What Africa Day Means to Africans and Friends of Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kwame Nkrumah, the founding Father of the Organisation of African Union whose formation is remembered through Africa Day. Public Domain photo by Abbie Rowe – John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Africans and friends of Africa celebrated Africa Day on May 25, 2015. Some celebrated on Facebook and Twitter by sharing messages of unity and optimism about the continent.
Africa Day is the annual commemoration of the 1963 founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), when the leaders of 30 of the 32 independent African states signed a founding charter in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Remembering this day on Facebook, Steve Sharra from Malawi asked:
How many countries celebrate ‪#‎AfricaDay‬ as a national holiday? Answer is 4. Didn't know either. Wonder which ones. Anybody knows? ‪#‎AfricaDay2015‬
Kenyan blogger Daudi Were wrote:
Happy ‪#‎AfricaDay‬! Unity, solidarity, justice, peace, cohesion and cooperation among the peoples of Africa and African States.
Green Beings encouraged others to appreciate the continent's beauty:
Happy ‪#‎AfricaDay‬ everyone! Take a moment to appreciate this beautiful continent we are blessed to live on. A moment to acknowledge the immense treasures available to us.. And mostly to salute all the amazing people that call Africa ‪#‎home‬
Grazia SA explained what he thinks it means to be an African and shared a link about ‘nine unknown things” about Africa:
We are not African because we are born in Africa, we are African because Africa lives in us.
9 things you didn't know about ‪#‎AfricaDay‬ http://bit.ly/1FaC0wa
CCTV Africa asked:
What kind of Africa do you want? What should bring that change?
To which David Ugo replied:
I want an africa that is not alway motivated by foreign culture which is applied in a stupid sense at the expense of the entire populace.#iwant an africa that is eager to avoid all forms of corrupt practices.
On Twitter, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, wrote:
On #AfricaDay let's remember the continent's progress + the importance of putting women&girls at the centre of its longer term development
— Valerie Amos (@ValerieAmos) May 25, 2015
The Chairman of the African Union, Dlamini Zuma, noted:
You skill your people, they'll figure out what to do. #AfricaDay
— Dr Dlamini Zuma (@DlaminiZuma) May 25, 2015
Nigerian satirist and lawyer, Elnathan John, advised:
Please before you put up the pic of you in African fabric, be sure it is not made in China. Support African products. #AfricaDay
— Elnathan John (@elnathan) May 25, 2015
Ugandan Public Relations practitioner, Sarah Kagingo, shared her African dream:
I dream of #Africa tuned in to innovation and tech, leading the way; dataways, transborder highways, railway and super waterways #AfricaDay
— Sarah Kagingo (@SarahKagingo) May 25, 2015
South African lawyer Barry Roux warned:
It is so easy to break down and destroy. The heroes are those who make peace & build. #AfricaDay pic.twitter.com/DlVICWOWui
— IG: BarryRouxLaw (@Barry_Roux) May 25, 2015
Miss Earth SA—a semi finalist in the 2015 “I Am an African” contest—emphasised the need to maintain trade relations between African countries:
This is Africa….Imagine Africa's economy if African countries preferred doing business with one another #AfricaDay pic.twitter.com/0EUrx6LLom
— I Am an African (@Me_Chaela) May 25, 2015
Jay Naidoo, the chairman of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, described the ideal Africa Day:
#AfricaDay will mean so much more if we stood up, spoke truth to power and demanded #accountability from our leaders https://t.co/I1dPP3mBMX
— Jay Naidoo (@Jay_Naidoo) May 25, 2015
Most people online shared messages of Africa Day expressing the hope that Africa will change from its image of corruption, internal division, and lack of development and become what the founding fathers of the Organisation of African Union had in mind.