Event: African Liberation Day Commemoration and COVID-19 in Africa

Please join the Advocacy Network for Africa (AdNA)* for a virtual celebration of African Liberation Day and briefing on COVID-19’s impact in Africa and the diaspora.

On May 25th, Africans on the continent and in the diaspora will commemorate African Liberation Day in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. To mark this day, the Advocacy Network for Africa (AdNA), will host a virtual event that will brief the audience about COVID-19 in Africa and the diaspora, the responses taking place, and what needs to happen to mitigate COVID-19.  You will hear first-hand from the health frontlines of COVID-19 in Africa, the African diaspora, the youth, and women.

To Register, click here

or email Ms. Pauline Muchina – PMuchina@afsc.org

or Ms. Dunia Tegegn – dmt58@georegetown.edu

Speakers:

Dr. Abdiqadir Yousuf Abdullahi is a medical doctor and university lecturer with extensive experience in research. He has worked and been stationed in Mogadishu, Somalia for the last 5 years. Dr. Abdiqadir also works with Save The Vision, a nonprofit non-governmental ophthalmic humanitarian organization established for saving, restoring vision, and preventing blindness from avoidable causes. Dr. Abdiqadir has a master’s degree in health service management from Kampala University, Uganda. Dr. Abdiqadir earned his medical degree from Hope University School of Medicine in Hargeisa, Somalia. He is also pursuing a leadership and management in health certificate from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA. He is currently working in Mogadishu.

Ms. Coumba Toure is a movement coordinator for Africans rising for peace justice and dignity. Born and raised between Mali and Senegal, Coumba Toure is a writer and storyteller. She publishes children stories and organizes art events targeting children’s minds through Falia. (see her  channel ) She also designs popular education programs with a focus to impact women and children. Coumba is the chair of the board of TrustAfrica and of ACI Baobab. She is one of the coordinators of Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity. She has extensive experience in facilitating meetings internationally, engaging young people, designing, implementing, and evaluating training programs to promote human rights especially those of women. Coumba had promoted social entrepreneurship through her work with Ashoka. She has worked with organizations such as the Institute for Popular Education in Mali, the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement in Selma Alabama, and the Youth for Environmental Sanity in Santa Cruz California. She is a member of the African Feminist Forum and the Per Ankh collective. Coumba has served on the board of Urgent Action Fund for Women in Africa. Coumba is a  mother, a sister, and a daughter to many. 

Ms. Nana Gyamfi is the executive director, Black Alliance for Just Immigration. She received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University, and her Juris Doctorate from UCLA School of Law. She brings with her over three decades of service to the Movement for Black liberation, and over twenty years’ experience directing Black social justice organizations and networks. Nana is a human rights and criminal defense attorney, a professor in the Pan African Studies Department at the California State University Los Angeles, and radio personality who hosts 2 popular shows in Los Angeles, CA. As a seasoned organizer and activist, Nana has been involved with and led various local, national, and international social justice organizations for over thirty years. She is a Co-Founder and Managing Member of two Black-led and Black-focused organizations – Justice Warriors 4 Black Lives and Human Rights Advocacy. She is a co-founder and Core Team Member of Black August Los Angeles. She has also served as Executive Director of Black Women’s Forum, an organization founded by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who serves as its President.

Ms. Nyeleti Honwana is the Co-Founder of Global Black Youth. Nyeleti is an impatient millennial working at the nexus of philanthropy, academia, youth and race. She is a Program Officer at the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, which funds research on violence, conflict and aggression. Here she serves as the lead organizer of the Young African Scholars Program, a two-year mentorship program that supports junior African scholars completing their PhDs at African institutions. She serves on the steering committee of the Africa Grantmaker’s Affinity Group (AGAG), a network of international philanthropic organizations funding a variety of projects on the African continent. She co-leads the Africa, Peace and Security Network, a group that convenes professionals in the private, public and third sector working at the intersections of peace and security on the continent in effort to promote cross-sectoral pollination and collaboration. In 2020 she was among the inaugural cohort of professionals awarded the Equity in Philanthropy Fellowship by the Rockwood Leadership Institute and recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People of African Descent  (MIPAD) Under 40. She holds a BA in Contemporary History from the University of Sussex, UK and an M.A. in International Affairs from Boston University. Her experiences living and working in Mozambique, South Africa, England, Senegal, France, Uganda, and the US, underpins her fervent belief that a diversity of cultures, perspectives and voices is central to achieving systemic, sustainable and global social change.

Dr. Robtel Neajai Pailey (moderator) is a Liberian academic, activist and author of the forthcoming monograph Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia (Cambridge University Press, 2021). With more than 15 years of combined personal and professional experiences at the intersection of scholarship, policy and practice, she has worked across a broad range of fields supporting universities, governments, media institutions, multilateral, regional, non-governmental and community-based organisations in Africa, Europe and North America. Robtel’s core areas of expertise include the political economy of development, migration, conflict, post-war recovery and governance, all with respect to Africa. Previously an Ibrahim Leadership Fellow at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, Robtel currently serves as Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Department of International Development (ODID) in Oxford, UK, where she conducts research on race, citizenship, ‘South-South’ migration and development cooperation in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Visit www.robtelneajaipailey.com for more information.

*The Africa Faith and Justice Network is a founding member of AdNA.