Tag: Africa and Africa-American relations

African Politics, Video

Putin and Zelensky take Ukraine war to Africa. Who will win the diplomatic war?

President Zelensky of Ukraine recently visited South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to seek diplomatic support as the Russian-Ukraine war moves from the hot phase to a phase where President Trump seeks a ceasefire and diplomacy to end the war. in this episode Ebimo Amungo and Weruche Ozoka wonder if Zelensky is too late in his effort to attract African support. #africansinamerica #africanimmigrants #werucheuzoka #africanimmigrants #ebimoamungo #Putin #Zelensky

https://x.com/rubidoooo/status/1916524315593347508?s=19

Opinion

Dear Black America: You Should Be Paying Attention to Africa

By Patrick Washington | San Diego Voices and Viewpoints

In the last month of 2022, The United States hosted the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. The goal of this summit was to expand relations between the U.S. and the continent of Africa.

Well, really, it’s because China is kicking ass in diplomatic, economic, and virtually every other major area in Africa’s ascension, and the U.S. is woefully underprepared for a world where the world’s largest resources center and the world’s largest manufacturer get along — and the world’s most powerful nation isn’t invited to the cookout.

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Uncategorized

Biden to meet South Africa leader amid differences on Russia

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will meet with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa this month, the White House announced Thursday, as the administration looks to draw African nations closer to the U.S. at a time when South Africa and many of its neighbors have staked out neutral ground on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Announcement of the Sept. 16 visit comes on the heels of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to South Africa last month, in which he said the Biden administration sees Africa’s 54 nations as “equal partners” in tackling global problems.

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Uncategorized

Montgomery College Professor Receives Fulbright Scholarship to study Ghana’s Mediated Call on The Year of Return.

By Suzanne Pollak | mymcm

Montgomery College Professor Tiffany Thames Copeland received a Fulbright U.S. Scholarship award in communications from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

During the 2022-2023 school year, she will research “African Americans Respond to Ghana’s Mediated Call: Digital Media & The Year of Return.”

Continue reading “Montgomery College Professor Receives Fulbright Scholarship to study Ghana’s Mediated Call on The Year of Return.” →
Opinion

How the United States Can Shape Africa’s Future

by Dramane Chabi Bouko | NATIONAL INTEREST

The Department of State’s Bureau of Africa Affairs provides three core objectives for U.S. foreign policy towards Africa: “1) Advancing trade and commercial ties with key African states to increase the U.S. and African prosperity; 2) Protecting the United States from cross-border health and security threats; and 3) Supporting key African states’ progress toward stability, citizen-responsive governance, and self-reliance.”

Examining these objectives and their on-the-ground impacts, separating health and security threats, creates four unique strategic priorities.

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Uncategorized

Floyd Mayweather set to visit Nigeria ahead of Dubai fight

By By Gowon Akpodonor

Former undisputed world super welterweight boxing champion, Floyd Mayweather, would visit Nigeria on Friday as part of his efforts at promoting the sport in Africa, the organisers of the trip have announced.

Mayweather, who will make his first ever visit to Africa when he arrives in Abuja ahead of his ring return at the Skies of Dubai on May 14.

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Uncategorized

Nigerian Consulate Celebrates Black History Month

By Cecilia Ologunagba | NAN 

The Consulate-General of Nigeria in New York has joined its counterparts from Ghana and Turkey to honour the contributions of the African Americans to the development of the U.S. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that every February since 1976, the U.S. has celebrated the Black History Month to acknowledge the contributions of African Americans to national development.

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Opinion

The “Social Distance” between Africa and African-Americans

American popular culture inhibits a close relationship between African-Americans and the African continent.

By: Ohimai Amaize | Jstor daily

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Opinion

Examing the poor relations between Black Americans and black Africans

By Miriam Tose Majome| Newsday

THE relationship between black Americans and black Africans has been a subject of interest for social scientists and writers for a long time.Some black Africans, especially students w ho go to live in the United States are often unprepared for the reality of the poor relations that exist between black Africans and black Americans.

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Ancestry

Deontay Wilder reveals he has traced his roots to Nigeria

From Guardian Newspaper

Former heavyweight boxing champion, Deontay Wilder, stunned fans globally after he revealed on Saturday he had traced his roots to Edo State.

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Uncategorized

Equatorial Guinea President to receive 400 Years of African American History Award

By EIN Presswire

His Excellency Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President of Equatorial Guinea, is slated to receive the 400 Years of African American History Award from the H.R. 1242 Resilience Project in the capitol city of Malabo this week. The award is to recognize an African Head of State that has contributed with building bridges for humanity and the African American Diaspora.

