Africa Day

Africa Day

Africa week May 19-22 includes a kaleidoscope of cultural, scientific, artistic and epicurean events in honor of Africa Day (25 May), when the Organization of African Unity (OAU), today the African Union (AU), was founded in 1963.

Africa Day (formerly African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day) is the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organization of African Unity on 25 May 1963

On 25 May 1963, representatives of thirty African nations met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, hosted by Emperor Haile Selassie. By then more than two-thirds of the continent had achieved independence, mostly from imperial European states.

At this meeting, the Organization of African Unity was founded, with the initial aim to encourage the decolonization of Angola, Mozambique, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. The organization pledged to support the work conducted by freedom fighters, and remove military access to colonial nations. A charter was set out which sought to improve the living standards across member states.

Selassie exclaimed, "May this convention of union last 1,000 years."

Read more HERE.