Tag: Africans in America

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Young African leaders arrive in United States, fostering connections with Americans

The U.S. Department of State and IREX are pleased to welcome the 2019 cohort of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders to the United States. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered in partnership with IREX, a non-profit organization. The Mandela Washington Fellowship creates stronger ties between Sub-Saharan Africa and the United States with the goal of strengthening democratic institutions, spurring economic growth, and enhancing peace and security on the continent. 

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Obituary

Niara Sudarkasa, renowned anthropologist and Yoruba scholar takes a bow

Professor Niara Sudarkasa, first female president of Lincoln University of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and one of the foremost scholars of Yoruba culture and language has died at the age of 80 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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Uncategorized

African invitees to women’s rights conference denied visas by Ottawa without explanation

By Samuel Getachewl

Last week’s Women Deliver conference in Vancouver announced boosts to Canadian foreign aid for maternal and child health, but the news was bittersweet for the many invitees from African countries, including Ethiopia, who said they could not attend because their visas were denied by Ottawa with little explanation.

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Sports

The NBA’S New Africa League Builds On Strong Foundation

By Jack McCaslin

Popular culture, including sports, has long been one of America’s most powerful exports. Athletes, in turn, have been influential ambassadors, if not for the U.S. government, then for America writ large. Last week, for the first time in National Basketball Association (NBA) history, the Finals tipped off outside of the United States, in Toronto. While only about two hours away from the U.S. border at Niagara Falls, the NBA has set its sights much farther afield.

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Uncategorized

Four Africa city destinations you should visit right now

By Bert Archer

As with most of the world, the heart of Africa is found in its cities. And yet tourists in Africa seem to largely prefer seeking out the continent’s wildlife rather than its cultural city centers.

Safaris can be delightful, but the problem, as Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina has pointed out, is when tourists imagine an entire continent as one.

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Policy

HOW THE BUILD ACT CAN INVIGORATE U.S. ECONOMIC TIES IN AFRICA

By Ed Royce and Robin Renee Sanders

Since the U.S. BUILD Act was signed into law last October, many people across Africa as well as members of the Africa Diaspora have been asking what this global initiative might do to help revitalize American engagement with the continent. The answer is: quite a lot!

The goal of BUILD or the — “Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development Act” – is exactly what the American private sector has long sought. BUILD does a number of positive things to boost the U.S.-Africa economic, business, and development relationship.

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Ancestry

Meet Redoshi: The last enslaved African From Benin Republic To Survive Forced Migration to the U.S.

By Tanasia Kenney

A researcher at Newcastle University in Great Britain has pieced together the history of a remarkable woman believed to be the last survivor of the trans-Atlantic slave trade ships that arrived in the U.S.

Redoshi, later known as Sally Smith, was kidnapped from a village in modern-day Benin, West Africa, and brought to the United States, where she lived and died on the Alabama plantation where she was enslaved, according to research by Dr. Hannah Durkin.

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Opinion

Recognizing differences can foster understanding

This week, TWESE, The Organization for African Students and Friends of Africa, in Rutgers university, is hosting a meeting entitled “Who Am I.”

A few days ago, my friend, a member of the TWESE e-board, posed the question: “What do you feel is the difference between people who were born and raised in our countries, people like us, and Black Americans?”

By Yvonne Olayemi

It is not news that Rutgers is divided into numerous sub-sects of social and ethnic groups. We are comprised of a student body from all over the world.

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Wakanda was 4th most mentioned African nation on US television

The continent of Africa is home to 54 recognized nations — none of which are Wakanda.

By Jon Levine

Wakanda was the fourth most mentioned African nation on U.S. television for the month of March 2018, according to a new study from the University of Southern California. The fictional kingdom from Marvel’s “Black Panther” ranked only behind Egypt, South Africa and Kenya.

Non-comic book Africa does not include Wakanda, but does have 54 other recognized nations.

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Ghanaian President speaks at Harvard University

Use Africa’s wealth to empower youth – Akufo-Addo

Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged African leaders to use the enormous wealth the continent is endowed with to develop and empower their respective youth populations.

