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By:
James Gachau | |||||||||
| Posted:
Oct,10-2018 11:40:19
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First published Thursday September 13. Updated September 15, 2018 8.19 pm BOSTON--H.E. Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, the African Union Ambassador to the United States of America, delivered a powerful speech to the African diaspora in New England at Boston University (BU), Thursday, September 6, 2018, and at a breakfast meeting on Friday 7 where she hailed plans by the newly launched Africa Initiative Foundation (AIF) to create a credit union owned and managed by Africans in the Diaspora but open for business to anyone in the community. Endorsing plans now at an advanced stage, Dr. Arikana said that the change that is needed in Africa is going to come only from the diaspora organizing without regard for the traditional national boundaries found on the continent. She pledged support for a series of fundraisers planned to raise the required startup capital required by regulating authorities in USA for a credit union to qualify for an official charter to operate. She also promised to be the chief guest at the maiden fundraising event, which is slated for Saturday October 20, 2018 in Lowell, MA.
Calling on Africans to come together under one umbrella organization, Dr. Arikana emphasized that Africans will never receive the respect they deserve from the rest of the world if they don't present a united identity as Africans. She reminded those present that everywhere people of collective single identities go, they always do well because they do not let themselves be divided by nationality, tribe, or language. "For example, the Jews have for millennia been a formidable force to reckon with because they look out for each other wherever they go, so let's start by supporting this credit union idea as one people so it can be a reality. We don't want to see other Africans everywhere doing the same thing as that tends to reduce the effectiveness," she added. Referring to the centuries in which Africans have lived under the tutelage of the West, Dr. Chihombori noted, "Francophone Africans would sooner be considered French than African." She bemoaned the practice of Africans importing food from France despite Africa having 60% of the arable land in the entire world. "If you go to grocery stores in Francophone Africa, you will find everything is imported from France," she added. "We are totally disrespected around the world because we behave in a manner that does not command respect!" Dr. Arikana emphasized. Of course, she did not lay the blame for this sad state of affairs on Africans themselves, which would have amounted to victim-blaming, but reminded those present that slavery and colonialism were the real culprits; the European conquistadors not only carved up the entire continent into arbitrary administrative pieces of land during the scramble for Africa, they also beat out any sense of self-worth and pride Africans had.
She underscored the fact that the brain drain caused by slavery and immigration was the real culprit for Africa's underdevelopment. This has had deeply deleterious effects on the motherland. For example, she said, 50% of the drugs exported from the West to Africa have zero bioavailability. "They sell chalk to us, and lie that they are giving us medicine!" she averred. "The result is that our patients die from this poison, but we are told that they died of malaria, pneumonia, and other treatable diseases." However, she averred her faith in diaspora Africans and their potential to rectify these historical injustices by returning to the Motherland. "Everyone agrees that all that is needed for Africa to take her rightful place on the world stage is for her children to come back home!" she reiterated. "We can build the Africa we want!" The Ambassador was nonetheless quick to add that even before Africa's children return home, they need to come together under one unit, instead of continuing with the divisiveness imposed on them by the colonialists. She urged those present at the event to forge strong communal bonds with each other, while at the same time remaining committed to the standards and ethics they have cultivated and developed since they came to live and work in the U.S. During a Q &A session, Dr. Michael Kisembo, professor of finance and accounting at Suffolk University and chairman of the Africa Initiative Foundation asked the AU Ambassador whether she was aware of any measures taken by African political leaders to curb corruption. A renowked tax preparer based in waltham, Dr. Kisembo charged that corruption was the greatest reason for diaspora Africans' resistance to returning home was the rampant corruption. In response, Dr. Arikana proudly pointed out that since the setting up of a peer-review mechanism to hold African leaders accountable to each other; Nigeria is now the least corrupt African nation so far. She added that people returning home would do so under the auspices of a project called the "Wakandan Villages.", borrowing from the recently released Black Panther movie that projected what Africa would have been without the effects of colonization. In these villages, no one would be allowed to live or work unless they adhered to norms and practices agreed upon by the diaspora community itself, according to Dr. Arikana. "You either shape up," she declared, "or you ship out!" These Villages, she added, are part of Agenda '63, which is part of the Pan-African spirit that is taking strong root among progressive Africans. Through them, she said, "we are going to set the gold standard for how to do things as they should be done!"
She reminded all present that Africa needs millions of trained doctors, engineers, teachers, and other professionals, all of whom are already available right here in the diaspora. "We all need to come together to build the capacity of our continent!" she continued, decrying the second scramble for Africa going on right now between the Chinese and Western countries who have lately woekn up to the reality of Africa as the fastest gorwing emergnng market in the world. "It starts with you as an individual, pledging your own money to the credit union that we are going to start. This money, remember, is yours! It is not being taken from you. You are only pledging it under the credit union, and then leveraging it to build the Wakandan Villages. Banks take your money; you take your money to the bank, to Bank of America, and it just sits there. But every night, the bank uses your money to make more money for itself. Why can't you do the same?" Responding to audience concerns that existing divisions among some Africans in the Diaspora could get in the way on a powerful African community credit union, the Ambassador said in no uncertain terms: "This train is not going to stop for anyone. This credit union already being set up is the one we will endorse and support. If someone doesn't want to join, leave them alone and just pray for them!" Members of the community present at the meeting praised the efforts by the Ambassador to rally Africans in the Diaspora together to create a credit union more sensitive to the needs of the growing community. "We really do need to have our own money supply system like other communities do. This is long overdue. I will support the efforts and will also attend that fundraiser," said Abraham Ekajulo, a research and development officer at Sola Block of Easthampton, Massachusetts during an interview with Ajabu Africa News. The event at BU was hosted by Africans in Boston, an organization that offers a platform to connect Africans in the Greater Boston diaspora. The Africa Foundation Initiative is a registered nonprofit organization by nationals from different African countries in USA for the sole purpose of raising funds for the credit union startup costs. AIF offices are located at 596 Main Street, Waltham, MA, Phone: 617-389-4417.
Reporting by James Ngetha, PhD, Ajabu Africa News. Editing and additional reporting by Harrison Maina. | |||||||||
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Source:
AJABU AFRICAN NEWS
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