When Brazil hosted historic African, Afro-descendants Conference

Brazil in partnership with Togo, and the African Union (AU) completed an amazing three-day Conference of the African Diaspora in the Americas in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil on August 31, 2024.

The multi day event included African Diaspora participants from Brazil, Peru, Guatemala, the United States, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, Ghana, Europe and many other places from around the world.

In all, more than 50 countries attended the Conference with representatives from Civil Society, Academia, Non-Profit sector, Government, and Businesses.

This was the final pre-Conference leading up to the 9th Pan African Congress scheduled to be held in Lomé, Togo from October 29 to November 02, 2024.

There were three in-person meetings in Mali, South Africa and Brazil. And three virtual meetings in Morocco, Tanzania, and Cameroon.

The Brazil conference, whose theme was “Memory, Restitution, Reparation and Reconstruction,” was attended by leading figures from the Caribbean, the Americas and the Pacific, including the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Mauro Vieira, the Vice-President, African Union Commission, Monique Nsanzabaganwa, Governor of Bahia, Jerônimo Rodrigues Souza, Minister of Culture, Margareth Menezes, Minister of Racial Equality, Anielle Franco and Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship, Silvio Almeida,

In choosing the theme for this 6th and final pre-Congress Conference, a prelude to the 9th Pan-African Congress, the High Committee in charge of the Decade of African Roots and Diasporas 2021-2031, set up by the 34th session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU, put the essential issues dear to the hearts of Africans and Afro-descendants at the heart of the debate.

The Conference was marked by a number of speeches, including that of the Togolese Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Integration and Togolese Abroad, Prof. Robert Dussey, who said that the Conference marked a historic step in relations between the peoples of Africa and their sisters and brothers who, by the fruit of history, found themselves on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

The head of Togolese diplomacy took the opportunity to pay a vibrant tribute to the Brazilian authorities for their political courage and tireless struggle for a Brazilian society reconciled with itself.

Prof. Dr. Richard Santos of the Federal University of Southern Bahia, in a reflection on the historic meeting said that a Conference like this in Brazil, “a country with a large Afro-diasporic majority, but as I say, a Majority Minoritized, is special beyond the strengthening of our bonds. It is special for the construction of our strategies for the future, which is the present of today. Our future is now, and we are the beacon for the Global South. For a new concert of countries united in their diversity, but based on the African roots of Pan-Africanism.”

Dr. Akil Khalfani, the Director of the Africana Institute of Essex County College, Newark, New Jersey, USA, who was a delegate to the Conference stated: “the Diaspora meeting could have only happened at the level of engagement and support the way it occurred in Brazil. We have a template for government and civil society engagement for people of African Descent that we need to replicate using the ideas of Ubuntu, Maat, and Iwa Pele.”

He continued: “African consciousness is rising globally, and this is the time for African people to rally together to uplift ourselves from the ravages of chattel slavery, colonialism, and neo-colonialism. Together, we will end poverty, hunger, violence and bring innovation, educational and technological advances for the world. We Are the Change.”

Pictures here show some of the personalities that graced the landmark Conference.