With Africa possessing the largest generation of young people in history, President Akufo-Addo indicated that: “I place great hope in their capacity to shape the future of Africa and make Africa the lion that it was meant to be.”

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Climate

U.S. indoor climate similar to that of west central Kenya

By Mick Kulikowski

What do you do to remain comfortable in your home?

If you’re like the American citizen scientists who reported information about their home climate, you make it as close as possible to the outdoor climate of west central Kenya, according to a new North Carolina State University study.

The survey of U.S. indoor climate preferences in 37 states shows that, on average, Americans keep their home climate similar to the outdoor climate of northeast Africa, with outdoor conditions in west central Kenya the most similar to conditions in American homes. That generally means that it’s warm inside with low humidity.

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Diplomacy, Military

AFRICOM Commander engages with African leaders in Washington

The top U.S. commander in Africa met with African leaders in Washington D.C. recently to discuss U.S. Africa Command’s role in the new National Defense Strategy and the value of partner capacity.

Marine Corps Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser engaged with 21 defense attachés and the African Union Ambassador to the U.S. in a wide-ranging discussion at the Africa House, addressing various strategies and common challenges on the continent, Africa Command said.

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Immigration

Liberians in U.S. face tough choice as immigration program ends
By Orion Donovan-Smith

Magdalene Menyongar’s day starts with a 5:30 a.m. conference call with women from her church. They pray together as Menyongar makes breakfast and drives to work, reflecting on everything they are thankful for.

But lately, the prayers have turned to matters of politics and immigration. They pray with increasing urgency for Congress or President Trump to act before Menyongar, 48, faces deportation to her native Liberia, where she fled civil war nearly 25 years ago.

In less than six weeks, the order that has allowed her and more than 800 other immigrants from the former American colony in West Africa to live in the United States for decades will end, the result of Trump’s decision last year to terminate a program that every other president since George H.W. Bush supported.

Come March 31, Menyongar will face a choice: Return to Liberia and leave behind her 17-year-old daughter, an American citizen, or stay in the United States, losing her work authorization and becoming an undocumented immigrant.

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Opinion

Americans taught African churches that being gay is a sin, they listened

By John W. Griffin

The United Methodist Church, like the Anglican, Episcopal, Evangelical Lutheran and Presbyterian churches, proselytized Africans and taught them Christianity. For hundreds of years, these Christians taught them that women were not equal, that slavery was permitted and that being gay was a sin. Today in Africa, even as women’s rights are being expanded, members of the LGBTQ community face harsh treatment.

Here in the United States, all these churches, except one, have stopped teaching that slavery is permitted by the Bible, that women are inferior to men and that being gay is a sin.

That one is the United Methodist Church, which recently refused to remove language from its discipline that being LGBTQ is “incompatible with Christian teaching.” It has stopped denying women equal rights, and has stopped claiming that slavery is permitted.

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Religion

Week of Prayer: Reaching Africa through Minneapolis

By Brandon Elrod,

Philip Nache could have given in to despair. Boko Haram, the jihadist militant group located in Nigeria, had threatened his life, martyred a convert to Christianity and continued to intimidate Christians.

But despite the danger, Nache expected to return and serve the people he’d spent nearly 20 years ministering to, pastoring and planting churches among. He had come to the United States to attend Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, a moment of divine timing that coincided with Boko Haram’s first threats on his life.

As he contemplated whether and how to return to Nigeria, another divine appointment redirected his steps.

At that time, God opened the door for me to come to Minneapolis,” Nache said. “When I was told about the need here in the Twin Cities, I was still thinking of Africa, but after praying, I felt convicted to go to Minnesota.”

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Sports

Major League Soccer: African representation bolstered by new signings

By Mark Gleeson

When the new season of Major League Soccer kicks off at the weekend, all but three of the 24 teams in the north American league will have representation from Africa.

A total of 44 players are drawn from 19 different countries and do not include the players of African heritage who have gone on to play for either Canada or the United States at national team or junior level.

It is a significant representation for the continent whose numbers have been bolstered by several high profile signings.

