UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
Africa Action is Born!, 03/21/01

Africa Action is Born!, 03/21/01

To: all Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List readers

March 21, 2001

Please find below two messages, one an announcement to friends and colleagues, including lists of our board and staff, and the second a press release. We look forward to continuing to work with you in the months and years ahead. Please share these announcements with others you think may be interested. - Salih Booker, Executive Director, Africa Action

Announcement to Colleagues

Africa Action is Born!

[Incorporating the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) est.1953, The Africa Fund est.1966, and the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC) est.1978]

Washington DC Office: 110 Maryland Ave, NE #508 Washington, DC 20002 Tel: 202-546 7961 Fax: 202-546 1545 website: http://www.africapolicy.org e-mail: apic@igc.org

New York Office: 50 Broad Street, #1701 New York, NY 10004 Tel: 212-785 1024 Fax: 212-785 1078 website: http://www.africapolicy.org e-mail: africafund@igc.org

March 21, 2001 International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination

The United States' oldest organizations devoted to analysis and advocacy on African Affairs have successfully negotiated a consolidation of three institutions into one: Africa Action.

The three organizations forming this new union date back to 1953, the year South African liberation movement leader Walter Sisulu requested the creation of an organization to educate Americans about the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. We are the oldest progressive American organizations devoted to educating and mobilizing Americans to fight for positive US and international policies toward Africa and to supporting African struggles for political and economic justice, as well as combating global racism.

The American Committee on Africa was established in 1953 in New York to support the liberation struggle in South Africa. Its mandate grew rapidly to encompass solidarity work with independence movements throughout the continent. It founded The Africa Fund in 1966 to provide research, publications and public education for campaigns in support of African freedom. The Washington-based APIC was created in 1978 as the education wing of the Washington Office on Africa, itself originally an initiative of ACOA. Throughout the past decade APIC has pioneered the use of information and communication technology to support advocacy work on Africa. It became an independent organization in 1998.

Over the years, The Africa Fund and ACOA helped develop strong networks of Africa advocates among the African American faith community and black State and Municipal elected officials. Both networks were important participants in the anti-apartheid struggle. They have been active this year in pressing for the cancellation of Africa's illegitimate foreign debt and for equal access to life-saving anti-AIDS medicines. The New York organizations have also renewed a program to engage younger people in activism for Africa. To these mobilizing strengths, APIC brings a proven capacity to reach diverse public constituencies with timely information and analysis of African affairs by e-mail and through our excellent website. APIC has also helped develop and co-chairs the Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA), a 200 plus strong coalition of organizations that monitor Congress and U.S. policy and advocate for positive changes in U.S. policies. APIC has also organized and moderated global electronic discussions on key social and economic policy issues that are helping to identify and facilitate communication among grassroots social movements in Africa concerned with the same issues the new organization will be working to address.

As Africa Action we will address Africa's priority issues by providing information and mobilizing for action to help shape new US and multilateral policies to support Africa's efforts to achieve economic, political and social justice in the 21st century. Shortly we will launch a campaign to support Africa's Right to Health as one of our major efforts. We will continue to share information and analysis on a wide range of African affairs to shape public policy debates. We will expand and strengthen our networks, empowering them to participate in influencing US and international policies toward Africa, democratizing US foreign policy and holding international institutions accountable for their actions.

The following are lists of the staff and Board of Directors of Africa Action.

Africa Action Staff

Salih Booker, Executive Director (analyst and activist; media commentator; former staff member in US Congress, TransAfrica, The Ford Foundation and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations)

William Minter, Senior Research Fellow (researcher, analyst, activist, author,information technology consultant; books include: King Solomon's Mines Revisited, 1986, and Apartheid's Contras, 1994)

Aleah Bacquie, Program Director/Religious Action Network (religious and civil rights activist; former Social Justice Ministry Director at The Riverside Church in New York and Media Officer at the South African Council of Churches)

Vicki Ferguson, Program Director/Public Education and Outreach (activist combating racism, sexism, & homophobia; trainer in gender analysis, and electronic and grassroots advocacy; former conference and demonstrations coordinator)

Muntu Matsimela, Program Director/State and Municipal Network (lawyer, activist and organizer on domestic and African human rights issues; former managing attorney for The Osborne Association providing legal services for HIV-positive prisoners and their families)

Aisha Satterwhite, Program Director/Youth Action Network (editor, researcher and writer; former Associate Editor of American Legacy magazine)

Ann-Louise Colgan, Research Associate (MA Graduate of University of Limerick, Ireland; former student leader on human rights issues; with APIC since 1999)

Annie King, Financial Officer/Office Manager (Church Administrator, One Way Church, NY; Financial Advisor, Project People Foundation, NY; with ACOA/The Africa Fund since the 1960's)

Sarah Ciapponi-Godfrey, Administrative Associate (BA Graduate of Trinity College, Washington, DC; with APIC since 1998)

