Apeike Umolu appointed Committee Chair at Pan-African Youth Conference 2022
AHP Director Apeike Umolu has been appointed as Chair of the Culture and Identity Committee at this year’s Pan-African Youth Conference hosted by the African Students’ Association of the University of Notre Dame, and the Pan-African Students’ Union of Northwestern University.
The Conference will take place on 26-27 March 2022.
The Conference is an ambitious and impressive project that attracted over 90 students last year from across the continent and the diaspora. Last year’s Keynote and Committee Chairs were Dr Achille Mbembe of the University of Witwatersrand, Dr Tinashe Nyamunda of the University of Pretoria, and Dr Lwazi Lushaba of the University of Cape Town.
The theme for this year’s Conference is “Which Way, Africa?” which aims to consider the following:
‘As the world grapples with unprecedented technological and ecological change, as well as the transformational shift of global centers of power, Africa is at a critical juncture where her future will be determined by her response to these circumstances. Unfamiliar as they may be, the novelty of these circumstances provides us with an opportunity to revisit conceptions of development and strategies for its attainment in Africa.’
The Conference is open to all irrespective of age, location or student status. Over the course of two days, participants will take part in four sessions in one of the three Committees: Culture and Identity, Politics and Governance, and Socioeconomic Transformation.
‘It is so important for emerging thinkers to keep up the traditions of the original Pan-Africanists’ says Apeike Umolu, ‘from Blyden to Nardal (Paulette) to Du Bois to Nkrumah, they all centred public discussions and grand conferences in their Pan-African action. We cannot forget that the Négritudalists met in the halls of their universities in Paris, and many of the great continental nationalists held their time at historically Black universities in the United States as seminal in their Pan-African education, while it was at a student union conference that Biko, Pityana and co. decided to launch the South African Students’ Organisation, and we all know how consequential that was. Thus, as you can imagine, it was with great honour that I accepted the invitation to act as Chair of the Culture and Identity Committee of this year’s Pan-African Youth Conference.’
Ahead of the Conference, Apeike has penned an open letter to this year’s participants which can be read here: Open Letter to Participants
