do not have to keep depending on aid from foreign countries, which have directly or indirectly contributed to their current state.
- Uplifting the lives of their fellow Africans through provision of basic infrastructure, social amenities, food and shelter, among many other considerations.
- Enriching the economies of African States. The African diaspora is one of the most financially equipped groups in the world. Aside of their own individual financial resources, they have access to donor and sponsorship agencies through which they can muster funds for any project they decide to embark on.
Their yearning as well as an appreciation of the positive contributions they are capable of making to the growth and development of Africa, gave rise to the need to institutionalize this group. Coupled with this is the fact that individual contributions cannot be easily quantified as a diaspora effort, unless there is a formal organization to institutionalize these efforts.
The issue of an African Diaspora gained its initial prominence in June 2001, when the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) convened the first ever OAU-Civil Society Conference. The framework that was generated from this conference was consequently adopted by the 74th Ordinary Session of the OAU Council of Ministers in Lusaka, Zambia in July 2001. At that meeting it was ‘proposed to (OAU) member states that they develop strategies for utilizing the scientific and technological know-how and skills of Africans in the Diaspora for the development of Africa.
The same year marked the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to the African Union (AU) in Durban, South Africa in 2001. Following this ‘new order,’ the first African Union Western Hemisphere Diaspora Forum was held in Washington, D. C. USA, in December 2002, to discuss how the diaspora could establish meaningful roles to play in Africa’s new development. Its main objectives were to:
- Examine the enduring ties to Africa within the Western Hemisphere Diaspora Forum communities.
- Discuss possible capacity building projects by Diaspora Civil Society Organizations in the Western Hemisphere Diaspora.
- Devise a plan on ongoing collaboration with the African Union, including a Plan of Action and a hemisphere Steering Committee.
The year 2003 witnessed the historic recommendation of the African Union ad hoc Ministerial Committee that the AU should “invite and encourage the full participation of Africans in the Diaspora in the building of the African Union, in its capacity as an important part of the continent”.