These days everyone is getting more and more curious about economic opportunities in Africa. In fact, President Obama just recently declared Nigeria "as the world's next economic success story" during a meeting with the President of Nigeria [3], Goodluck Jonathan. And rapper entreprenuer 50 Cent recently announced he is looking for business partners in Africa to be distributors of his energy drink SK. Beyond economics, many feel too it is time to address the various social problems on the continent. [4]
So it may be the apropo time for such an event as Kilombo 2012, which will focus on Africa, Africans and social justice. Set to be an annual event and the first will, say the organizers, lay the foundation for launching the Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination. The event, which is also a festival for the ending of neo-colonialism in Africa, will take place in Ghana, September 14-16, 2012. Organizers are expecting attendees from U.S., UK, Namibia, and Sierra Leone.
“This conference has been created because the initiators have observed that there are many institutions where people are trained and educated to maintain the status quo in the world today,” explains Explo Nani-Kofi of the Kilombo Community Education Project. “However, the status quo is disadvantageous to Africa and people of African descent. What that does is institutionalize the marginalization and underdevelopment of Africa. This reproduces the disproportionate representation of people of African descent in the oppressed and impoverished sections of society worldwide.”
Among the planned discussion are: “The Challenges of Post-Colonial Africa” ; “ Sudan and the Sahel Zone Conflict : Myth or Reality” ; “Crisis of Anti-Colonial Liberation Movements in the Post-Colonial Era”; “Women in the Struggle for Social Justice in Post-Colonial Africa”; “Philosophy of Social Justice and Decolonisation”; ”The Post-Colonial State and the Crisis of Petit-Bourgeois Experiments ,“ which TK; “Culture as a facilitator of African Unity”; “Spirituality and the Struggle for Social Justice”; “Media and the Struggle for Social Justice”; “The Challenges for Internationalism Today” ;“Panafricanism : the African Continent and the Diaspora”; and “Ways Forward Out of Africa's Post-Colonial Crisis.”
“The objectives of the conference are (1) to gradually develop an institute for education, research and training on alternatives to the present political, economic and social status quo; (2) to lay the foundation to registering the Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination in Ghana to play a central role in the process of educating, researching and training on issues related to developing an alternative to the present status quo; (3) providing an opportunity for networking for those who practically work around issues building an alternative to the present status quo,” explains Nani-Kofi.
