2022 All-African Movement Assembly (AAMA)

Summary

The All-African Movement Assembly

AAMA was organized by Africans Rising as a gathering of African movements and activists to assess the progress towards the implementation of the Kilimanjaro Declaration. It was held from the 29th – 31st August 2022 in Arusha Tanzania at MS TCDC. The Centre for Basic Research based in Kampala, Uganda was lead consultant in the technical curation of the Assembly.

Number and distribution of participants

The first edition was held in 2022 in Arusha, Tanzania as a hybrid people power convening to assess the progress towards the implementation of the Kilimanjaro Declaration. It brought together more than 600 movement representatives (362 of whom were physical participants), activists, Pan-Africanists, human rights defenders, feminists mainly the young people with a good intergenerational mix.

Delegates

Physical

Online participants

The Assembly

AAMA started on schedule on the 29th of August 2022 running for three days till the 31st of August 2022. The 3-day program was steered by two dedicated members of Africans Rising namely Andrew Karamagi of TCDC and Rhoda Boateng of ITUC (also former member of the CC) as co-moderators.

Day 1 - August 29

The first day featured art performances, plenary discussions and eight (8) break-out sessions. Each break-out session had a facilitator and note taker. The note takers were coordinated by the Resource Mobilisation Lead of Africans Rising, Dorothy Adebanjo. To distribute people to the different sessions, a survey was sent to all participants to indicate which sessions they would like to partake of. The results informed the team in our logistics arrangements;

Day 2 - August 30

The second day also featured different art performances particularly in regard to some deep questions on issues affecting Africa. There were also chants and dances. Action Clinics were also held to come up with specific action campaigns that members could contribute to after the AAMA.

Day 3 - August 31

On the third and last day, CC members had plenary discussion with the constituents who voted them into office. The constituents got the opportunity to ask them questions and give feedback. It was also the day that the final review and adoption of the Kilimanjaro Declaration 2.0 was completed. Break out sessions on this day focused on collating views of Africans Rising members on different aspects of the movement’s strategy for the next 5 years.

Main outcomes

Kilimanjaro Declaration 2.0

Members adopted a revised version of the Kilimanjaro Declaration on the last day after many deliberations.

During the regional convenings, members were asked to share opinions on what should be changed, removed or added to the Kilimanjaro Declaration. Or if it should remain the same. The perspectives from members were collated and shared with the Kilimanjaro Declaration review team who worked to revise the Kilimanjaro Declaration in line with aspirations of the members after 5 years of Africans Rising existence. The revised document was then presented to the whole Assembly on 31 August, 2022 for input and adoption. It was unanimously adopted as revised, thus making the Kilimanjaro Declaration 2.0 the new vision document of the movement.

Documents

The Kilimanjaro Declaration 2.0

We, the citizens and descendants of Africa, as part of the Africans Rising Movement, are outraged by the centuries of oppression; we condemn the plunder of our natural and mineral resources and the suppression of our fundamental human rights. We are determined to foster an Africa-wide solidarity and unity of purpose of the Peoples of Africa to build the Future we want – a right to peace, social inclusion and shared prosperity.

Africans Rising

Some feedback

After the AAMA, the team held evaluation meetings to assess what worked and what did not work. We also met with our partners from TCDC to get their perspectives on the logistical arrangements and learnt some critical lessons for the future. In addition, a short assessment form was sent out to participants to rate the quality of the sessions they participated in. Some of the comments made are reproduced below;

“First of all I would like to thank you for this initiative made by you to think about Africa and Africans in general my point of view on this i would like also that in our programme we implement a session of future Africa continent leadership that we help us to reach on our vision of Africa borderless once we are in Government as decision takers we will change a lot..”

“The whole event was a success, I am very glad I participated. Thank you very much for the opportunity. I think for the next event it would be great to have a session about history and activism to remember together why we are in this situation and what have already be done to take example from the past and not make again the same mistakes.”

“It was a nice session and I hope five years from now activists will have a safe space to fight for other people without being killed,jailed or intimidated.”

“The meeting of the African rising movement was a good topic for young people and Africans to realize themselves and I assure you that they awaken the spirit of being proud to be Africans and I assure you that we manage and guide ourselves without interference from other continents”