The All African Diaspora Education Summit 2022 has been launched at the University of Cape Coast, UCC.
The summit, scheduled for September 19 to 24, this year at UCC, will be on the theme: “Reclaiming African Sovereignty through African-Centered Education: Pushing Excellence as a mantra in everything through the Right Education.”
President of Cosumnes River College, USA, Dr. Edward C. Bush, speaking virtually at the event, rallied Africans in the diaspora to stick to their values, culture, and traditions and not to be deeply ingrained in foreign culture.
That, he pointed out, would help them champion the African culture anywhere they found themselves across the globe.
According to him, educational institutions in the diaspora had been structured to propagate the illusion of culture inferiority.
“One of the primary dastardly acts to propagate the illusion of culture inferiority is educational institutions that exist in the diaspora,” said Dr. Bush, who is also the co-founder and executive board member for the non-profit organisation African American Male Educational Network and Development (A2MEND).
He said schools had been used to indoctrinate Black people to distort the African culture because “Africans have lost sight of whom we are.”
The Rector of Obokese University of Excellence, Nana Dr. Kwamina Kra II, recalled with sadness that in his school days abroad, he never heard of the contributions of Africans to humanity and civilization in the world.
“For 13 years, I never heard one comment about the African’s contribution to any thing that I studied. Not a single class, not a footnote in any subject,” he said, maintaining that it was until he travelled to Egypt in 1985 which changed his perception about Africa.
On his part, Nana Obokese Ampah, the Apagyahen of Asebu Traditional Area and the Chairman of the Obokese Foundation, said the Summit would bring together over two hundred Diaspora college/university students, faculty and stakeholders for a transformative cultural immersion.
The Pro Vice-Chancellor of UCC, Prof. Mrs. Rosemond Boohene, who launched the Summit, said that African Diaspora children were ready to return home to join hands with their compatriots to forge a new African alliance to build the “Africa that our children need and our ancestors deserve.”
She thanked the summit organisers for the confidence reposed in UCC to host the summit on campus and said the University would collaborate with the Obokese Foundation to make the Summit a success.
Source: Documentation and Information Section-UCC