Virtual Events

Join us as we celebrate the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) “World Day for African and Afro-Descendant Culture Seminar” on January 24, 2022.  On this occasion, together with UNESCO, we are celebrating the many people and vibrant cultures of Africa and the African Diaspora around the world.  This day serves as a special time to recognize Africans and their worldwide descendants.  It highlights how the traditions of African culture support development and sustainability in their communities and so many others around the world.

Below is the recording from the pre-recorded panel and live Q&A:

Here are some resources offered during the session:

• Being Human Being: Transforming the Race Discourse By Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, Nah Dove
• Eight Eurocentric Historians by JM Blaut

About the Speakers

Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, Chair of the Department of Africology and African American Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, will serve as our keynote speaker.  Dr. Asante is recognized as the father of “Afrocentricity”.  Afrocentricity is a theory of social change that mandates that, “Africans be viewed as subjects rather than objects and interrogates how this philosophy, ethos, and world view gives Africans and descendants of Africans around the world, a better understanding of how to interpret issues affecting their communities.” 

We will also be joined by Hawa Diallo and Keisha A. McGuire, Permanent Ambassador of Grenada to the UN. The panelists will interpret the theory of Afrocentricity from personal and professional lenses.  During the panel discussion, speakers will share their viewpoint on the importance of African culture and its impact on the global stage.

Hawa Diallo was born in Sierra Leone and came to the United States when she was still in elementary school.  She has had a long career at the UN from working at  the Department of Public Information at the United Nations Headquarters in New York  to a post as Habitat Human Settlement Officer in Nairobi and later completed two peacekeeping assignments in Cambodia and Somalia. Currently Ms. Diallo is the Head of Unit and Public Information Officer in the NGO Relations and Advocacy Section of the Department of Public Information, where she coordinates United Nations and NGO partnership activities.

Her Excellency Keisha A. McGuire is Grenada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations. She has been reelected to chair the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization (C24) in 2020. As Chair of the Committee, she oversees meetings and field activities related to decolonization and is committed to “pursue suitable means for immediate, full and speedy implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.” Ambassador McGuire is also co facilitator of the United Nations Ocean Conference. Ambassador McGuire earned a Doctor of Laws degree from Cornell University, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami, and an associate degree from Barbados Community College.

About the Association of Montessori International/United States  

The Association Montessori International of the United States (AMI/USA) is the nonprofit, primary operational affiliate of Association Montessori Internationale based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Through support of AMI’s global network and initiatives, AMI/USA maintains the world view critical to the education of today’s children and to our responsibility to humans not just within the United States but across the world.

Dr. Maria Montessori’s call is to educate for peace. The charge for AMI/USA is to promote global peace, guide the natural development of all children to allow them to realize their full human potential, and to recognize and uphold human rights for all through the application of Montessori principles. Montessori pedagogy was intended from its onset to be an aid to life and a tool for liberation and empowerment. AMI/USA strives to establish an organizational ethos that prioritizes all humanity.

About Montessori Model United Nations (MMUN)

MMUN is a Non-Government Organization (NGO) in Special Consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Based on Dr. Montessori’s pedagogy and her message to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

(UNESCO), “If one day UNESCO resolved to involve children in building peace, if it chose to call on them to discuss with them and to recognize the value of all the revelations they have for us, it would find them of immense help in infusing new life into this society,” MMUN was founded.

Now in its sixteenth year, MMUN prepares teachers to introduce the concept of international understanding, and critical thinking, collaboration, and negotiation for solving problems into their classrooms. As a part of the process, their students participate in multiple opportunities, ranging from online working sessions to social meet-4 ups culminating in live MMUN Conferences at the UN Headquarters and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome. MMUN touches the lives of teachers, students, and parents in more than thirty nations.