Among the key achievements of the 7th Think Africa Week (TAWeek22): Excellent ambiance, new connections and networks built, insightful conversations and new collaborations with and within the African community, positive outcomes and actionable conclusions. The week-long Helsinki-based series of events took place between the 12th and the 19th of November 2022 and brought together close to 400 attendees from diverse fields, backgrounds and ages and had a social media reach of over 17.3K.
Think Africa Week is creating “the awareness we need in a new environment […] it is creating a link between Finland and the Diaspora and the home countries they come from” said the Namibian Ambassador, Charles B Josob in his welcoming speech at the Opening ceremony.
Shifting Perspectives was the theme of the Week this year. Specifically, the role of the diaspora in shifting perspectives in areas that affect the African diaspora community in Finland.
Through its series of events, TAWeek22 results from each event included but were not limited to:
Day1: Views and experiences from participants were collected on the state of the population relations on the areas of Attitudes, Sense of security, Interaction, and Inclusion. These experiences and the recommended solutions will be sent to the local and national decision makers next year in line with the public officials’ efforts and goals of building good relations between the different Finnish communities. In addition, a collection of works by creatives of African background on the question of Integration was created and will be published on our website next week.
Day2: The event co-organised with the Embassy of Morocco, brought to the open a topic that is often not talked about in Finland in an open forum, i.e., diaspora investing in home countries beyond remittances. Sensitization of the topic was made and in 2023 a number of discussions are planned to continue with this interesting subject: e.g. Addressing the issue of trust in investing, Investing as a group, Investing in local African-owned businesses here in Finland, among others.
Day3: In the Think Africa Week’s Slush side event, new connections and networks were built. People were inspired by the entrepreneurial stories shared by speakers and the entrepreneurs that came from Zambia and South Africa as part of the AGS Programme. Participants were also better informed about the different funding and support opportunities available. These have been made available here.
Day4: The Cultural Bazaar brought together people of various ages. We had an inspiring speech and performance from young persons under 16; an enlightening discussion on “how we wear our Africanness”; and the launch of a safer climate collaboration. Based on the interest from these activities, in 2023 Think Africa in collaboration with AFAES and other organisations will implement an activity in celebration of the International Day of the African Child in June 2023. We will also explore hosting activities in different languages during the Week to create a more inclusive event.
Attendees Jukka Luoma and Tomas Jakobsson won the two return flight tickets raffle with Ethiopian Airlines.
Most notably, this year, Think Africa Week brought many communities together. This year included nine co-organisers, namely: AFAES, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco, HEED Association Finland, Rwandan Community in Finland and Friends, Initiative for Safer Climate, Senegal-Suomi Ystävät, Suomi-Namibia Seura, and Ugandan Community in Finland. The Week was also supported by the following partners: the embassies of Algeria, Namibia, and Tunisia, Finnpartnership, Suomen Yrittäjät (Association of Finnish Entrepreneurs), Business Finland, ELY-keskus (the regional business and trade office), Ethiopian Airlines, the Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations (ETNO) of Southern Finland, Globe Art Point, Moniheli ry, Pirnditeenus, POC Lukupiiri, Africa in Finland, Afrogane, the Finnish-African Society, Voi hyvin hunaja, and Addis Kitchen.
The events’ speakers, performers, caterers, and volunteers were crucial contributors who deserve special praise.
See how the event went in pictures here.
Video recordings of some of the events are here.
