Press Release

” AFRICA   MATTERS, AFRICA  IS  THE  FUTURE “

The African Union Chairperson, Dr. Jean Ping, visits Atlanta, Georgia, at the invitation of the Africa Heritage Foundation.  The visit is an important milestone for the Africa Diaspora community, a foundation step for Atlanta to tap into opportunities in Africa and the continent’s potentials.

President, Robert Michael Franklin presents the Presidentail Award to H.E. Dr. Jean Ping, Chairman of African Union Commission

The Chairperson of the African Union Commission began his second official visit to the United States with a two-day visit to Atlanta, Georgia, from 16-18 April 2011.  He was accompanied by a high level delegation, including his Chief of Staff, the AU Ambassador to the US and the Director of the AU’s Diaspora Programme, amongst others.  The visit, which was arranged and coordinated by the Africa Heritage Foundation under the Leadership of Chief Tunde Adetunji, represented an important milestone in the history of the AU’s Diaspora Initiative and its relations with the State of Georgia in general and the city of Atlanta in particular.

The visit commenced on Sunday, 17 April 2011 with a visit to the Martin Luther King Centre where Dr. Ping was received by the CEO, Martin Luther King III. Mr. King observed that he saw the visit as a memorial to his father, the late Martin Luther King Jr. and the vision of freedom, liberty and social justice that his father espoused.  The Chairperson of the African Union Commission concurred with this view.  Significantly therefore, Dr. Ping commended the doctrine of non-violence that Mr. King preached as an inspirational message that was guiding the African Union in its approach towards conflict management and resolution and peacemaking and peace building on the continent.

The main highlight of the visit was a keynote address by Dr. Jean Ping, to Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia.  In his address entitled “The future of the African Continent and the African Union”, the Chairperson placed the development of the African Union in clear perspective along a time continuum of the past, present and future.  He began with an explanation of how and why the Union came into being through transformation of the predecessor organization, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), its design, institutional framework and the difficulties and challenges that it confronted, into the AU, and how the AU is dealing with them, particularly, its peace and security agenda, financing and constraints arising from the wider international environment.

Again, he underlined the important role that the African Union has given to the Diaspora in this renaissance project and align it to the vision that Africa wishes for its future. He saw that future as “one in which Africa stands tall among its peers in the international community.  It will be one where affairs of the world are decided in Lagos, Johannesburg, Cairo, Bangui and Nairobi rather than in Washington, Moscow, Peking and London. It will be one in which our children are coming back home in droves to take advantage of the benefits of the motherland rather than becoming boat people and engaging in hazardous journeys to seek fake promises in Europe and the West… Our purpose is renaissance”.