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News

African Union ambassador brings Wakanda vision to Minnesota

By Tom Gitaa

Less than 24 hours after the movie Black Panther took home some Oscars, the African Union ambassador to the United States, Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, was in Brooklyn Center to share the AU’s mission to build a real Wakanda in Africa.

Brooklyn Center in November elected the first mayor in the metro area born in Africa when it elected Mike Elliot.

The ambitious project, dubbed Wakanda One Village Project, will consist of five African Centers of Excellence in each of the five regions of the African continent, the ambassador told a rapt audience. She first unveiled the project a year ago.

How to fund the ambitious project was the focus of a lunch meeting with African immigrant community and business leaders on Monday. The goal is to have one center of excellence going in the shared Victoria Falls border between Zambia and Zimbabwe where both countries have pledged land to that effect, the ambassador said.

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Uncategorized

Somali native gives up American life for military service in his birth nation

It surfaced during his childhood in a typical American suburb setting replete with friends, video games and extracurricular sports.

It lingered in high school with a growing comprehension of his good fortune and a burgeoning understanding of world affairs.

It persisted as he entrenched himself in study at the University of Southern Maine and further gained a sense of what would give life purpose in his adult years.

African-born Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed had nurtured constant suppositions about his fate had his family not immigrated to this country from war-torn Somalia in 1990.

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Awards

Egyptian-American Rami Malek wins Best Actor Oscar

Egyptians and Africans all over the world are celebrating over Rami Malek’s rapid rise to stardom and recognition at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles.

Rami Malek has won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Bohemian Rhapsody for his portrayal of late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in the musical.

Malek is just the second actor of Arab descent nominated for an Oscar, after “Lawrence of Arabia” star Omar Sharif. Malek is the first to win.

He took a moment to thank the band Queen and acknowledged the extraordinary story of Mercury’s life.

In his acceptance speech he said:

“I am the son of immigrants from Egypt, a first-generation American. And part of my story is being written right now. And I could not be more grateful to each and every one of you, and everyone who believed in me for this moment. It’s something I will treasure for the rest of my life”

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Sports

Ghanaian-American CJ Sapong joins MLS club Chicago Fire

The Chicago based club have announced the signing of the deadly goal poacher ahead of the new Major League Soccer season.

American-born of Ghanaian descent Charles ‘CJ’ Nana Kwabena Sapong has completed his move to MLS side Chicago Fire in the ongoing transfer window.

The 30-year-old has joined the Fire club for the 2019 season around a transfer fee of $200,000 with an option of renewal.He featured for Philadelphia Union last season where he netted four goals with three assists in 33 appearances.

“We also believe that he will increase our scoring capabilities. We’re looking forward to working with him this season.”

He was born to Ghanaian parents in USA.

 

Education, Opinion

UC Berkeley needs to support African language programs

By Martha Saavedra and Leonardo Arriola

Every semester, UC Berkeley offers many new courses. The Amharic language course offered this spring is especially noteworthy. Except for a brief pilot program in 2006, this is the first semester students are able to take a course in Amharic, one of the languages of Ethiopia, which is spoken by nearly 26 million people worldwide. The course, which only opened for enrollment the week before the spring semester, was nearly full by the end of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, just before classes started.

Clearly, there was a pent-up demand for this language. Student motivations include plans for research, study, travel and work, as well as deepening cultural and familial connections. Amharic stands out as a new course at UC Berkeley with many motivated students.

Students studying African languages at UC Berkeley — currently, Arabic, Amharic, Chichewa and Swahili — are poised to participate in one of the most significant global developments unfolding in the 21st century: the increasing importance of Africa demographically, economically, socially and culturally.

Africa currently constitutes about 17 percent of the world’s population. It is the youngest continent in the world, and the youth population is only increasing. Significantly, this means that the world’s working age population will be largely African. Economically, overall growth rates on the continent are relatively high, with the International Monetary Fund reporting 3.76 percent real GDP growth. Ethiopia’s rate is an extraordinary 8.49 percent.

