H.E. Mr. Téte António's Remarks at Africa Day

By H.E. Mr. Téte António May 31, 2011

Mr. President of the UN General Assembly, Excellencies, Mr. Taj Hamad, Secretary General of UPF.

Distinguished guests. Ladies and gentlemen.

The Permanent Representative of the Equatorial Guinea will be addressing this gathering soon in his capacity as representative of the Chair of the African Union.

My easy task is therefore to pave the way by welcoming all of you to this event devoted to the celebration of Africa Day.

I had the opportunity this year to celebrate Africa Day in Addis Ababa on May 25th under the leadership of the Chair of the Union, President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.

The main theme this year is devoted to the youth, namely, “Accelerating Youth empowerment for sustainable development”. As you know, youth in Africa constitute 62% of the general population of Africa who are less than 35 years of age. By the year 2020, 70% of the population will be young people of less than 20 years.

This day in New York is particularly a special one as we also celebrate the Year of People of African Descent.

We have therefore joined our efforts in a very exemplary partnership between the Observer Mission of the African Union to the United Nations, the Group of African Ambassadors Spouses and UPF to create the conditions for this event which is aimed at paying a particular attention to what is called at the African Union, the Sixth Region, meaning the African Diaspora.

This constitutes also a valuable occasion to mobilize the opinion on the project of a Permanent memorial to honor victims of slavery and Trans-Atlantic slave trade. H.E. Ambassador Wolf, Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the United Nations, will be speaking in depth about this very important subject.

Let’s build this bridge between Africa and its Diaspora as current challenges faced by the continent call for our unity, the same unity which made our political independence possible thanks to the winds of freedom and panafricanism which came from the African Diaspora.

Particular tribute is paid to those great sons of the African Diaspora who contributed significantly to this achievement. Today we therefore remember great names such as WEB Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., Toussaint l’Ouverture, Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, Aimé Césaire, and all the great sons thanks to whom we stand here today.

For now, those are the few welcoming humble, but warm words I would like to say to wish all of you a Happy Africa Day!

I thank you.