Experience Africa, organized by The Voice of Africa, will feature food, fashion, music and keynote speakers and panels that highlight the different African and Caribbean diasporas and the contributions they have made to the global society.<\/p>\n
The ticketed event, which will take place along Embassy Row, hopes to champion African and Caribbean embassies and their peoples, said Kadmiel \u200b\u200bVan Der Puije, founder of The Voice of Africa.<\/p>\n
Van Der Puije, an immigrant from Ghana, said this event and its mission to educate is personal for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI moved here when I was 12. I lived in a neighborhood, this place called Scranton, Pennsylvania. I went to high school where I was literally the only full Black kid,\u201d Van Der Puije told The Hill.<\/p>\n
He said he was constantly bombarded with \u201cjokes,\u201d such as other kids telling him Africa was just all jungles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t know if Africa was a country or a continent,\u201d Van Der Puije said. \u201cWhat I really want to be able to show through Experience Africa is each country has its own unique culture but we are one big community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Der Puije said he wants Saturday\u2019s event to help educate people about the culture but also about African politics and economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people don\u2019t know more of the nitty gritties about what\u2019s going on with Africa\u2019s free trade, what\u2019s going on with technology,\u201d he said. \u201cI think my biggest takeaway is people should be able to go there and feel as though they\u2019ve experienced Africa without even having to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Panels at the event will feature leading African and Caribbean voices in technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. Discussions at these panels will delve into investment opportunities in both Africa and the Caribbean through business, art and travel.<\/p>\n
Other panels will discuss the current disputes and solutions to the African Continental Free Trade Area.<\/p>\n
Featured guests to help with that education include Hilda Suka-Mafudze, African Union ambassador to the U.S.; Mohyeldin Omer, senior advisor at the Africa Bureau of U.S. Agency for International Development; shadow Rep. Oye Owolewa (D-D.C.); and other professors and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so important to celebrate African culture because it really leans into who we are as a people, and especially in American culture,\u201d Owolewa told The Hill.<\/p>\n
Owolewa, the child of Nigerian immigrants, said he\u2019s \u201cgrateful\u201d to have such a large event in a place that used to be considered \u201cChocolate City\u201d because of its majority-Black population.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important for it to be in the nation\u2019s capital to really show how we see ourselves as a diaspora, how important we see our culture and how we\u2019re raised to also lead in this country and not just as they say back home in Africa,\u201d Owolewa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was born and raised in the United States, and I\u2019m proud to be born and raised in the United States, and I feel like I can make a difference here,\u201d he added. \u201cHaving such an event here in the United States, in D.C., is very important not only for historical significance but also for what we\u2019re going to be like in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n
But featuring so many different elements of African culture is also the beginning of a deeper discussion around racial identity, Owolewa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s the beginning of a conversation of what makes us Black,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen it comes to being Black, there\u2019s different types of being Black, and it\u2019s not about setting barriers. It\u2019s about really embracing each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a statement that she, too, is thankful for such an event happening.<\/p>\n
The event, Bowser said, allows for D.C. residents to celebrate \u201cthe rich and diverse African and Caribbean nations and the enormous contributions African and Caribbean embassies make to our city and the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only will keynote speakers highlight these contributions, but many of the panels will explore how the U.S.-African relationship can be built better and stronger.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s another side to Saturday\u2019s event \u2014 Van Der Puije said he is hoping to raise money for The Voice of Africa\u2019s orphanage in Kenya.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have lots of different projects that we\u2019re currently working on, but the biggest is trying to build them a dormitory because right now they\u2019re all staying at a house,\u201d Van Der Puije said. \u201cWe want to build an actual dormitory where everyone has their own bed, everyone has their own bathroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kenyan orphanage was created in 2010, when Van Der Puije\u2019s father, a missionary, traveled to Kisii and met with a pastor who had 12 orphans living with him. Van Der Puije said his father was an orphan, and seeing the children in Kenya experiencing a similar situation tugged at his heart.<\/p>\n
While Kisii County is home to more than 1 million people, some 240,000 children are orphans.<\/p>\n
Van Der Puije said their work in Kisii has continued to grow over the years, and the orphanage is now home to 54 children. But The Voice of Africa hopes to provide more for parentless children in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a church over there, so usually what will happen is you have some kids come there and we find out that they usually don\u2019t have anyone,\u201d Van Der Puije said. He added that he and his family have also expanded into other countries, establishing orphanages in Ghana and Zambia.<\/p>\n
After Saturday\u2019s event, Van Der Puije hopes to take an extended stay in Kenya, where he can spend several months bonding with the children in Kisii.<\/p>\n
But, he said, he\u2019ll also begin planning next year\u2019s Experience Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to make this an annual event,\u201d Van Der Puije said. \u201cI want to stay in D.C., but I do see it eventually going into New York or LA or Texas and then even eventually going out of the country to maybe Ethiopia, South Africa, places like that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A one-day conference that celebrates African and Caribbean culture will take place in the nation\u2019s capital Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":31767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,12],"tags":[7,30,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-31770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"category-entertainment","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-culture","11":"tag-entertainment"},"yoast_head":"\n