Emira Woods @ Women Ambassadors Conference @ Howard University

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Emira Woods, female parliamtentarians in Africa, gender parity in Africa, Howard University, IPS, pan-Africanism, Women Ambassadors Conference

Yesterday I ventured to Howard University to hear Emira Woods of the Institute for Policy Studies speak on Militarism in Africa, primarily through the recent examples of the Central African Republic and Mali.  The occasion for this talk was the 19th annual Women Ambassadors Conference.  The Conference continues today and tomorrow.  I understand that seven of the 23 female ambassadors resident in DC will be present tomorrow as well as the female Ambassador of the African Union to the US.

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Mathilde Mukantabana, Rwandan Ambassador to the US on pan-Africanism, Kagame’s Tenure, and Genocide

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African Civilization, ASG, Georgetown, Mathilde Mukantabana, pan-Africanism, Paul Kagame, Rwanda, Rwanda Genocide, Rwandan Ambassador to the US, ubuntu

The final speaker at the African Society of Georgetown’s 2 day conference this weekend was Mathilde Mukantabana, who I understand was recently named Rwanda’s Ambassador to the United States.  I found Mukantabana to be a particularly appropriate speaker as she has spent much of her life in the Diaspora, serving as a professor of history in California until her appointment.  Her wide ranging comments certainly alluded to that background.  She referenced pan-African giants from this hemisphere like WEB DuBois and Marcus Garvey, from Africa, such as Kwame Nkrumah and spoke of African philosophies that she saw as being relevant across Africa, such as Ubuntu.

Reviving Pan-Africanism in DC

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Ivory Coast drones, Kwame Nkrumah, Kwame Ture, MLK Africa, pan-Africanism, Zizwe Poe

The Revival of Pan – Africanism Forum got a good turnout for saturday’s conference on ‘Dr. Martin Luther King’s Legacy: A Panafricanist Perspective.’  However, aside from a speech of Dr. King’s that was played while the audience was trickling in, the conference would have been better portrayed as an examination of Kwame Nkrumah’s (Ghana’s first head of state) Panafricanist legacy.

As one of the speakers, Krista Johnson, of Howard University acknowledged, the crowd was quite

MLK & Pan-Africanism: DC Conference

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Howard University, Lincoln University, Martin Luther King, Nixon Ghana, pan-Africanism

The ‘Revival of pan-Africanism Forum‘ will be holding a conference on April 27 on “Dr. Martin Luther King’s Legacy: A Panafricanist Perspective“.  I hope to be there to cover the event, which will feature remarks from Professors at two of the region’s leading historically black institutions, Howard University & Lincoln University.

For those of you wanting an Africa in DC experience outside of the traditional think tank event, this looks to be a promising event.  While I don’t know much about MLK’s activities in Africa, I do know that he had a prominent meeting with Vice President Nixon while attending Ghana’s independence celebrations in 1957.

Listen to MLK  broadly discuss Africa – US relations in this clip (relevant portion starts at the 3:30 mark).