Tag: Americans in Africa

People

Northern New York native describes his work as U.S. ambassador to Rwanda

By SUSAN MENDE

A Canton native now serving as the U.S. ambassador to Rwanda described Monday how the small African country has rebounded since a 1994 genocide, during which nearly a million residents were murdered.

Peter H. Vrooman, 53, was joined by his mother Sally Vrooman, Canton, during the luncheon meeting of the Canton Rotary Club at the Best Western University Inn.

“I try to encourage people to visit Rwanda. It’s a very safe country,” Mr. Vrooman said. “It’s a place you can get to; it’s fairly well-served and connected with airports. It’s just a long way to go.”

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Visit to Africa

Trip to Africa is one to remember for students in the Bronx

Bronx high school students got an incredible opportunity to learn more about the rich cultural history of Senegal.

Students traveled overseas just last month and say the trip changed them.

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Relocated

9 Things I Wish I Knew Before Moving to Africa

You: “I want to move to Africa!” Us: “Know these things first…”

by KAYLAN REID SHIPANGA 

In 2010, I hopped on a plane and left The Big Apple—I was moving to Africa. After 17 hours in the air, I landed in Namibia for a year of teaching English abroad. Seven years later, I’m still here! I’m now married to a Namibian and raising our two-year-old son. What an unexpected turn of events, huh?

Since moving to Africa, and over the years, I’ve picked up a few lessons throughout my unexpected journey of life in Africa. For individuals considering taking the leap of faith and moving here like I did, this article is for you. Here’s what I wish I knew before moving to Africa, in the hopes that your transition to an incredible chapter of life here will be as smooth as possible.

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Visit to Africa

Travel Diary: Rachelle Salnave and Her Daughters Are Welcomed Home To Ghana In the Year of Return

“No one had to tell us—we felt at home!”

By Rachelle Salnave  In OkayAfrica

Haitian-American indie filmmaker shares the gift she gave her daughters of traveling to Ghana, West Africa for the first time during The Year of Return.

Staying at Agoo Hostel in Nima was a page out of the 1980’s American TV series, The Love Boat—except the characters were Ghanaian!

“Akwaaba! Welcome home my sistahs,” is a phrase we were told not just at Agoo, but throughout our entire Ghana girls trip. Akwabba is not just this country’s motto—it’s the vibe in Ghana.

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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.

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Visit to Africa

Pelosi, Congressional Delegation honor Ghana’s Rich Tradition in Ceremony with Paramount Chiefs, visit Historic Slave Sites to mark ‘The Year of Return’

Speaker Pelosi and Members of the Congressional Black Caucus traveled to Ghana’s Central Region to meet with tribal Chiefs and visit the slave dungeons at Elmina and Cape Coast Castles and the “Door of No Return” to observe “The Year of Return.” The delegation laid wreaths at both dungeons in remembrance of the millions who lost their lives and freedom in the transatlantic slave trade.

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Visit to Africa

U.S. Naval Forces Band performs for 300 children and youths in Lagos, Nigeria

U.S. Naval Forces Europe Band “Topside” performed for 300 children and youths at the Johnson Jakande Tinubu Park in Lagos as part of their second visit to Nigeria this year. The children sang and danced to the delightful tunes performed by the band. “Topside” is in Nigeria as part of the visit by the USNS Carson City.

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Visit to Africa

Nancy Pelosi and her Congressional delegation arrive in Ghana

The first woman Speaker of the United States House of Representatives who is leading a Congressional delegation to Ghana has arrived in Ghana. Nancy Pelosi and her delegation touched down at Terminal 3 Sunday afternoon and were met by the US Ambassador to Ghana, Stephanie S. Sullivan and the Speaker of Parliament, Mike Aaron Ocquaye.

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Sports

The NBA Is Pushing Into Africa. Can It Compete With Soccer?

By Sarah Maslin Nir

Even though he was 6-foot-6 by the time he was 14 years old, when an aspiring basketball star in Senegal picked up a ball for the first time, his friends were skeptical: In this soccer-mad region, why bother with a ball you dunk, when everyone else is kicking?

“My friends thought I was weird in the beginning,” said the young player, Mouhamed Lamine Mbaye, now 18 (and 6-foot-9), as he stood on the court of a new basketball academy, the first to be built by the NBA in West Africa.

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Opinion

American journalists have duty to report on tragedies in Africa.

By Isha Sesay

There are few impenetrable corners left in the world. Today, thanks to globalization, innovations in technology, and the rise of social media, the world feels small, and those living in distant places are increasingly relatable. Unless, of course, we are talking about Africa.

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Opinion

How to Fix America’s Absentee Diplomacy in Africa

By Howard W. French

Earlier this month, The New York Times created a mini furor on the internet with a job listing for someone to lead its coverage of East Africa. The announcement described it as an opportunity “to dive into news and enterprise across a wide range of countries, from the deserts of Sudan and the pirate seas of the Horn of Africa, down through the forests of Congo and shores of Tanzania.” It went on to speak of the region’s “many vital story lines, including terrorism, the scramble for resources, the global contest with China,” among others.

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Sports

Audible Football Camp to Launch Morocco’s First American Football Conference

By Celia Konstantellou 

Audible Football Camp, a non-profit US organization, will partner with Rabat Pirates, the Moroccan association of American football, to organize the first major American football conference in the country’s history.

The five-day conference will be held from July 12 to July 16, 2019 in Ben Slimane. It will be open to all American football lovers, including people who are already play the sport, as well as to anyone seeking to discover more about it.

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Education

Top American universities are doubling down on their presence across Africa

By Abdi Latif Dahir

Amid the rolling hills on the outskirts of Rwanda’s capital Kigali, the Carnegie Mellon University Africa’s new campus is a prominent feature on the lush landscape. The 6,000 square meters property is located within the Kigali Innovation City, a public-private partnership aimed at positioning Rwanda as a globally competitive and knowledge-based economy.

Since it’s establishment in 2011, CMU Africa has grown from a small graduate program attracting local applicants to becoming the only American research university with a full-time faculty and operations in Africa.

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Military

Airbase 201: America completes drone base in Niger Republic

By StrategyPage

After five years of negotiations, followed by years of construction delays, the new American airbase in Niger has been completed. Called Airbase 201, it cost $110 million and is one of the most expensive U.S. Air Force foreign airbase construction projects even undertaken. The main purpose of the base is to improve surveillance and intel collection about Islamic terrorists in the region. That will be accomplished by basing UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) there along with some manned aircraft.

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Ancestry

African-Americans Moving to Africa? Howard Professor Publishes Article on Their Reasons for Leaving the U.S.

By Imani Pope-Johns

The perception that African-Americans are moving to Africa, whether they have been or not, has become a trending topic for the past few years. Howard University Assistant Professor of Journalism, Mark Bedford, traveled to Ghana as an advisor for Alternative Spring Break, a week of local and international volunteerism by Howard University faculty, staff and students. He recently published a story for Narratively, after witnessing first-hand the increased number of African-Americans migrating to Africa, and the booming market for opportunities they’re taking advantage of, such as the technology industry.

Continue reading “African-Americans Moving to Africa? Howard Professor Publishes Article on Their Reasons for Leaving the U.S.” →