In celebration of African Liberation Day, a forum titled Education for Liberation will be held this Sunday, May 25, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., at the Dangriga Town Hall.
Organizers say that the community event will also feature entertainment, exhibitions, and craft stalls.
The event will double as a launch for the African Advancement Association of Belize, and the Nigerian community of Dangriga and San Ignacio are slated to also participate.
The mission statement of the new organization is, “to address the cultural, socio-economic, political and spiritual development of Africans in Belize and the rest of the world,” but its primary objective is to develop appropriate institutions for the purpose of providing correct and accurate information on African history, culture and religion.
Interim president, Olatunji Balogun, says that the association targets people who identify with their blackness, despite their skin color, and they are inviting members to come onboard.
The forum is being held in memory of Bernice Yorke, Signa Yorke, the Holy Family Nuns, Black Cross Nurses, Nurse Noguera, Ms. Ticie, Cleopatra White, Mischek Mawema, Anthony Soberanis, Leigh Richardson, Pablo Lambey, Lorenzo Benguche, Simon Lamb, Philip Goldson, Thomas Vincent Ramos, Isaiah Morter, and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
The history of African Liberation Day is summarized as follows: “On April 15, 1958, in the city of Accra, Ghana, African leaders and political activists gathered at the first Conference of Independent African States. It was attended by representatives of the governments of Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, The United Arab Republic (which was the federation of Egypt and Syria) and representatives of the National Liberation Front of Algeria and the Union of Cameroonian Peoples. This conference was significant in that it represented the first Pan-African Conference held on African soil…
“It was also significant in that it represented the collective expression of African People’s disgust with the system of colonialism and imperialism, which brought so much suffering to African People. Further, it represented the collective will to see the system of colonialism permanently done away with.
“After 500 years of the most brutal suffering known to humanity, the rape of Africa and the subsequent slave trade, which cost Africa in excess of 100,000,000 of her children, the masses of African People singularly, separately, individually, in small disconnected groupings for centuries had said, “enough”! But in 1958, at the Accra Conference, it was being said in ways that emphasized joint, coordinated and unified action.” (Extracted from The Talking Drum, www.thetalkingdrum.com)
Five years following that historic meeting, on May 25, 1963, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was formed. Simultaneously, Africa Freedom Day was changed from April 15 to May 25, and renamed African Liberation Day (ALD) – an observance now held all over the Diaspora.