As part of its Youth Development Program, the Mayor’s Office on African Affairs (MOAA) is hosting its momentous first-ever Annual Young African ConneXions Annual Summit taking place on Friday, July 17, 2015 at the Howard University School of Business Auditorium at 3 pm.

The summit aims to create a platform that will bring together bright minds, to have idea-focused peer-to-peer exchanges, and foster interactions between the District’s African immigrant community and young professionals from the continent on topics such as leadership, technology, education, and the importance of creating sustained linkages.

This year, the summit will be followed by a Mandela Day of Service on Saturday, July 18, 2015. The event is being held in partnership with Howard University and President Obama’s Mandela Washington Fellows (formerly known as Young African Leaders Initiative), and is organized in recognition of the late Nelson Mandela’s 67 years of public service. During the day of service we will be joined by several volunteers for a few hours of community service with a street clean-up and debris removal at Good Hope Marketplace located at the intersection of Alabama Avenue & Naylor Road SE from 9 am to 1 pm.

The two topics that will be covered in the panel discussions are: Youth Leadership: Public Service, Community Advocacy, and Entrepreneurship and Strengthening Inter-African Linkages: Technology, Knowledge, and Information Exchange. This event gives insight on Mandela’s lifelong commitment to community service and to highlight youth leadership and inter-Africa and African diaspora relationship. 

Please　RSVP　to confirm your attendance at the Young African ConneXions Annual Summit

Please　RSVP　to volunteer at our Mandela Day of Service

About MOAA

The Mayor’s Office on African Affairs (MOAA) envisions the District of Columbia as a community that thrives on the full engagement of its ethnically, linguistically, and socially diverse residents. MOAA recognizes the extraordinary diversity of the District’s African immigrant communities and accordingly aims to ensure that initiatives, information, programs, services, and unique opportunities reach all facets of the district’s diverse ethnic African community. By serving as the liaison between the District’s African immigrant communities, District government agencies and the Mayor, MOAA aims to:

Improve the quality of life of the District’s diverse African-born constituencies and their children;

Increase civic and public engagement among the District’s African immigrant communities;

Support community development by building the institutional capacity of community-based organizations and the local business sector.

 

We pride ourselves on working with all levels of the District government, Federal government, community-based organizations, media and the private sector to ensure a continuous delivery and access to pertinent information and services to the District’s African communities. Specifically, MOAA organizes and facilitates programs on public safety, human rights, economic development, employment, social services, public health, education, and cultural awareness, preservation and development.

MOAA’s goals include:

Improving the quality of life of Africans in the District by connecting residents to services, information, and programs, and by facilitating greater civic engagement;

Create multicultural awareness and facilitate community building amongst all communities in the District of Columbia;

Strengthening the African businesses community by connecting African businesses to each other and resources that they need to thrive;

Engaging and empowering African youth to facilitate and support their academic and leadership development;

 

Enhancing the capacity of community-based organizations (CBOs) and partners, ethnic

associations, Faith-based groups, and others) to ensure that they are strong pillars of support

and development of the African community.

 

Mamadou Samba,

Executive Director of the DC Mayor’s Office on African Affairs

Originally from Dakar, Senegal, Mamadou Samba’s unique background has given him both firsthand experience of the challenges that African immigrants and children face when acclimating to the new culture of the U.S., and the passion to speak on behalf of this immigrant population.

Mr. Mamadou Samba received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of South Carolina Aiken, where he was awarded an NCAA athletic scholarship and went on to receive a Master of Public Administration degree from Kennesaw State University. In 2011, he was one of six out of nearly 100 candidates selected to join the Capital City Fellows program a mayoral initiative to attract and recruit graduate students to work for the District. Mamadou researched and compiled the District’s first-ever report on African immigrant population growth since the 1960s.

As an immigrant himself, Mamadou has extensive experience in addressing challenges faced by African immigrants in the District and nationwide. He played a significant role in securing grants for African nonprofit organizations. As the Executive Director of the Office on African Affairs, he is responsible for leading a variety of philanthropic functions and services related to the African immigrant community in the District. He directs the MOAA’s annual strategic plan, policies, budget, and work plans. Mamadou has also enhanced social networking strategies that have allowed the MOAA to be more visible in the African community.

　Young African ConneXions Annual Summit 2015

In partnership with the Mandela Washington Fellows

Program

Welcome Remarks

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton

Opening Keynote

Dr. Wayne Frederick, President, Howard University

Keynote Address

H. E. Mninwa Mahlangu, Ambassador, Republic of South Africa

Delivered by Nowetu Luti, Deputy Chief of Mission, Republic of South Africa

Special Address

Pamela Kanora, Mandela Fellow: Reflection on Youth Leadership, Public Service and Advocacy

Panel I: Youth Leadership: Public Service, Community Advocacy, and Entrepreneurship

H.E. M. Babacar Diagne, Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Senegal

Jennine Scott, President, U.S. – Angola Chamber of Commerce

Dr. Greg Carr, Professor& Chair, Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University

Nangomso Kozo, 2015 Mandela Fellow

Moderator: Krista Johnson, Ph.D., Professor of African Studies, Howard University

Guest Speaker

Pape Samb, Chairman and CEO, Global Youth Innovation Network

Panel II: Strengthening Inter-African Linkages: Technology, Knowledge, and Information Exchange

Nina Oduro, Founder, AfricanDevJobs.com

Semhar Araia, CEO, Semai Consulting, LLC.

Tegene Baharu, Chief Technology Officer, DC Office of Chief Technology Office

Amadou Daffe’, Co-founder, Coders4Africa

Moderator: Emira Woods, Co-Director, Foreign Policy Institute and Global Client Principal