Our passivity has resulted in our being marginalized because, in a society that ascribes relevance to a constituency and the ability of the members of that constituency to coalesce in pursuit of their agenda, we do not possess any clout that only unity and solidarity, through effective organization, can bring. Or when we speak we speak ineffectively with multiple voices, at best, such that we are not considered serious discussants of the issues that affect the community in which we live and work. We are, therefore, left out of any discussions or efforts aimed at seeking solutions to society's problems or expected to share in her bounty, even when we, as well as our children, are as affected as any other member of the society. Because of this seemingly lack of serious engagement on our part in society's issues or even in issues that affect the African immigrant and non-immigrant community proper, others are invited to the table to speak on our behalf and/or represent our interests. The unfortunate thing about it is that we do not share any cultural or ethnic commonalties with such persons except, perhaps, a visit to Africa that may not have involved deep interaction with the natives. Such persons are profoundly unaware of what fulfills an African, immigrant, non-immigrant or native. So, we need to build, out of our diversity, a solidarity that will grant us a place at the table, be it in Washington, D.C. or at the state and local levels throughout this country.

The concept of the Africa Solidarity Council is a simple one: Whereas Destiny has brought very many Africans together in a foreign land and made it possible for them to interact more than they did while on the continent, it behooves us to cultivate friendship with one another, from Egypt to the Cape and from the Gambia to the Horn and build trust with one another along the way. From this friendship, we will establish ties with the future leaders of Africa when they return home and assume the mantle leadership, ties which will blossom into positive activities that will promote travel and communication, industry and commerce, unity and security, and make for economic and political development, progress, and enhanced quality of life for our African people. As we concentrate on building this friendship, let us focus and ask the more relevant question: What kind of a leader for Africa and her people shall one make? And what kind shall I make? Thus, we will like to provide a forum to provide insight to understanding the historical analysis of past leadership performance, provide forums for reflecting on the present leadership performance, and provide a mechanism for teaching or acquiring social and moral education for effective management and leadership performance.

In its vision, the Council foresees a continent of nations that one day may become "the United Countries of Africa" (UCA), where easy access to communication links (rail, air, land, and water) and uninhibited movements across national boundaries by all African citizens will become a reality. We posit that the colonial division of Africa has done a great disservice to the African. Consequently, we are forced to define ourselves according to our former colonial attachments to the exclusion of recognizing our cultural and natural similarities. However, in the Africa Solidarity Council, we believe that in spite of this handicap, our enormous similarities must be cultivated and nurtured for our own good and for the development of continental Africa. To do this, it is essential we build bridges and establish friendship ties with one another as Africans, realizing that the knots of African solidarity and friendship we tie with one another together today, even in a foreign land, may be the cornerstone of a new leadership for positive progress on the continent.

But you may ask, and rightly so, what is in all of these for me right now? I am sure we all will agree that the African is interested in the immediate fulfillment of his or her expectations and this thing about a certain pie in the sky is not particularly appealing to him or her. In the investment parlance, we Africans are very risk averse. We probably would say to the bank manager, "please tell me, sir, if I allow this my one thousand dollars to be housed in your bank, will you guarantee that when I come back a year from today to reclaim my wealth that I will walk away happily having tripled my treasure?" And the bank manager would respond, "you are out of your mind, you frugal and small-minded investor. I cannot even guarantee that you will get your money back if my ships do not return safely to harbor. However, I promise to return your money in the event of destruction to my bank and even with that I can only promise to return a penny for every 100 pennies that you have entrusted into my care. But if on the other hand, my little-afraid-to-take-risk friend, my ships return safely to harbor, and I sing merrily to my vault, I shall quadruple your treasure." And the African responds, "thank you sir, I shall hide my treasure under my mattress where ants or rodents will not reach them and when I return a year from today I shall reclaim it having lost or gained nothing." Thus, having not pained so we have not gained. But as we understand this condition perfectly well, we want to ease your fear and give you reason to trust and believe in ourselves again.

The goals of the Africa Solidarity Council are short- and long-term. The short-term goal is to provide the members of the African immigrant and non-immigrant community in the Washington Metropolitan Area and throughout these United States the support and resources they may need in order to overcome the social, psychological, and socio-economic problems that they may face, recognizing that we face a variety of challenges. We will take issues with Police brutality against any one of us, employment discrimination or the glass-ceiling syndrome in the workplace as they affect Africans. We will provide counseling, provide or assist with legal services as conditions may warrant, conduct employment placement workshops, and provide a welcome center for newly arrived Africans from the continent and teach them the need to have and maintain good credit. To our children born in this country, to our African-American brothers and sisters, and to our Caribbean brothers and sisters, we will provide a mechanism for teaching them our African languages, and as my son will tell us later today, we should use language to unite Africans and Africans in the Diaspora.

The long-term goal is to kindle the spirit of pan-Africnism and use it to build a united Africa by developing a new kind of leadership for continental cooperation, development, unity, and security. We will also use this spirit to cultivate and empower this new kind of leadership that sees coexistence with one another as a reality. Thus, this new kind of leadership will create or cause to be created institutions that will foster education of the mind, political transition and succession, due process and citizens' rights, progress, and security.