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Ancestry

How some Black Americans are finding solace in African spirituality

BBy Nylah Burton  | Vox

Porsche Little, a Brooklyn-based artist, diviner, and aborisha — or someone who serves the Orisha, a group of spirits central to the Yoruba and other African Diaspora religions — says that she has received a huge increase in requests for divinations and readings throughout the pandemic.

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Opinion

Who is black in America? Ethnic tensions flare between black Americans and black immigrants.

The everyday experience of the Black man has been brought to focus by recent happenings in America. This age of the Black Lives Matter movement has brought to fore the question of who is black in America. This article published in October 2018 spotlighted the growing tension between African-Americans who are descended from slaves and black Americans immigrants with a different heritage.

by Valerie Russ   | Philadelphia Inquirer

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Entertainment

Africans complain about depiction of continent by Beyoncé in video celebrating ‘African tradition.’

By Danielle Paquette | The Washington Post

Grace Bassey is tired of the outdated way African countries are often portrayed on American screens. So when the trailer for Beyoncé’s new visual album emerged on Twitter with imagery Bassey found stereotypical — face paint, feathers, animal skins — the Nigerian college student responded with images of highways, skyscrapers and yachts.

Continue reading “Africans complain about depiction of continent by Beyoncé in video celebrating ‘African tradition.’” →
Opinion

How George Floyd’s death united Africans and African-Americans

African immigrants have not always felt at home in African-American communities. Black Lives Matter protests may be changing that.

By Anthony Akaeze  | Christian Science Monitor

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Opinion

Not all black people are African American. Here’s the difference

BY CYDNEY ADAMS | CBS

Black Lives Matter protests have opened up conversations about the history of privilege, racism, and the lived experiences and identities of black people in America. Now, the distinction between “black” and “African American” has become a prominent conversation on social media.

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Culture

Odunde, largest African American street festival, goes virtual for 45th anniversary

BY SINEAD CUMMINGS | PhillyVoice

The largest African American street festival in the country annually takes place in Philadelphia. Typically held on the second Sunday in June, Odunde draws large crowds supporting and celebrating African culture.

The festival’s concept originates from the Yoruba people of Nigeria, West Africa. Odunde is a Yoruba word that means “Happy New Year.”

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Opinion

George Floyd’s killing touches a nerve with Africans who know police brutality at home and abroad

By Yomi Kazeem | QUARTZ

When a high ranking official condemns state brutality against citizens in an interaction between African countries and the United States, Africa is typically on the receiving end. This week, the tide turned as the African Union (AU) issued a strongly worded statement condemning the killing of George Floyd, the African American killed by Minneapolis police officers.

Continue reading “George Floyd’s killing touches a nerve with Africans who know police brutality at home and abroad” →
Uncategorized

Ghanaian MIT innovator, Isaac Sesi, writes tribute to American Family for their role in his life

By Ebimo Amungo

Ghanaian inventor, Isaac Sesi, was unveiled to the world in 2019 when MIT Technology Review’s listed him among of 35 Global Innovators Under 35. In a recent publication in “Humans of New York” Isaac Sesi paid tribute to an American family who befriended him as child, paid for his education and played a major role in his life.

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American Odessey

African-Americans are just familiar strangers to Africans

Africans who arrive America soon find out that there is a big gulf between them and African-Americans. They only share skin colour, not a lifelong kinship.

By JOYCE K. MWANGI

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Ancestry

NAACP Group Arrives In Ghana Exactly 400 Years Since First Slaves Were Brought To U.S.

Drummers, dancers and local residents welcomed the NAACP delegation at Kotoka International Airport, as the group made their long-awaited arrival in Ghana for the Year of Return.

The excitement was palpable as almost 300 African Americans touched down in Accra for an eventful week that is akin to a homecoming.

Continue reading “NAACP Group Arrives In Ghana Exactly 400 Years Since First Slaves Were Brought To U.S.” →
Uncategorized

Tamar Braxton’s boyfriend David Adefeso thanks her on their trip to Nigeria For His Mother’s Birthday Party

By Ron Collins | Celebrity Insider

As you already know, Tamar Braxton was in Nigeria with her man, David Adefeso and her son. More family members were there as well, and a few days ago, David decided to speak about this trip they had together as a family.

‘When I asked my @tamarbraxton to come with me to my mom’s birthday party in Nigeria I had no idea what to expect. I grew up in Lagos so I was excited to take her back home, but this was not one of our nice chill vacations under the warm Cancun resort sun  No! This was a trip to Lagos, a tough, hot city where the “hustle” never ends. Not having lived there for almost 30 years I’d heard stories of how dangerous Lagos had become,’ David began his post.

