By Bazona Barnabe Bado
The Africa Center celebrated Africa Day on May 30, 2026, at its headquarters in Harlem, drawing African communities from across New York and New Jersey for a joyful gathering attended by New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani.
“Africa Day is an unquenchable thirst for freedom and independence,” said Ambassador Martin Kimani, president and CEO of The Africa Center. He said the center is “a building to build together, to build prosperity, to build all the things African people need to build so that we can change the world we live in.”
Standing alongside Kimani and Yusef Salaam, the New York City Council member for the 9th District, Mamdani said that “Africa means a great deal to me.” Born in Kampala, Uganda, and brought to the United States at age 7, he noted that his middle name, Kwame, comes from Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah. Mamdani paraphrased Nkrumah, saying, “Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. They claim it as their own, and none can keep it from them.”
For the mayor, Africa represents the pursuit of that freedom, and he thanked the African communities in attendance, calling their presence a “gorgeous gift.”
Africa Day is an annual global commemoration marking the founding of the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union, in 1963.