Oftentimes we find ourselves agreeing with a concept but are unwilling or unprepared to bring the concept to existence. In such a situation, we are in effect saying, AI agree with the concept you propound but I don't want to get involved because to get involved is to become exposed and that may inflict some uncomfortable conditions that I may not be prepared to deal with on my own and alone.@ Thus, like the proverbial ostrich, we bury our heads in the sand not realizing that everything else, from our neck to our toes, is starkly and unprotectedly exposed. And we are still on our own and alone! Therefore, we will need all of us to cover all of us while our respective heads are high and erect.

This pathetic attitude about ourselves indicates something else that is profoundly absent in our development as a people. This quality that is lacking is what the existential philosophers call Athe courage to be.@

Courage is central to our dignity and it is also central to nation-building. Courage is something that everyone possesses but seldom uses or demonstrates. Usually we think of courage as a quality only revealed in dire situations, such as when our lives or the lives of our loved ones are threatened or in desperation or pain. But there is another kind of courage. It is the everyday courage to be an African and act African when there is no compelling reason to do so. It is the courage to resist tribalism and sectionalism and the division they bring. It is the courage of an elected official or leader (elected or not) to stand up for his or her people. It is the courage to be your brother's or your sister's keeper. Above all, it is the courage to be true to oneself, to have and cherish the love of, and duty to, country, continent, and race. But very importantly, it is the courage to know what side you are on and fight for it.

Every generation will be tested for its courage. For one generation it may be active commitment to the eradication of tribalism and sectionalism and the divisive sentiments they conjure. For another it may be the promotion of the dignity of the black man and woman. Our forebears chose to commit their lives and efforts in the courage to fight foreign domination and rid us of colonialism. We must today, decide what our own goals should be, what our courage should stand and fight for. In the words of the late Patrice Lumumba, an indomitable son of Africa, first Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo, "We are Africans and wish to remain so. We have our philosophy, our customs, our traditions which are as noble as those of other nations. To abandon them merely to embrace those of other peoples would be to depersonalize ourselves. Our objectives . . . must be to unite and build our nation [continent] through mutual understanding.@ That statement was made to a European journalist who visited him while he was in detention. He held his head high while facing death and still spoke eloquently about us. What a courage!

Therefore, it is obligatory that we change this unhealthy and unhelpful condition. In order to do this, we must come together for in unity lies strength. And as we come together, let us develop mutual respect for one another, maintain cohesion and cooperation in the process, and most important, develop a higher tolerance level for each other=s natural and acquired idiosyncrasies. Let us rise from the throes of mental illiteracy, apathy, and self-hate. Let us learn to become comfortable with our own identity and be proud of our heritage. Let the African seek ultimate freedom from his mental slavery that his goodness brought upon himself and his foolishness has perpetuated knowing that we, both man, woman, and child can become, in the words of Mazi Mbonu Ojike, another indomitable son of Africa, "a community too stable to be unproductive, too dynamic to be static, too dignified to be unimpressive, and too African to be Western" Thus, I make a solemn plea for us to come together. If we will do this, we will have at our disposal the immeasurable strength and capabilities our diversity will bring. If we will do this, we will be on the side of Africa today and tomorrow. Let us therefore come forth and march with the conscience that conjures commitment heavily laden with creative attitude to rid Africa of the politics of ethnicity. As we match, let us be ready to do battle for the sacred, vital issues of life; ready to do battle for the principles of justice, goodwill, and brotherhood. And ready to do battle for a new and invigorating Africa. Thus, we restate that we must become the new kind of Africa citizen, dedicated, honest, and informed. The kind of citizen who submerges himself or herself in service to Africa and its people. The kind of citizen who abhors greed and detests vanity. The kind of citizen whose humility is his or her strength and whose integrity is his or her greatness. When we become that African citizen, we will raise the level of our consciousness, and we will show the way back to our homeland, Africa.

This work is challenging. We know that "together we will stand, divided we will most certainly fall." We also know that if we fail to become organized, become friends to rebuild trust, to introduce new leadership mechanism to rebuild our Africa, we will then have mortgaged the lives of all Africans and our posterity to perpetual mediocrity. We will condemn them forever to servitude in far away places. We are fortunate for the opportunity provided by this conference to hear these things, to read these things, and to act on these things.

During the conference, we will hear from Africans, distinguished and experts in their fields, leaders of African organizations, dignitaries from our embassies, down to earth Africans, and up and coming Africans, to share with us what they know, and what we need to know, about the need for friendship, solidarity and the rebuilding of trust to rebuild Africa's leadership to lead and serve our people. We will also hear how lack of an effective organization has hampered our ability to influence policies that impact our lives. We will reinvigorate our commitment to freeing our communities from complacency and the negative effects of our apparent indifference towards our homeland - the continent of Africa.

The conference will give you the best information, yet the beginning of information, because it will touch on our shortcomings while dwelling on our aspirations, desires, and hopes. But you will give much more to this conference, for you are among the leaders in helping to reshape our thought processes to permit us become active participants in the issues and events that impact our lives, here and at home. You will reshape our thought processes to become the new pan-Africanists who so love Africa that we are willing to clothe and love her and cherish her as the damsel, though, now naked and neglected, that she has always been.

The conference planners will also like to entertain you afterwards: You will be treated to a fabulous Solidarity Soccer exhibition, treated to delicious delicacies at the Solidarity Banquet and afterwards we will allow you to unwind and relax as you listen to, or if you prefer, dance to, sonorous African music produced by a live band as well as African music from gramophone records mixed by a DJ.

Again, we thank you for coming and enjoy the conference.

Thank you.

Dr. Christian Chibuzo Nwachukwu, Sr.

Founder