Africa News Broadcast 
Credit: The AfricaReport
A coalition of African diaspora groups in the US that supports US Vice President Kamala Harris for president officially kicked off activities on 26 August.
With only 71 days remaining until the 5 November election, the African Diaspora for Harris organized a three-hour call featuring campaign staff, elected officials, celebrities, and diaspora leaders from over 20 African nations. The purpose of the call was to energize voters, expand the coalition, and increase fundraising for the Harris-Walz campaign.
“We are the African diaspora, a group woven from the rich tapestry of Africa’s diverse cultures, histories and experiences. But more than that, we’re a group bound by the commitment to contribute to society in a place that we all now call home, while never forgetting the lands where we come from,” Nneka Stefania Achapu, the CEO of political and public affairs firm Asha Strategies in Washington, DC and one of three national co-organisers along with Diaspora Academy CEO Semhar Araia and Adjoa Kyerematen, president and CEO of the Ghana Diaspora Public Affairs Collective.
“We are here and excited to elect our first Black and Asian president this evening,” said Achapu on the call.
The fledgling coalition includes an array of diverse groups, including New England Africans for Kamala Harris, the Nigerian-American Public Affairs Committee, United Ethnic Women for Harris-Walz, the African Diaspora for Good Governance and the Virginia African Diaspora Committee. The call was a chance for the diaspora community to hear directly from the Harris campaign and Democratic politicians from across the country.
“We are here because we wanted to be very intentional when it came to coalition building,” said Chris Scott, the coalitions director for vice president Harris. “A lot of times when we have the conversation of Black engagement, too often I’ve seen in my career where the diaspora … constantly gets left behind.”
Vice president Harris, he said, has a proven track record of fighting for Black Americans, from supporting first-time home buyers to helping lead the Joe Biden administration’s engagement with the diaspora and the continent.
“What I’ve come to see is that when you organise within the diaspora, there is so much power in getting everybody united behind a candidate that is not new to the fight, but is true to the fight, that doesn’t just provide lip service but provides real work towards progress,” he said. “That’s what VP Harris has done all along as vice president in the Biden administration.”
The push to leverage the two million-strong African diaspora comes as Black voters are seen as crucial to helping push Harris over the top in her fight against Donald Trump. Some polls had the former president pulling in more than 20% of the traditionally Democratic Black vote when Biden was running, but Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, has quickly reversed that trend.
Trump has responded with clumsy racial attacks.
“I didn’t know she was Black until some years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black,” the former president said at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago on 31 July. “So I don’t know – Is she Indian? Or is she Black?”
These seem to have only further energised some members of the African diaspora.
“As I don’t have to remind this group, one of his first acts in office was to ban travel from many of the countries [where] our family, friends and parents [live],” said Will Jawando, a member of the Montgomery County Council in Maryland who was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention earlier this month. “The continent is on the line. Our life here is on the line.”
Other politicians on the call included lawmakers from key battleground states and Congressman Gabe Amo, the son of two West African parents from Ghana and Liberia and the first Black member of Congress from Rhode Island. Attendees also heard motivational speeches from artists including rapper Jidenna, theatre actor and director Sahr Ngaujah and Nigerian-American singer Banky Wellington.
The coalition next plans a weekend of action on 6 to 8 September, with appearances at African markets and restaurants across the country, and the Harris campaign will have its own call with the diaspora in early September.
By showing the diaspora’s support, the organisers hope not only to elect Harris but also to have a greater say in US policy towards Africa.
“This is beyond 5 November,” said Araia. “This is about our voice in the Harris-Walz administration.”
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