SANKOFA54: AFRICAN EMPOWERMENT CONFERENCE 2015

The Yale Undergraduate Association for African Peace and Development (YAAPD) cordially invites students to the fourth annual Sankofa54: African Youth Empowerment Conference on April 10-11^th, 2015.

The theme for this year’s conference is “The Next Chapter: Africa in the Global Context”

To register, click here.

YAAPD was founded three years ago to empower college-aged youth interested in Africa to apply their academic and social interests to the progress of the continent. The students of this organization and their supporters seek to:

i.    Develop networks among students and professionals across a spectrum of fields and interests with the aim of promoting peace and development within Africa.
ii.  Create awareness about issues facing Africa and provide a platform to discuss strategic ways students on the continent and abroad can resolve these issues.
iii. Encourage and develop the leadership, conflict resolution and development initiatives of students interested in Africa.

Each year, YAAPD hosts the Sankofa54 conference, a two-day event that aims to provide students with the necessary tools, networks, and mentor relationships needed to effect change. This year’s conference will be aimed at assessing Africa’s social, economic, political, and cultural capital in a global context. We will take a look at Africa’s interactions and exchanges across all corners of the globe, what Africans are producing for the rest of the world, and the value of the African voice in international discourse. Our panels and break-out sessions will examine the socio-cultural and economic dynamics of Africa and Africans around the world and how these dynamics affect development and identity on the continent.

Together, as scholars, professionals, and global thinkers, we will conduct a thoughtful appraisal of Africa’s global presence in order to better understand the unique position in which Africa stands in the world today, and how this next chapter of globalization can lead us into an age of unity and prosperity.

The conference will feature five discussion panels concerning mental health, environmentalism, entertainment, economics and politics, as well as a series of breakout sessions regarding the politics of writing about Africa, African languages, emerging extremism, social entrepreneurship, the global professional world and more.

For details regarding the registration process, click here.