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Uncategorized

Nigeria’s first supermodel, Yemi Fawaz, dies at 64 in New York

Nigeria’s first supermodel, Yemi Fawaz is dead at the age of 64.

Fawaz who pioneered professional modelling in Nigeria and became Nigeria’s first supermodel died, February 20th at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital.

Fawaz’s daughter, Magadelene Oluwatosin, broke the news on Facebook.

Ms Fawaz became a model in the late 70s. She also established a modeling school and did a lot for the fashion industry in Nigeria. She left Nigeria in 1997 and did not return until 2016.

Fawaz was born in Nigeria to a Lebanese father and a Nigerian mother.

For over 30 years, she had a successful career as a fashion and photographic model, beauty promoter/consultant, fashion designer, trade show organizer, chef and a restaurateur.

She opened the first modeling school and professional modeling agency in Nigeria and in West Africa.

She was diagnosed with enlarged heart, also known as congestive heart failure in 1999.

Fawaz is survived by her 33-year-old daughter.

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Ghana-born power executive views heritage from both sides of the Atlantic

By Anna B. Mitchell

With an easygoing smile, Duke Energy executive Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe navigates effortlessly between the worlds of his parents and his children.

Ghartey-Tagoe, whose first name is pronounced “kojo,” grew up in Ghana on the west coast of Africa, the son of a renowned national television journalist.

His home nation won independence from the British on March 6, 1957, just six years before his own birth. For his three daughters, Independence Day is the Fourth of July.

One of his few regrets: Having traveled only once as a family with his wife, Phyllis, and all his girls to visit their parents and extended family in Africa. He met Phyllis in Washington D.C., but they are from the same part of Ghana.

“People who don’t know each other tend to fear each other,” he says. “And once you get to know them, you tend to find out there is nothing to fear and they are very much like you. They have families like you, they love their kids like you do.”

The 55-year-old power executive has risen quickly in corporate America since graduating from Duke University law school in 1988. He practiced privately in Washington, D.C., and Virginia for 14 years, mastering federal and state utility law and representing water companies, power companies, gas companies and phone companies before joining Duke Energy in 2002.

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Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe: Ghana-born power executive views heritage from both sides of the Atlantic

By Anna B. Mitchell | Greenveille News

With an easygoing smile, Duke Energy executive Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe navigates effortlessly between the worlds of his parents and his children. Ghartey-Tagoe, whose first name is pronounced “kojo,” grew up in Ghana on the west coast of Africa, the son of a renowned national television journalist. His home nation won independence from the British on March 6, 1957, just six years before his own birth. For his three daughters, Independence Day is the Fourth of July.

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Sports

Before basketball in Woodbury, Oturus were playing ping pong in Nigeria

By Andy Greder | St. Paul Pioneer Press

Word is starting to spread across the Big Ten basketball scene this winter about Daniel Oturu. He’s making people notice, on and off the court. The Gophers basketball team’s 6-foot-10 freshman center from Woodbury, Minn., and Cretin-Derham Hall made the short trip to the U as one of the nation’s top recruits in the 2018 class. And through 25 games, he has established himself as one of the most promising young players in the conference.

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Music

Meet Gilbert Mulamba: The Congolese musician who records with US luminaries

By Lins Honeyman

Last October saw the release of the long-awaited second album from Congo-born, Dallas-based pianist, arranger and producer Gilbert Mulamba.

The release’s inlay card describes the project as “a mosaic of cultures, sounds and grooves for the ultimate worship experience” and, with recording having taken place in the US, Congo, France, South Africa, Mexico, Haiti, Israel, China and as many more countries, it’s a truly international affair.

Impressively, Gilbert secured cameos from big name artists such as Joel Kibble of Take 6 fame and Grammy-winning saxophonist Eric Marienthal whilst Dove-nominated pianist Ben Tankard and CeCe Winans’ bass player Thaddaeus Tribbett also lent their substantial talents – all of which adds to the rich tapestry of sound contained within the album’s 13 mostly instrumental tracks.

