What Africa Day means for the African diaspora

[00:00:00]May 25th marks Africa Day and the founding of what will become the African Union. What does this celebration of Panaffrican unity, independence, solidarity, and inclusive prosperity means for you in particular, but in general for the US and for the African diaspora?

[00:00:22]>> I look at myself, I'm part of the African diaspora. when we came in uh those of us who are AfricanAmerican uh many of us did not know which country uh that we came from on the continent especially those of us in a congressional black caucus so we chose not to adopt a country we adopted the continent and so the creation of the African Union also for me represents freedom for those of us who are African and from African descent because of what took place on our continent where it was connalized uh and taken advantaged of uh and and it people were enslaved and shipped off and they were subject to others authority at all that particular time. But the Africa Union symbolizes the rebirth of the continent to stand on its own. And so it means that the African continental free trade agreement when they determine an individual to to do something internally, trade among themselves, improving their economies, working with the African bank uh and investment in that regards all so so the African Union uh and countries coming together saying that we're going to stand, we're going to have our freedom, we're ready to work with the rest of the world. uh and it shows uh the opportunity where the sky is not the limit. It's untold of the accomplishments of that great continent, the founding continent on this earth.

[00:01:58]>> It is just as great as ever. And that's what this means, you know, uh in this time of history uh in which we we live in. It's the rebirth of the continent.

[00:02:07]And uh and I'm so proud of it.