The 6th Region of the African Union (AU) – the African Diaspora – will between August 29 and 31, 2024, hold a crucial Conference in Brazil, in preparation for the 9th Pan-African Congress scheduled to hold in Lome, Togo from October 29 to November 2, 2024.
The theme of Conference of the African Diaspora of Americas, which will take place in the city of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, is “Memory, Restitution, Reparation and Reconstruction.”
A diverse group of knowledgeable individuals and groups, including diplomats and representatives from international and regional organizations, such as the African Union, politicians, academics, activists and members of civil society, as well as representatives of people of African origin living outside the African continent irrespective of their nationality and citizenship, will attend the Brazil Conference in preparation for the Togo Congress.
The delegates will be discussing collaborative strategies to promote the sustainable development of African nations and African descent communities in the Americas.
They will be aiming to find ways to strengthen connections between Africa and its diasporas in the Americas; to provide a space for dialogue and cooperation as well as encourage exchange of knowledge and experiences; strengthen cultural identities and facilitate transnational partnerships focused on technology, education and health.
The theme of the Congress in Togo is “Renewal of Pan-Africanism and Africa’s Role in the Reform of Multilateral Institutions: Mobilizing Resources and Reinventing Oneself to Act.”
Other preparatory conferences towards the Togo Congress were also scheduled for the other regions of the AU – Southern, Eastern, Western, Northern and Central, the goal being for the six different regions to come to Lome with position papers on the way forward.
Brazil, which is hosting the Conference following an invitation from the AU’s High Committee on the Decade of African Roots and the Diaspora, has the largest Afro-descendant population outside the continent of Africa, while the state of Bahia has the largest black population in Brazil.
The outcome of the Conference of the African Diaspora of Americas, which is being supported by Brazil’s President, Luiz Inacio da Silva, is expected to be a representation of the views of the generality of all the descendants of Africa living outside the mother continent.
And the Congress in Lome, Togo later in the year, is expected to aggregate the positions from the regions to advance the conversation on Pan-Africanism, especially as it concerns how to tackle issues of economic and human development, hunger, poverty, inequalities, racial justice, climate change, collaboration, equal access to technology, the nagging question of Reparation, among others.
