MsJoe
Make sure you keep me abreast on this issue. And
update my email address please.
Em
The Mulindwas communication
group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
The Mulindwas communication
group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, December 21, 2002 8:15
AM
Subject: Re: [Mwananchi] African
community center in works is history-making
Great:
Why don't we task the entire African
Community in the area to chip in? It
does not matter who the investors
are, a helping hand is a validation of the
initiative. Jews and Asians
would do it. Sound like music to my ears. I will
call the contact number.
All of you in Detroit, please do. We have nothing;
no veritable
institution.
Do you all know Africans, considered a single
ethnodemographic entity, are
among the most educated and affluent
communities in the United States? Find
out from Center for Democracy in
Africa, in Washington, DC. We are just
unorganized to flex our muscles. I
must add, anything called "Africa" in
influential mainstream America is
not controlled by Africans. From the Center
for Democracy in Africa;
Constituency for Africa; Africare; Human Rights
Watch Africa; TransAfrica;
Corporate Council on Africa that virtually
dictates African economics
---these are multi-giant interests --
multimillionaires, billionaires; to
everything else that matters to Africa
from abroad.
One day, I
went to the Corporate Council forum, and someone asked me which
Hispanic
lobby I was representing. Hispanic? So, during the break I went home
and
dressed in pure African, from head to toe. This time, I was mistaken for
an African Embassy representative. Not very amused about not being taken
serious (I was merely trying to compile a listing of companies, do some
networking and urge support for Sierra Leone & ECOMOG), I thought
about a
mischief. In the evening cocktail, I dressed in splendid Indian,
complete
with the red dot on my forehead, ready with an answer that
Pakistan is a
menace, and if there were military experts on the Council -
in case anyone
asked me anything that did not register with my faculties.
The attendees at
the cocktail had changed, with everybody trying to look
more important than
the next person, more of new people -- the brasses
themselves. Now, I was
pretending nobody was worth a second glance from
me. Then, someone just
offered to fill my glass, more became informal, and
I was asked -- which
region....meaning India. Even if you put Kashmir and
Punjab in my face, I
would not know which way is up. I started laughing,
so did the other guys who
knew I am from Africa, and was a little
irritated why the questions to me had
nothing to do with Corporate Africa.
More brasses came to my aid, and gave me
tips and references.
African woman, long way to go....where are we supposed to be?
Preparing fufu?
We do that; it is very important to know how to cook. But
we can also work
the board room. Plus, at that time, we had the most
number of female
ambassadors in Washington! All right-ie, that's my
tiny experience.
Back to the Detroit project...at least if we want to
do what we do better
than any other community (merriment) let's give the
$$ to our own people. No
small benefit, we will not be asked to leave at
2:00 a.m., when normal
Americans do. But our cultural genes are
different, we believe in the
moonlight, so we are energized at small
hours.
Everybody -- have wonderful Christmas; and GOD/ALLAH be with you
and yours.
MsJoe
In a message dated 12/20/2002
11:43:02 PM Pacific Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
> [Mwananchi] African community center in works is
history-making
> Date: 12/20/2002 11:43:02 PM Pacific Standard
Time
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (jumamzungu
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>)
> Reply-to: <A
HREF="">[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>
>
> By Shawn D. Lewis / The Detroit News
>
Cultural heritage
>
>
>
> What: The Liberian
Association of Michigan is renovating a building
> that will become the
African Heritage Center and house retail shops,
> a museum, conference
rooms for meetings and space for African-style
> weddings.
>
> Where: 13300 Puritan at Littlefield, Detroit
>
> When:
Scheduled to open July 2003
>
> Phone: (313) 585-1117
>
> Gifts: Tax-deductible donations to help pay for the African Heritage
> Center may be sent to the Liberian Association of Michigan, Box 2701,
> Detroit, MI 48202.
>
>
>
>
>
Comment on this story
> Send this story to a friend
> Get Home
Delivery
>
>
> History soon will be made at a former
Detroit supermarket.
>
> The corner of Puritan and Littlefield
is the new home of the African
> Heritage Center, the first U.S.
building of its size owned by an
> African community group, said the
owners, the Liberian Association of
> Michigan.
>
>
Following renovations, the 14,000-square-foot building will house
>
shops, a museum, conference rooms for meetings and space for African-
>
style weddings. Work is scheduled to begin in January and be
>
completed in July.
>
> "We are very proud to be the first
African group in the country to
> buy such a building and provide these
services to refugees and to the
> community at large," said Emmanuel
Toe, 34, of Detroit, vice
> president of the association.
>
> Toe, a banking consultant, is from Bassa, 90 miles southeast of the
> Liberian capital of Monrovia. The African country was formed by
> former slaves in the early 1800s.
>
> "We were meeting
every three months inside Second Grace United
> Methodist Church in
Detroit, so we've very happy to have our own
> place to hold meetings
now," said Toe, who has lived in Detroit since
> 1996.
>
> Nearly 400 Liberian-born residents live in Metro: most of them in
> Detroit, Southfield, Inkster, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Farmington Hills
> and West Bloomfield, Toe said. Liberians also settled in Grand
> Rapids, Benton Harbor, Lansing and Kalamazoo, he added.
>
> The group looked at four properties before deciding on the west-side
> building.
>
> "Peoples State Bank owned the property,
and they were foreclosing on
> it," Toe said. "The price was reasonable
-- $50,000 -- for 14,000
> square feet, so we purchased it."
>
> Instead of a mortgage, the group settled on a one-year payment
> agreement without interest.
>
> "We were fortunate to
acquire ... nonprofit status, and we're trying
> to raise funds to help
pay for the building," Toe said. "All
> donations are tax-deductible."
>
> Joseph Reeves, 31, of Detroit, came from Liberia five years
ago.
>
> "This will be a welcome addition to the community and
it is in a very
> nice location," Reeves said. "Now people will be able
to become more
> familiar with our culture."
>
>
Association member Kokulo Kaasaku, 37, is a tax accountant for Wayne
>
County. He came to the United States as a student and graduated from
>
Lawrence Tech with a bachelor's degree in accounting.
>
>
Kaasaku said the association acts as a social club for students
>
arriving from Liberia and provides economic opportunities and social
>
assistance to the community -- not just Liberians.
>
> "Some of
the programs we would like to provide include a mentoring
> program,
where we pair a professional with a student, counseling and
> housing
assistance services for immigrants who came here to escape
> war,
African dance classes -- which improve health -- a program for
>
seniors and economic opportunities for anyone who wants to open a
>
retail store."
>
> The building also will house a free job
resource center and computer
> training classes. In addition, it will
host Black History Month
> events in February.
>
> "The
center will serve as an area of cultural interchange where
> people can
come to learn more about Liberia," Toe said.
>
>
> You
can reach Shawn Lewis at (313) 222-2666 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this
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