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Opinion

Philadelphia’s many African students need culturally inclusive education 

By Aminata Sy

Immigrants are a force in Philadelphia, but their educational needs are neglected. As of 2016, Philadelphia’s immigrant population had increased by 69 percent since 2000, accounting for more than 232,000 residents.

by 69 percent since 2000, accounting for more than 232,000 residents.

An estimated 1 in 4 children in the city immigrated themselves or were born to immigrants, and Philadelphia’s labor force has about 1 in 5 immigrants.

Africans make up the fastest-growing segment of this immigrant population, yet belong to a marginalized group.

In the School District of Philadelphia, immigrants and native-born students of African backgrounds rarely see themselves reflected in curricula. What message does this absence of their people, their histories, their cultures send to children? “You don’t belong — Philadelphia isn’t your city, America isn’t your country.”

Students of African immigrant backgrounds endure bullying for being African, “too black,” or speaking English with an accent.

Historically in America, Africans have been viewed through a stereotypical lens of wildlife and backwardness. These perceptions persist and continue to hurt Philadelphia children.

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Nigerian-born Dr. Wendy Okolo is “The Most Promising Engineer in the US Government”

Dr. Wendy Okolo’s career has taken flight at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. agency responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.

She received Black Engineer’s Most Promising Engineer in Government Award during the BEYA STEM Conference in Washington D. C. recently.

Okolo is an aerospace research engineer at the Ames Research Center, a major NASA research center in California’s Silicon Valley.

She was only 26 years old when she became the first black woman to obtain a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. She earned both undergraduate and doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering from UT Arlington.

Her previous research has been recognized and funded by the Department of Defense through the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship; Zonta International, through the Amelia Earhart Fellowship; and the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics through the John Leland Atwood Graduate Fellowship.

Currently, Okolo is a Special Emphasis Programs Manager in the Intelligent Systems Division of NASA’s Ames Research Center.

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Music

Meet J.S Ondara: The next big musical export from Kenya to the world

You might hear his voice and wonder why you’ve never heard of J.S Ondara but that is set to change because we are going to introduce you to the silky-voiced crooner.

Ondara is a Kenyan who moved to the United States of America six years ago after winning a Green Card lottery that allowed him to settle down there, where he picked up guitar playing from scratch.

The interesting thing about his artistic journey is that it all started with a bet gone wrong!

He had bet with a friend that the song Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door was written by the band, Guns N’ Roses, his favourite band and not by the legendary musician Bob Dylan.

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Music

After 20 year sojourn in America, kenyan band, Jabali Afrika, returns home

Nimetembea sijamuona msichana kama Aoko…

imetembea sijamuona msichana kama Aoko…

This is one of the most famous lines in arguably Jabali Afrika’s greatest song of all time, Aoko.

Teenage Kenyan music fans — and most certainly those in their early 20s — may not resonate with songs by one of the continent’s most iconic Afro-rock jam bands, but the journey by the legendary ensemble reads like a fairytale.

Teenage Kenyan music fans — and most certainly those in their early 20s — may not resonate with songs by one of the continent’s most iconic Afro-rock jam bands, but the journey by the legendary ensemble reads like a fairytale.

After bolting out due to unresolvable differences, former members of Kenya National Theatre (KNT) Dance Troupe formed Jabali Afrika on February 12, 1993.

Justo Asikoye, Peter Mutua, Josek Asikoye, Evans Chagala, Victor Savana Elolo and Robert Owino threw in the towel to chart their own way, but one would wonder why this powerful troupe split even after making a serious musical impact in the country and beyond.

Justo Asikoye, Peter Mutua, Josek Asikoye, Evans Chagala, Victor Savana Elolo and Robert Owino threw in the towel to chart their own way, but one would wonder why this powerful troupe split even after making a serious musical impact in the country and beyond.

“We wanted independence, freedom and space to express our creativity in a more profound manner. Our decision to break away wasn’t that easy because we had already established ourselves at KNT, but we had to make a decision anyway,” says Justo Asikoye, 48, one of the most recognisable faces of Jabali Afrika.

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Telling the story of African immigrants living in the Americas