By Olukayode Idowu
Africans Rising for Unity, Justice, Peace and Dignity is pleased to announce that the week from 22nd to 28th May has been declared African Liberation Week, one of the largest Pan-African mobilizations in the world.
Every year, Africans Rising mobilises thousands of people across Africa and the diaspora under the banner of African Liberation Week (ALW) to commemorate Pan-African cooperation and solidarity.
The African Liberation Week mass mobilisation is drawn from African Liberation Day observed annually on 25th May to commemorate the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) created on 25th May, 1963. This year, the day marks exactly 60 years since the formation of OAU, now African Union (AU).
This year’s milestone coincides with #BorderlessAfrica, a massive Africans Rising campaign launched during the 2022 All-African Movement Assembly in Arusha, Tanzania. Thus, the theme for this year’s African Liberation Week “Borderless Africa” will bring Africans together to advocate for the ratification and enforcement of the AU protocol on the free movement of people and goods in Africa. Along with our theme this year, we are recognizing the following sub-themes:
– Fight against inequality
– The multiple crises – food, energy, climate etc
“The geopolitical whirlwinds we see today demand that we build strength and prosper together, which can only happen through unity and Pan-African solidarity. We must ask ourselves whether or not we are prepared to emerge from these as drawers of water and hewers of wood as we have been for the past centuries”, says Hardi Yakubu, Africans Rising Movement Coordinator.
Last year, under the theme “Africa for Africans”, the African Liberation Week mobilisation engaged more than 500 actions across 46 countries in Africa and the diaspora. This year, we shall have over 400 co- organized and self-organized activities /events registrations across African towns /communities and diaspora drawn from this year’s theme and sub-themes. For more information about 2023 African Liberation Week, visit our website: https://www.africansrising.org/africanliberationweek/
We are calling upon the citizens and descendants of Africa to identify and organize events near them and invite individuals and organizations to join them; or provide the financial support for specific organizations or movements to host their own event during the African Liberation Week in any country (ies) / region (s). Africans Rising calls on everybody to join the movement by reading our founding charter, The Kilimanjaro Declaration, and registering as a member.
You can support the sustainability of the Pan African movement by becoming a donor, through our giving platforms on our website: https://www.africansrising.org/donate/
Africans Rising is a global Pan-African movement of people and organizations working for Unity, Justice, Peace and Dignity. Launched in 2017, the movement provides a space for progressive African civil society leaders and groups engaged in various civic struggles to convene, connect, collaborate, share knowledge and build solidarity among people and across issues.
