Spurred by Barack Obama's African heritage, his Inauguration this week as the 44th U.S. president was marked by a number of Africa-related events in the Washington, DC area.
On Tuesday night, nearly a thousand people gathered for an event called 'Africa on the Potomac," a black-tie dinner and dance with performances by the Boys Choir of Kenya, the a cappella choir Voices of South Africa, and Congolese musician Samba Mapangala. The event raised at least $35,000 for the Obama Secondary School in Kogelo, the Obama ancestral village, according to Stephen Hayes, president and CEO of the Corporate Council on Africa. The D.C.-based Council joined with the Embassy of Kenya, the African Diplomatic Corps and a group of African professionals in Washington, DC, to host the celebration.
Eight members of the Obama family attended the dinner, although Sarah Obama, the president's step-grandmother, did not make an expected appearance. The leader of an official Kenyan delegation, Foreign Minister Moses Wetang'ula, said the Obama Presidency offered "great opportunity" for Kenya and the continent of Africa a to make the world aware of all they have to offer.
Also on Tuesday, another Africa-focused ball took place at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art, organized by a group led by African professionals called Africa Aspire. The event was marked by speeches from the popular Senegalese-American Grammy Award nominated artist, Akon, and critically acclaimed actor, Jeffrey Wright.
An 'Africa and International Friends' celebration at the new Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center at National Harbor in Maryland reportedly drew more than 2300 people and was filled to over-capacity. The theme of that event, sponsored by Prince George's County, was "The Ancestors Dream Realized."
An earlier well-attended Inaugural ball was staged on Sunday night by the African diaspora community in downtown Washington. Angelique Kidjo, the Grammy Award winning artist, and Les Nubiens, Grammy nominated artists, were the headline performers as several hundred people packed the Harmon Center for the Arts for two receptions, the main program and an 'afterparty' that lasted late into the night.
The event celebrated the work of African Diaspora for Change, an organization formed to mobilize the diaspora community in the United States in support of Barack Obama's presidential candidacy. Many members of the diaspora community said that Obama's election was especially important to them because Obama's father was Kenyan. Members of the organization canvassed, raised funds and did other campaign activities to help Obama.
Following Obama's Inauguration, the organization plans to focus on education. The ball served as a fundraiser for two organizations - Kidjo's Botanga Foundation, which funds education for girls in West Africa, and First Book, a U.S. organization dedicated to improving literacy. At the event, First Book announced that it was going to donate 10,000 new books to the Botanga Foundation, much to the delight of an exuberant Kidjo. Baroness Valerie Amos, the first black woman cabinet secretary in Great Britain and a member of the Honorary Host Committee, praised the African Diaspora for Change for targeting education, especially girls' education. "The gender gap is still amazing," added Kidjo.
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Other speakers cited the historic occasion of Obama's inauguration. U.S. Representative Donald Payne (Democrat-New Jersey), the chair of the Honorary Host Committee, praised members of the civil rights movement for laying the foundation that made Obama's election victory possible. "It took Rosa Parks to sit, it took Dr. [Martin Luther] King to march so Barack Obama could run," he said. Amos called Obama "the kind of politician we see once in a generation."
On Monday, two diaspora groups, Africa Aspire and African Diaspora for Change, jointly hosted a symposium at the Nigerian Embassy, where speakers discussed the impact of the Obama presidency on a range of issues, including U.S. relations with Africa. Ojo Maduekwe, Nigeria's foreign minister, told the audience that Africa's leaders should be inspired by Obama's inauguration.
