Gates notes the striking difference between the numerous statues of European colonists, and even the whitening of the image of Dominicans who have any African heritage in the Dominican Republic, and the statues of Black Haitian independence leaders throughout Haiti.
The Peace Corps and the Mickey Leland Center on World Hunger and Peace at Texas Southern University partnered to send 10 students to live with current Peace Corps volunteers in Haiti, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Panama and Bolivia. The program, which was started last year, aims to increase minority student interest in global service centers. To honor this year's interns, a reception was held in July at the Houston Urban League.
Plans to celebrate Haiti's 2004 bicentennial were discussed recently by Minister Leslie Voltaire at the Center for Constitutional Rights in Manhattan NY. He said plans were underway to have a large exhibition commemorating the international slave trade and a symposium of African writers in the diaspora.
The month's activities organized include a Global Reggae Conference hosted at the University of the West Indies' Mona Campus, featuring musician Gilberto Gil, now Brazil's minister of culture, and a Reggae Film Festival hosted by Jamaica's Ministry of Information and Culture.
Commemorating the Bi-Centenary of the abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the exhibition called "Lest We Forget: The Triumph over Slavery" serves as a historic canvas portraying the horrific experience of the enslaved Africans during the 'triangular' slave trade between Europe, Africa and the U.S. during the 15th through 19th centuries. The exhibition, which opened to a packed room, included speeches by His Excellency Ambassador Philip Sealy, Permanent Representative of Trinidad & Tobago to the UN who serves as chair of the CARICOM Caucus; His Excellency, Ambassador Joe Robert Pemagbi, Permanent Representative of Sierra Leone to the UN, and chairman of the African Group of States; and Ambassador Nirupam Sen, Permanent Representative of India to the UN.
Etu Evans is founder of The Etu Evans Foundation and Solesville, Inc. The Etu Evans Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the academic and creative endeavors of individuals by providing them with quality footwear to help enhance their professional attire.
The Organization of Africans in the Americas, a Washington DC-based organization, will sponsor a symposium entitled "Afro-Latinos and the Issue of Race in the New Millennium."
Resolutions have been passed to add the "Day of Africa" and "Day of the Black Women in Latin America and the Caribbean" to the official calendar of events in São Paulo, Brazil, thanks to the efforts of São Paulo City Councilwoman Claudete Alves.
Congressman Charles B. Rangel (D-Harlem), who was instrumental in obtaining a license from the U.S. Treasury Department on behalf of the NAACP delegation for the trip to Cuba, hailed the planned trade link with Black farmers. Rangel said he considers the results of the NAACP's Cuba visit "an important breakthrough." Rangel is a longtime advocate of U.S. trade with Cuba, arguing that removal of the U.S. embargo would promote democracy in Cuba.
