Activists
from ten African countries are meeting in Arusha in a pilot initiative of
Africans Rising and the Training Centre for Development Cooperation (TCDC) with
support from the Fund for Global Human Rights (FGHR) to create space for
documentation by Activists, of their experiences and lessons learned.
The
one month programme will benefit the activists in residence (AiR) through their
interaction, deepen the understanding of their local struggles using other
Activists’ lenses as well as inspire them to identify ways of further
strengthening their movements.
Activists
will also have an opportunity for skills acquisition, be encouraged to transfer
such skills in their countries – using social media platforms and other appropriate
means and have a rare opportunity for rest and recuperation, especially for those
who have faced repression or those who have given years of dedicated service
and might be on the verge of burnout.
Participants of the
programme who come from Morocco, Liberia, Senegal, DRCongo, UK, Benin, Burundi,
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, will also benefit from discussions with well known
African figures such as Jay Naidoo, former
General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and a Minister
in President Mandela’s term of office and Mshai Mwangola, a
Kenyan 'orator', actor, director and storyteller whose work draws on
performance traditions.
Africans
Rising is a nascent, rapidly growing, self-identifying collective of social
movements, NGOs, peoples and popular social justice efforts, intellectuals,
artists, sports people, cultural activists and others, across the continent and
Diaspora. People who have given input to
the development of the movement agree that African unity reflected by greater
social, political and economic integration is critical for Africa and its
peoples, nations and nationalities – a united civil society should be the
vanguard of such a movement for justice, peace and dignity.
Activists
with Jay Naidoo (3rd from left) and holding signed copies of his new
book Change.
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