Continue reading “Tamar Braxton’s boyfriend David Adefeso thanks her on their trip to Nigeria For His Mother’s Birthday Party” →
Ancestry

Reclaiming “Send Her Back”: A Call for Black Americans to Voyage to Africa

By Johnaé Strong

When it comes to being Black, queer and immigrant in America, there is no safety. The countless violent attacks on people of color, the lack of action against guns after repeated mass shootings and the unrelenting excuses for assailants who are predominantly white and male point to a sinister truth about America: Violence and murder founded this nation and remain deeply entrenched in the state ideology. The president has reinforced this ideology by inciting anti-Black and anti-immigrant sentiment through the call for ICE raids and a border wall and shouts for American-born, non-white government officials to go back to their countries.

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Health

Student and teacher reunite decades after meeting in Nigeria

By Karen Garloch

Because of his name and accent, it’s not unusual for Dr. Yele Aluko’s patients to ask where he’s from.But in the early 1990s, when he got the question from this new patient – a retired Charlotte principal and Johnson C. Smith University professor – Aluko asked one of his own: Where do you think?

Spencer Durante guessed correctly that his new heart specialist was from Nigeria, in west Africa. This rarely happened. In fact, when Aluko first came to Charlotte in 1989, one area hospital administrator suggested he change his name from Yele – pronounced yeh-lay – to Yale, so it would be easier to say.

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Ancestry

American actor Samuel L. Jackson travels to Africa to meet his relatives in Gabon

By Halligan Agade

American actor and film producer Samuel L. Jackson has traced his ancestry through Finding Your Roots, an American docu-series that uses traditional genealogical research and genetics to discover the family history of celebrities.

The Hollywood veteran found discovered his roots to the Bantu tribe in the West African nation of Gabon.

Continue reading “American actor Samuel L. Jackson travels to Africa to meet his relatives in Gabon” →
Ancestry

A DNA test connected two distant cousins — and filled out a family history that slavery erased

By María Elena Romero, Producer Joyce Hackel

Jean Kapenda always hoped to help African Americans to find their African roots. That dream came true in a very personal way. Kapenda, a criminal justice professor at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, has been interested in genealogy and ancestry for a long time. A few years ago, he did a swab and sent it to a genetic testing site. 

After getting the results, Kapenda, who is originally from Democratic Republic of Congo, has been able to trace hundreds of relatives in the Americas, most of them the descendents of people enslaved and sent on ships across the ocean.

Continue reading “A DNA test connected two distant cousins — and filled out a family history that slavery erased” →
Health

Millennial from Kenya is ‘sickle cell warrior’ – Florida Courier

“Marie Ojiambo’s outstanding success as a research scientist is truly inspiring as she did not allow the challenges of Sickle Cell Disease to prevent her from achieving her professional career goals.”

BY LAUREN POTEAT

It has been more than 100 years since sickle cell disease was first discovered in America. Today, the rare hereditary blood disorder continues to affect millions of people throughout the world.

Continue reading “Millennial from Kenya is ‘sickle cell warrior’ – Florida Courier” →
Issues

Understanding the Division Between African Americans and Africans

By Dwayne Wong (Omowale)

The slave trade not only physically separated African Americans and Africans, but it created a psychological separation as well. At the root of this continued division between the two groups are misconceptions rooted in the narratives that each group has been given about themselves, as well as each other. As African people we continue to view ourselves and each other through the lens of the colonizer. For this reason African Americans tend to view Africans in the same manner as Europeans do, and Africans tend to view African Americans the same way. In this article I will look at the roots of where these misconceptions came from.

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Ancestry

Moving to Ghana ‘healed my ancestral trauma’ – Sicley Williams

This month marks 400 years since the first African slaves arrived in the United States and the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade. Overall some 12 million enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic. This year is also Ghana’s ‘Year of Return’, an initiative launched by the Ghanaian government to encourage the African diaspora to come back to Ghana.

Sicley Williams moved to Accra from Atlanta in the US back in 2017. She told Newsday’s Bola Mosuro what about her personal reasons for making the move.

Read more from source

Ancestry

Going Back to Africa a blessing: Blacks who live, work and play on the continent say returning to the Motherland is beautiful

BY J.S. ADAMS 

Close to the shores of Langma Beach in Ghana, West Africa, Carol Muhammad enjoys her six bedroom house with her husband, Robert Muhammad. The couple made the move from Phoenix, Ariz., to Ghana in May, after Robert Muhammad retired. 

The two haven’t looked back.

Continue reading “Going Back to Africa a blessing: Blacks who live, work and play on the continent say returning to the Motherland is beautiful” →