ABOUT THE 2024 AFRICA SUMMIT
Organized by Africa Agenda and Africa Center
The 2024 African Agenda Summit – Engaging Africa — will be an opportunity to celebrate and weave a robust community that can connect across the challenges of distance, language and a scarcity of information.
In the great words of South African musician Johnny Clegg, “We are the scatterlings of Africa.” Whether we were born there or just consider ourselves part of the greater community of Africa, we are part of community that can and is making a difference.
This year’s Africa Agenda Summit will focus on ways that we can all personally connect or improve the ways for everyone to connect. We will count on great discussions with many local leaders who are building these transcontinental bridges and have a chance to develop our own ideas and opportunities.
It is the first summit to bring to light the power and promise of diaspora engagement, who are a powerful force in growing collaboration and building a more truthful narrative of the continent. By learning from the many great initiatives, they are moving forward, we can harness the inherent skills of our people and learn applicable lessons from our peers. The summit builds on the truth that we are the engines for progress and building a better future.
The 2024 Summit asks: How can we work with the African diaspora to effectively engage? How are companies, small businesses, grassroots nonprofits, and international nonprofit collaborating with all of us who have a stake. This discussion can pave the way for impactful diaspora engagement initiatives that contribute to the sustainable development of African descent countries.
WHEN & WHERE
DATE & TIME
Friday, February 2, 2024
5:30 PM MDT TO 8:30 PM MDT
LOCATION
Maglione Hall, Sie Complex, Josef Korbel School of International Studies
University of Denver
2201 S Gaylord, Denver CO, 80208
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
CO State Rep. Naquetta Ricks
Representative Naquetta Ricks is the first African immigrant to be elected to the Colorado General Assembly, and the first Liberian American to be elected to any state legislature. When she was only 13, she was forced to flee civil war in Liberia, and her family settled in Aurora, Colorado. Representative Ricks received her undergraduate degree in accounting at MSU, and her MBA from the University of Colorado Denver.
In the summer of 2023, Rep. Ricks was selected to further her leadership education by attending the Harvard Kennedy School’s Senior Executives in State & Local Government program. She is the owner and operator of a successful small mortgage brokerage business and is the founder and President of the African Chamber of Commerce, Colorado USA. As a leading Black woman in business and politics, she works tirelessly to improve her community by helping build economic opportunities, and by championing the rights of immigrants and refugees.
In her first session in the General Assembly, she led the fight on groundbreaking legislation including the creation of the Immigration Legal Defense Fund, the Diverse K-12 Educator Workforce Report, the Towing Bill of Rights, the Behavioral Health-care Continuum Gap Grant Program, and the Prohibition of Reporting Medical Debt on Consumer Credit Report, which was recently adopted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
For her efforts, Representative Ricks has been recognized with many awards, including Habitat for Humanity’s 2021 Legislator of the Year; the 2021 and 2022 Colorado Bankers Association Spurs Award; the 2021 LGBQT Chamber Legislator of the Year; the 2022 Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network Liberty Award; and is a member of Healthier Colorado’s Leadership Circle.
EVENT SCHEDULE
Join us for an evening filled with authentic African food, education, entertainment, and a chance to collaborate on issues facing Africa and its people.
The Program
5:00pm – 5:30pm: Registration
5:30pm: Networking Hour and Live Music
6:00pm: Opening Remarks
6:05pm: Keynote Address by State Rep. Naquetta Ricks
6:15pm: Dinner is Served
6:45pm: Table Discussions Commence
7:30pm: Rotation & Dessert
8:05pm: Open Forum (Sharing Thoughts)
8:20pm: Closing Remarks
8:30pm: Close & Networking (Live Music)
Guest Speakers
Our keynote speaker will be the distinguished legislator, Rep. Naquetta Ricks from Aurora. An inspiration to many, Ricks rose from humble beginnings to elected office in the state.
Table Discussions
Discussions will center around various topics vis-à-vis engagement, including sharing resources, remittances, foreign aid, corporate social responsibility, and good governance.
Networking
A unique feature of the Summit, this time offers a chance for participants to mingle, all the while enjoying music provided by global African talents from the area.
FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT
Dinner will be a continental buffet served by chefs from metro area Afro-Caribbean restaurants, including dishes from Kenya, Senegal, and Haiti.
Fritay Haitian Cuisine, LLC, is a Haitian catering company bringing bold exciting flavors of Haiti to the Denver Metro Area.
Chihera is the Muchineripi family band from Zimbabwe, 3 generations of family members now living in Colorado: Parents Tafadzwa Obert and Mandy Dube-Muchineripi, children Chipo Veronica, Farai Chamunorwa, and Chiedza, Obert’s Father Edward Muchineripi, and family friend Mary Ellen Garrett. Chihera plays, arranges, and composes Zimbabwean traditional and contemporary music using mbira, marimbas, percussion, soaring vocals and keyboard. Chihera has performed in Denver, Boulder, Aurora and Ft. Collins in house concerts, schools, community benefits and festivals, on KGNU Radio, and at the 2015 and 2016 Zimbabwean Music Festivals in Monmouth, Oregon. Chihera recently performed at the Telemundo’s Denver 2017 Hispanic Day Auto Show. See samples on Chihera’s youtube channel.
Denver-based African Saxophonist MAK G Music
MakG Music is a non-profit organization set out to train and empower both kids and adults with different musical skills such as piano, drumming, saxophone and guitar lessons.
We have trained children and teenagers with learning difficulties and mental disabilities using music classes and musical instruments to develop and improve their brain functions. Positive outcomes over the years have encouraged us to carry on with this purpose and reach out to as many people as we can.
In addition, we are also set on a mission to grow a bigger facility in order to reach out to more people, add more instructors as part of our community service.
GALLERY
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS & PARTNERS
INFORMATION ON BECOMNG A SPONSOR
Sponsorship inquiries can be directed to Tamara@africaagenda.org
