Today, Africans across the globe are united in celebrating one thing, their heritage. We celebrate our diversity; successes; continuous progress and of course the challenges that unite us. For those of us living in the diaspora, we are privileged to bring even more awareness of this day to our local communities. It connects us back with the motherland and helps us feel seen.

Why is today important to me?

For anyone that’s lived away from home for a very long time, you probably get this. You have one foot at home and the other right where you are. This doesn’t mean you don’t live in the “now”, you have the best of both worlds for now. Today is important to me because I have the chance to celebrate my other best world and share some of its highlights and dreams.

Africa has big dreams and today seeing its Africa Day – I wanted to share this 30 minute documentary Made In Africa, The Building Of An African Dream – A Story By Sarah Diouf. Diouf is a young visionary and a creative extraordinaire. This documentary gives an insight into the journey of Tongoro, an African digital native brand (she founded 4 years ago) based in Dakar, Senegal, promoting local craftmanship across the continent. The brand has already been featured on Fast Company’s 2020 list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies and boasts a clientele of Celebrity A Listers.

For me this is why I celebrate Africa Day, to shine the light on dreams of many young African people just like this one.

What typically happens on this day?

The diversity of the African people means that we celebrate this day in as many ways as possibly fitting. As part of the celebration, you will come across many stories like this one.

Food, music and dance is a big part of all celebrations so the typical celebrations involve group gatherings and a lot of all of that. COVID restrictions have taken the celebrations to digital platforms. This evening I will be joining millions of people globally in the celebrations. Personally, I will be tuning in onto MTV Base Africa On YouTube to join actor Idris Elba as he hosts the Africa Day Benefit Concert. This will kick off at 5pm Irish Time. Please join me!

You can also join some artists on TikTok too or just follow the hashtags on Twitter to learn a bit more about this https://twitter.com/AfricaDay

Is there anything you can say to help mark the occasion?

If you have read this far, you are probably wondering how you can help me mark this day right? 😊 Here’s how – with a curious mind, have a look at the social hashtags trending around this event. Cast your eyes on some of the content and get involved by Liking, Commenting or Sharing. I am very fortunate to say my colleagues in Core have been contributing to this positive change on the continent too. Through the support of Hugs Charity the team has hosted Quiz nights, other fundraising events and even make the annual trip to Terry Child Support in Kenya to lend a hand.

See you on the dance floor.