AFRICA PEACEMAKERS CONVENTION

Peace       Partnership      Prosperity

Senegambia 2016

How come Africa, the birthplace of humankind, the cradle of civilization, the vivid symbol of diversity, the gem of natural beauty, the cultural axis of the universe, the global provider of natural resources has been marred with corporate and political graffiti?

In 2003, the famous Cable News Network (CNN) wrote a story that stated that  ‘Advanced DNA testing combined with recently unearthed discoveries are bolstering the belief that if you look back far enough, all living human beings are the descendants of a small, innovative and ambitious set of people on the African continent. With the mapping of the human genome in 2003, combined with thousands of people around the world submitting their DNA for testing, there’s now mounting physical proof that we all started in Africa before migrating around the world. Geneticists are able to identify certain genetic sequences or “markers” in each of us and cross-reference it with a number of ever-growing international databases. Where there’s a match, there’s likely a common ancestor and genetically speaking, all markers point to Africa’ (Barnett, 2013)

That is why in recent times, amidst some raging political rhetoric by politicians from America and Europe to drive foreigners out and take their countries back, the African leadership at home and in the Diaspora are just watching because they know that rhyming with the West in such divisive remarks would mean getting all corporations out of Africa and leaving humanity to its own instruments. It is impossible, because all humanity comes out of Africa and therefore, Africans seek peace, partnerships and prosperity.

It is against this backdrop of information that the New York Peace Coalition is collaborating with African Governments, the African Union, Regional Economic Communities, the New Partnership For African Development, the Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank and the broader civil society to convene a Peace Makers Convention in Senegal in December 2016. A continent that has given so much to the world is again ready to lead in pacifying the increasingly polarized world. With its unique attributes for development, coupled with its youth-dominant population, peaceful coexistence among all its citizens shall make the continent and the rest of the world perfect habitats to live, raise families, nurture entrepreneurship, vacation destination and investment.

As the African Diaspora has become the Sixth Region of the African Union and the citizens are participating in many areas of Africa’s development, this envisioned annual convention in promoting peace and partnership would open more collaborative doors of prosperity for the continent and the outside world.

The main objective of the Peacemakers Conventions is to develop a consultative peace and development agenda that will inform policy directions of the continent and the rest of the world. As things stand now, Africa is still portrayed as a haven of terrorism, poverty, disease and hunger while the global human and natural resources that Africa possesses remain unreported. Africa’s richness is not only designed for corporations, it is for all humanity. Until Africa assumes the hegemony needed to bring stakeholders together, the prejudicial nuances against Africa and the entire human race from across the world will remain unaddressed.

Works cited 

Barnett, Errol. “African Roots of the Human Family Tree.” Http://www.cnn.com. May 14, 2013. Accessed December 27, 2015. http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/14/world/africa/african-roots-dna/.