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Dear Readers, for all practical purposes, from time through 1970s, the African Community abroad in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere was a predominantly student population. Members were few in college campuses and largely kept to their own tight-knit circles in the community.
Most, on government scholarships, returned to serve their countries. In the 1960, the Kennedy administration brought hundreds of African students to America for higher education, including Barack Obama Sr., the father of former President Obama. Known as the “Kennedy Airlift,” the generation marked a new and steady pattern of African migration.
The original posting received impressive feedback on this groundbreaking project. Philanthropists, like Dr. Ibrahim Fofanah (Sierra Leonian), in the heyday, were located after almost 25 years. Mamadi Diagne (Guinean) of Amex, DC relocated to work with Ivorian President Alassane Quattara as his Foreign Policy Adviser. Unfortunately, Mamadi died in August 2022. Dr. Sulayman Nyang (Gambian), the former Dean of African Studies, Howard University, who coined the descriptor "Continental Africans" to identify African immigrants and descendants of African immigrants in the Diaspora, died in November 2018. The community lost a fountain of knowledge.
The narrative, first published in mid 2000, does not include the information.
Mayor Marion Barry is no longer with us. But there is Ayo Bryant, the then Director of the catalytic DC Commission on African and Caribbean Affairs established by District of Columbia Bill 95-166. It was signed by Mayor Marion Barry on September 12, 1995.
If you know anyone, dead or alive, noted in the NARRATIVE, please reach out.
Please send evidence of development at the time, as they occurred in context of Continental African ownership of, and influencing, narratives in public space. Either there are eyewitnesses or a document. It is important.
This is an example. By the mid-1990s, civil society actors were in the foreign affairs space.
Evelyn Joe's Response to an editorial by Todd Pitcock on Nelson Madela calling Muamar Gaddafi "Dear Brother." Ms Joe changed of headline to: Mandela Refuses to Pander to Western Politics: Published in Washington Times.
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