African Youth Forum - update

The African Youth Forum on Saturday, March 31, brought together African and African -American youth between the ages of 13-25, as well as other immigrant and native-born young people in Chicago to dialogue around issues and challenges in their communities.

The Forum focused on three themes: Immigration, Education, and Incarceration. Through dialogue, those who attended built understanding of each others' points of view, and in the process found common ground. We hope that the forum will be a catalyst for sustained youth dialogue and organizing in Chicago, with committed and open engagement from African youth. The forum was an all day affair and included talks, discussions, music and performances (one of the most remarkable musical performances was a collaboration between Nigerian drumming group Ndi Akporo Dike and the Chicago Bucket Boys) - see below.

Some of the key talking points during the Forum included:

• "becoming a leader, and being the change"
• "promoting diversity without being judgmental"
• "defend those who are stereotyped"

A discussion on Immigration at the African Youth Forum

From the forum, participants drew up a "plan of action", which was comprised of their thoughts related to the workshops they attended, and how they wanted us to build on the African Youth Forum in future. The plan of action included:

• more youth forums, more often
• expand forum to include more participants from different backgrounds and different immigrant communities
• suggestions of other topics to cover

The most striking, and perhaps over-arching theme that our participants came to was that immigrants are everyone; groups of people who come from another country, another root. 

It was said that "even though we are all different, we all come from one earth".