Vote of Thanks from the Coordinating Collective – All-African Movement Assembly

Esteemed excellencies, Africans Rising fellows, family at the core team, and esteemed CC members,

We, the members of the Africans Rising Coordinating Collective, which serves as the governing board of the Africans Rising movement, were so humbled to have been part of the All-African Movements Assembly, where we had the blessing of meeting people from all parts of our continent and diaspora, each working on their own side for the future of Africans and African Descendants.

During the assembly, we saw many flags dancing together in peace, rhyming together to the same beats. The sight of the flags together is something you won’t see anywhere else but within the Africans Rising community. 

During the three-day assembly, exchanges in the parallel sessions or even informally during lunch or break times, were unique opportunities to share experiences and to put on the floor the issues and the questions we must all work on and address. The assembly was also an important time to share best practices and solutions that we can franchise, replicate, and scale up as we work towards building the Africa we want. This is exactly the soul of the Kilimanjaro Declaration.

Among our Pan-African community, we have the same issues, we have a shared history, we see the same future. This event proved that peaceful and instructive dialogue is possible, no matter how different our views or ideologies, no matter what is said about us nor how we are portrayed – we can work together.

We also believe that the guidance from our elders is really important. We have been honoured by the presence and effective participation of great African pioneers who constantly offer counsel and mentorship to us. In the name of Africans Rising, we would like to express our deepest gratitude.

In this moment of history, we African people arrived at a place where we are aware of where we are, why we are here and what we really want. This unified vision means unified efforts, effective synergies, and a build up of actions and momentum. We believe we can make that vision come true. It is no longer an African Dream, rather an African reality that is in our hands.

In this moment of history, wars are waged at various levels against our values, our identities, our histories, our freedoms, and our sovereignty. This is an existential war. We know who we are and we do not wait for someone else to speak for us! The success or failure of the movement belongs to all of us. As a Coordinating Collective, we emphasize this collective ownership of the movement so that Africans Rising members are always able to hold us accountable if there are things going wrong in the movement or if we are not meeting expectations

As any living movement, Africans Rising has grown and changed in many different empowering ways. Part of that change means that some of us will come on board, and some of us will leave. In that spirit, we invite you to command an exceptional person and Comrade who has been here since the start, who nursed the movement from the cradle – Muhammed Lamin Saidykhan. Muhammed Lamin recently decided to step down from his position as Movement Co-Coordinator for a new professional adventure, but he has Africans Rising in his blood and he has pledged to remain an active supporter of the movement.

Stepping up as Acting Co-Coordinator during this transitional period is Hardi Yakubu. Hardi is an effervescent movement person who has the Kilimanjaro declaration at heart, and he has served as the movement’s Engagement and Collaboration Coordinator for the past year. Muhammed Lamin is passing the baton systematically to Hardi in whom the core team has confidence of the purpose and diligence he will bring to this role.

On behalf of the Coordinating Collective, we extend our thanks to all and each one of you who took the time to travel to Arusha and to our core team who worked very hard on each small detail to make the All-African Movement Assembly a great success. We thank our facilitators for the animation, we thank our members for the fiery and robust exchanges, we thank our host MS TCDC and their staff for their convivial and amazing welcome, and we thank every elder and expert who took their valuable time to be with us.

In light of the success and energy you all brought to the All-African Movement Assembly, we encourage you in the work that will come: May we keep the flame of Pan Africanism, the African Renaissance and African Unity alive!

– The Coordinating Collective of Africans Rising

You can download and read this statement here.