The launching of the African Voices Forum, a network of African community associations in Bristol, the first ever such forum in the UK, was the climax of a one-day conference recently organised by the social justice organisation African Initiatives.
The event was an exciting combination of African speakers, films, presentations and workshops for the African Diaspora and those interested in African ideas and alternatives. The aim was to provide participants with the opportunities, skills, and knowledge to become active on local and global issues that concern them.
Dr Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, a Sierra Leonean journalist and research fellow at the University of the West of England in Bristol, who co-ordinated the conference said: “There are around 20 different African community associations/organisations here in Bristol representing people from almost as many countries. The conference provided us with an exciting opportunity to network among ourselves as well as with our friends and supporters, share ideas and identify the different challenges we face both here in the UK and at home in Africa”.
The conference addressed a wide range of issues relevant to not only Africans but anyone living in Bristol interested in global and local justice issues. Topics ranged from climate change and Africa, addressing negative stereotypes, fair trade and trade justice as well as some local issues like education, working with communities to getting to know your MP with local MP Kerry McCarthy running one of the workshops on how to lobby your MP.
“Everyone is interested in Kenya at the moment so we were very pleased to have Kenyan Human Rights activist, critic, public intellectual, Dr Wangui Wa Goro as our keynote speaker. It is important to hear the human rights perspective from a Kenyan woman” said Dr Shaw, who chaired the first plenary session.
Other Speakers were Charles Abugre, Ghanaian social justice activist in Africa and globally, African-Caribbean community activist and author, Paul Ifayomi Grant and Eid Ali Ahmad, Deputy Chief Executive, Wales Refugee Council, a Somali living in exile for 30 years. All of them expressed optimism for Africa but agreed that Africans must take the lead in engaging with the problems of poverty and conflict which tend to permeate Western media discourse.
The conference, organised at, and partly funded by the Bristol City Council College Green, attracted over 120 participants mostly from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Gambia, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Kenya, as well as some francophone African, communities living in Bristol.
“For too long the public voice of Africa is the large charities and celebrities“ said Mike Sansom, the Coordinator of African Initiatives. “There is a sad irony in the idea of millionaires against poverty and we want to address this by having Africans speaking on African affairs and their interests and concerns.”
There was an overwhelming support among participants for the setting up of the African Voices Forum as a network of African community associations/organisations in Bristol.
“African Forum should be the umbrella for all groups working towards the advancement of Africa”, said Barry Wallen, an African-Caribbean of the Rose Green Sports and Leisure.
Popular Sierra Leonean artist and actor David Dravie-John was even more blunt with the way forward: “The composition of African Voices should comprise of all African Organisations within a defined structure, policies and procedures and a two year rotational chairmanship.”
One of the positive outcomes of the conference was the fostering of links, promoting understanding and the easing of tensions among African Communities with diverse cultural backgrounds on one hand, and between these and African Caribbean communities on the other.
A notable downside however was the lack of interest in the conference by the mainstream media. African Initiatives coordinator Mike Sansom, who singled out the BBC Bristol as the only media outlet that showed interest by at least having him and Dr Ibrahim Seaga Shaw as their morning guests just before the start of the conference, did not hide his frustration when he said: “ITV News contacted me for a quote just after the end of the conference but I told them the only quote I can give them is that the conference is over, adding that they could have mobilised people to cover it had it been a conflict or a problem with asylum seeking Africans.”
Photo:Dr.Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, first from right, with two participants at the conference.
Comments