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The 25th of May is an important date for people of African descent, especially those of us in the diaspora.

It was a great privilege to be invited by the Honorable Zoe Bettison MP, South Australian Minister for Multicultural Affairs to be guest speaker to mark the 2024 World Africa Day Celebration at the Parliament House on the 22nd of May 2024.

Why celebrate Africa Day? We often associate celebrations with triumph over hardships, sacrifices, pains, anguish, exploitation, suppression, failures, dark moments, or resilience over adversities.

For example, we celebrate ANZAC Day, “lest we forget” the sacrifices made by men and women for our freedom. Christians celebrate Easter to remember the ultimate sacrifice of one man for his people, and the triumph of life over death.

The UN General Assembly marks days, weeks, years and decades to draw attention to significant human omissions, risks, and potential dangers including, ageing, indigenous languages, eradication of colonialism, peace, and poverty alleviation. Similarly, 2015 to 2024 was declared a Decade of People of African Descent.

Africa Day celebration is a reminder of the displacement, disempowerment and atrocities against people of African descent through colonisation, especially during the infamous 1884 Berlin conference, where Africa was shared among various colonial invaders with no African voice or representation.

Africa Day is a reminder like Frantz Omar Fanon said in Wretched of the Earth, that the power of colonisation and the freedom from it is more than a mere declaration of independence. It makes the colonised lose a sense of identity and ask themselves, “In reality, who am I”?

Africa Day celebrates 25 May 1963, when independent African leaders formed the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), to reunite the continent from its colonial divisions. It also celebrates the formation of the African Union by 55 independent African countries to replace the OAU.

African Day celebrates the recognition of the over 400 million people of African descent scattered around the world through slavery and migration. It celebrates the African Union's declaration of the African Diaspora as the 6th Region of Africa on 25 May 2012.

As members of the African Diaspora, the Africa Day celebration acknowledges that as migrants our children are often at a crossroads wondering who they are and where they belong between their parents' cultural roots, and their current cultural values.  

Africa Day celebration is therefore an opportunity to raise awareness of the challenges facing African migrants in Australia and around the world. It celebrates their resilience, acknowledges their contributions, and admires their aspirations.

Africa Day Celebration is an opportunity to thank Australia for its hospitality and sense of welcome.

On Africa Day we look back to learn from past histories of our people.

We look around us to see how far we have come.

We look within to find our true selves as African Australians.

We look forward to an interconnected future where mutual respect and understanding become the new order.

Africa Day celebration is also an opportunity to highlight important projects that connect us as part of a multicultural Australia. For example, the African Village Centre project in South Australia connects and supports a happy, healthy, thriving, and engaged African community. It is a space where people gather to relax, learn, create, celebrate, and tell their own stories. The Social and Emotional Wellbeing for Young People project helps young African migrants to understand, adjust, develop a sense of identity, build resilience and become the best versions of themselves rather than ending up in the justice system. Our ongoing ARC Africa Impact project investigates the political and economic agency of African migrants in Australia.

We celebrate Africa Day so that like the ABC TV jingle, composed by Bruce Woodley and Dobe Newton, we can proudly say in one voice that:

We are one, but we are many,

And from all the lands on earth, we come

We'll share a dream and sing with one voice

I am, you are, and we are Australians.