Nechesa Morgan, Administrative Associate (BA Graduate of American University, Washington, DC; with The Africa Fund since 2000)

Laura Bryant, Research Assistant (BA Graduate of Syracuse University, NY; researcher in conflict resolution and faith-based advocacy; former development worker with African and Latino refugee communities in South Africa and the US)

Jeff Manchester, Bookkeeper (with APIC since 1995; former Accountant for Kraft General Foods)

Africa Action Board of Directors

Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, President (Senior Pastor, Canaan Baptist Church, Harlem, NY; former Executive Director for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference)

Adwoa Dunn-Mouton, Vice President (Consultant; former Staff Director, Senate Subcommittee on Africa, US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations)

Marvin Rich, Treasurer (Program Director, National Coalition Against Censorship)

Carolyn Long, Secretary (Consultant; former Vice President, InterAction, Washington, DC)

Elizabeth Calvin (Executive Secretary, Women and Children's Office, Mission Contexts and Relationships, General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church)

Jim Cason (Journalist, La Jornada; Political Action Co-chair, Association of Concerned Africa Scholars)

Fantu Cheru (Professor of African and Development Studies, American University, Washington, DC; Independent Expert on Effects of Structural Adjustment and Debt for the UN High Commission for Human Rights)

Cecelie Counts (Assistant Director, Department of Education, AFL-CIO)

James Early (Director, Cultural Heritage Policy, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the Smithsonian Institute; Chair of the Board of Directors, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, DC)

Bob Edgar (Professor, African Studies Department, Howard University, Washington, DC)

Prexy Nesbitt (Program Officer, Center for International Solidarity, AFL-CIO, Johannesburg, South Africa)

Andrew Norman (Former President, Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund for Racial Equality)

Rev. Dr. Franklyn Richardson (Senior Pastor, Grace Baptist Church, Mount Vernon, NY)

Venita Vinson (former Vice Chair, Colorado State Democratic Party)

Canon Frederick B. Williams (Rector, Church of the Intercession, NY)

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Press Release

Oldest US organizations on Africa join forces to become AFRICA ACTION

[Incorporating the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) est.1953, The Africa Fund est.1966, and the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC) est.1978]

Washington DC Office: 110 Maryland Ave, NE #508 Washington, DC 20002 Tel: 202-546 7961 Fax: 202-546 1545 website: http://www.africapolicy.org e-mail: apic@igc.org

New York Office: 50 Broad Street, #1701 New York, NY 10004 Tel: 212-785 1024 Fax: 212-785 1078 website: http://www.africapolicy.org e-mail: africafund@igc.org

March 21, 2001

International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination - 41st Anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre

Washington, DC - New York, NY

The United States' oldest organizations on African Affairs today announced their consolidation through the successful negotiation of a non-profit merger to become a single organization - AFRICA ACTION - devoted to education and mobilization to change US policies to support justice in Africa.

"Africa's real liberation demands our support more than ever," said the Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, president of Africa Action's Board of Directors. "Africa is central to the global and national struggle against racism and injustice," he said. Walker, who was the executive director for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is the Senior Pastor at Canaan Baptist Church in Harlem, NY.

Africa Action will provide cutting edge analysis of breaking developments in Africa that should be of interest to media organizations worldwide. The organization will also be deeply involved in public education efforts throughout the US and across the internet.

The new organization will focus on US and international policies towards Africa that affect economic, political and social justice issues throughout the continent including the AIDS pandemic and the larger health emergency, the cancellation of Africa's illegitimate foreign debts, reparations, and the need for effective international support for Africa's peace efforts and pro-democracy struggles. Africa Action will work to end the double standard in US foreign policy toward Africa by pressing for greater equity for Africa in international relations.

"Africa should be at the top of the US foreign policy agenda," said Salih Booker, Executive Director of Africa Action. "Today's 'global' issues, from HIV/AIDS to global warming to the failure of peacekeeping, have their most devastating consequences in Africa. These vital challenges must be addressed in Africa, in solidarity with Africans, but Washington continues to practice an international version of Jim Crow, reserving its diplomacy and resources for its rich European cousins while ignoring its African roots at its own peril. The result is the perpetuation of a global apartheid that keeps Africa poor within an international economy of obscene inequalities that will have extreme and far reaching consequences."

The three organizations forming Africa Action date back to 1953, the year veteran South African liberation movement leader Walter Sisulu requested the creation of an organization to educate Americans about the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. That year, the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) was established in New York to support the liberation struggle in South Africa and independence movements throughout the continent. ACOA founded The Africa Fund in 1966 to provide research, publications and public education for campaigns in support of African freedom. The Washington-based Africa Policy Information Center (APIC) was created in 1978 and has pioneered the use of information and communication technology to support advocacy work on Africa.

- end -

Message-Id: <200103211731.MAA06926@server.africapolicy.org> From: "APIC" <apic@igc.org> Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 12:29:41 -0500 Subject: Africa Action is Born!

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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