FARAFINA: The Black Link
“Farafina, The Black Link” is an initiative to reclaim and rebuild a grassroots peoples’ solidarity movement linking Africa and the USA. While the classic period of decolonization featured resistance against colonialism and explicit white supremacy, global issues demand that we focus on confronting common global issues. Africans on the continent and in the African diaspora can and must take the lead both for their own sake and for the future of the human race and the planet.
Young people, women and artists making use of new technologies and innovative pathways for radical change must build on the work of earlier generations and mobilize broad intergenerational and transnational linkages. The first step is dialogue which must be in person as well as through virtual communication channels. Phase 1 of the plan, outlined here, will be in March 2023. Phase 2 will be an in-person strategic retreat in the fall of 2023.
Tour stops will include: Selma Alabama, Oakland, California, New Market, TN, Washington DC, New York, NY
Selma, AL
"Commemorating the 58th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the 1965 Selma to Alabama Bridge Crossing takes place on March 7, 2023. Selma the Alabama Black Belt were the battlegrounds for the Voting Rights Movement that resulted in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The march remembers Alabamians who peacefully but fiercely for the right to vote. At the march, and throughout the time of commemoration, we invoke the spirit of those whose struggle and life paved the way. We thank them for their work, leadership and sacrifice.
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Including a stop at the Legacy Museum in Alabama
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Speakers will include: Coumba Toure (from Dakar, Senegal, Marcia Thomas from USA for Africa, Patricia Servant from Congo Love and more. Marcia Thomas will receive the Martin & Coretta International Justice Award for her many decades of service
Oakland, CA
Oakland has a rich history of resistance for racial equity and global solidarity. The Farafina Tour begins with a public dinner at the Bissap Baobab Senegalese Restaurant in San Francisco on Thursday March 9th at 5:30 pm to celebrate International Women's Day!
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Thursday, March 10th @ 5:30 pm
Join us on International Women's Week
for Dinner & Talk REGISTER HERE
Speakers include: Coumba Toure Marcia Thomas Leila Hussein, Nunu Kidane and Emira Woods.
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New Market, TN (The Highlander Center)
The historic Highlander Center has been the core institute in the struggle to build more just, equitable, and sustainable systems and structures. Various workshops and programming bring people together across issues, identity, and geography to share and build skills, knowledge, and strategies for transformative social change. 
This work has created strong movement infrastructure in the South and Appalachia, building networks and organizing efforts that advanced the labor movements of the 1930s and 40s, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, and environmental, economic, and racial justice organizing across decades.
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Speakers include Coumba Toure, Emira Woods, Patricia Servant
Washington DC
The Farafina Tour DC event will touch on these events but bring to focus movement building agenda across African countries. Coumba Toure, Chair of TrustAfrica Fund and until recently Co-director of Africans Rising will speak on these issues.
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Speakers include: Coumba Toure, Marcia Thomas, Priscilla Ankrah and more
New York, NY
The NY stop will include private conversations with various institutions, including philanthropy. NY is also home to the largest number of Neo-diaspora Africans. Their engagement and contribution to social and political change across Africa is a vital link
Anchor Organization Priority Africa Network
Grant Support from
The Wallace Global Fund
