LONGTIME DIASPORA ACTIVIST SEEKS PAN-AFRICAN UNITY IN BURKINA FASO

New Afrikan organiser Siphiwe Baleka (@siphiwebaleka) recently visited the Thomas Sankara Centre (@burkinabooks) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, seeking to connect the struggle of African peoples in the diaspora with the fight waged on the continent.

He used his family’s history starting from the European Slave Trade to bridge Africa and the Americas.

Baleka travelled to Burkina Faso with the African Diaspora Development Institute (ADDI), meeting with President Ibrahim Traoré to discuss the importance of defending Africans in the diaspora, supporting a potential reparations case at the International Court of Justice, and granting diaspora Africans citizenship in Burkina Faso. Former African Union Permanent Representative to the United States Arikana Chihombori-Quao is ADDI’s founder and president.

Baleka identifies as a New Afrikan instead of as ‘Black American’ or ‘African American.’ The former term describes a descendant of enslaved Africans in the United States seeking to reclaim a historical land base in the US South, where their ancestors were forced into labour. The term signifies a collective identity rooted in shared experiences, acknowledging the unique history, culture, and struggles. Some have noted the contradiction in claiming land unceded by the region’s indigenous peoples.

Baleka also represented the Pan African Federalist Movement (PAFM) West Africa Region, of which he is Head of Research and Strategy. The organisation seeks to create a federal ‘United African States’ to benefit the diaspora, potentially granting citizenship in a new Pan-African superstate.