Promoting African Unity

AU Ambassador to the US Makes First Official Visit to Caribbean

“I am grateful to be here and so happy to be a part of your family." Those were the words addressed to a gathering of stakeholders and representatives of various Pan-African groups in Trinidad and Tobago by her Excellency Ms. Amina Salum Ali, Permanent Representative of the African Union Mission to the United States of America at the start of her Caribbean mission.  With those words Ambassador Ali underscored the purpose of her visit:  to bring the people of Africa and the Diaspora together in a spirit of cooperation and mutual understanding; to address common issues and concerns of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora and together to find solutions that will lead to greater progress and development for those within as well as outside of the Continent.

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• Shabaka Kambon presents a bouquet of flowers to Her Excellency Ms. Amina Salum Ali welcoming her to Trinidad and Tobago.

Establishment of the US Mission

Her Excellency Ms. Amina Salum Ali is the first ambassador for the African Union to the United States.  She was recently appointed having presented her credentials to President Bush less than two years ago in July 2007, but she makes it clear that the idea for a US mission had been in the offing for quite some time. The idea actually had its genesis in the late 80’s (1988-89) under the Organization of African Unity.  The decision to establish the mission was revitalized again in 2003 after the formation of the African Union and finally implemented in 2006.
According to the Ambassador, the US Mission was a strategic move designed to represent the interests of Africans both on the Continent and in the Diaspora. "Africa contains about 70 percent of the world’s resources, yet our voices are not heard," she stated. "America is the place where one can influence decisions on the world stage." Africa, she states, has a perception problem, especially because of negative portrayals by the Western media.  One of the mandates of the AU Mission to the US is to address those perceptions and to promote a more positive image of Africa in the Americas.
Ambassador Ali has a wealth of experience under her belt having worked in prominent Government positions in her native Zanzibar as well as in Tanzania.  She was a well respected member of the House of Representatives in Zanzibar and Tanzania and served in several ministerial positions. She has also been heavily involved in social development, finance and women’s issues. She founded the Institution of Finance Administration, the Presidential Fund for Self- Reliance, ZANGOC, an NGO that deals with HIV/AIDS, and ZAWOTE - Zanzibar Women Welfare Trust.  The Ambassador also is a founding member of the Tanzania Muslim Women’s Association.

African Union Diaspora Initiative

While many of the core functions of the AU Mission in Washington revolve around forging stronger relationships with, and promoting greater understanding between the AU and various stakeholder and interest groups within the United States, the mandate of the Mission, according to the Ambassador, goes well beyond that. "The AU recognizes that the Diaspora is very vital to African development and therefore 60 percent of the Mission’s work is to deal with the Diaspora," she points out."The establishment of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), for instance, was intended to bring the AU to the people at the grassroots level so that all African voices could be heard – not just voices on the Continent but in the Western Hemisphere and anywhere there are people with whom we share a common ancestry, but the ECOSOCC is not enough; the Diaspora is large and very dispersed and it is impossible for everyone’s voices to be heard in that forum alone."  The decision to embark on a series of missions to the Caribbean is therefore part of the AU’s strategy to reach out to the Diaspora on a deeper level and expand the grassroots promotion of the African Cause.
Ambassador Ali sees Trinidad and Tobago playing an integral part in promoting the cause of Africans across the Caribbean, given the role already played by the Emancipation Support Committee (ESC), which also serves as the Secretariat of the Caribbean Pan African Network (CPAN) – an organization committed to the promotion of Pan Africanism in the Caribbean in collaboration with the AU.  The partnership with CPAN was the mechanism the AU Ambassador’s office utilized in order to initiate their outreach to the Caribbean."We are very fortunate to have the assistance of Mr. Kambon and CPAN in helping us to arrange these meetings," she stated."In this way we can begin to engage Diaspora and listen to their views and concerns and get their input into the ways we can begin to promote Diaspora." On this her first official visit, Ambassador Ali will also visit Guyana, Suriname and Barbados, but she has already committed to expanding the mission to include other islands in the not-too-distant future.

Common Issues and Concerns

Asked about the one thing she hoped to accomplish on this mission to the Caribbean, the Ambassador said:"If we can establish a programme in the region that eliminates one problem in the Diaspora that would be a good start."  She further explained apart from their common ancestry, Africans are united by the common issues and problems that face them and need to come together to deal with those challenges."There are, for instance, studies show that there are certain health problems that only affect people of African descent, so it is up to us to present a united front and to combat those illnesses.  On this trip we will be speaking to groups and organizations to hear what their issues are and what are some of their ideas so that we can begin to implement concrete solutions."

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• Executive Members of the Emancipation Support Committee

By all accounts, those discussions are off to a good start. At a meeting with representatives of civil groups at ESC headquarters in Trinidad, the Ambassador’s initiative was enthusiastically welcomed as attendees were very vocal about the issues that needed to be addressed.  One issue discussed was the problem of immigration and the movement of Africans across borders.  It was feared that there was a deliberate attempt being made to deny transit visas to travelling Africans and that as a result Africans were resorting to illegal and often dangerous alternatives in order to move from one part of the world to the next. 
Other issues raised included the urgent need for financial and technical support for organizations and businesses in the region; the need for better education – particularly as it relates to the transmission of African history and culture to younger generations and the need for more ambitious, cross-cultural initiatives. 
The Ambassador ended the meeting with a firm promise to deepen collaboration between the AU mission and the Diaspora in the Caribbean. "Now is the time to show our ‘Africanness’ for our own benefit and for the benefit of our children," she urged."We need to promote our common history, struggles and triumphs, so Africans across the Diaspora can establish closer bonds and we need to educate our future generations from a more Afro centric perspective."

The African Union

The African Union is an intergovernmental organization consisting of 53 African states.  It was constituted in 2002, after the Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) issued a Declaration calling for the establishment of an African Union, with a view to accelerating the process of integration on the continent to enable it to play its rightful role in the global economy while addressing multifaceted social, economic and political problems compounded as they are by certain negative aspects of globalisation. The objectives of the AU include, to achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and the peoples of Africa; to defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States; to accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent and to promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples. The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.