On January 9, 2016, I attended a celebration of Tempo Afric TV, at Jambo Africa Restaurant in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Tempo Afric TV is the brainchild of Malick Sall, a Senegalese enterpreneur based in the Twin Cities.People from various African countries and the U.S.A. attended the event. With Malick as host and Josiah Kibira, founder and director of Kibira Films International, as master of ceremonies, speakers--including the keynote speaker Farida Nabourema--expressed lofty sentiments about Tempo Afric TV: the road it has traveled, its growing impact in the world, and its future.
Started by amateurs, Tempo Afric TV now produces an array of programs, embracing economic, political, social and cultural issues. It showcases Africa and the African Diaspora, channeling and projecting the realities, accomplishments, and aspirations of people of African descent.
About a dozen key volunteers were recognized and awarded certificates. The photo above, by Dr. Alvine Laure, shows, from left to right, Josiah Kibira, Petros Haile, founder and director of African Global Roots, and Malick Sall.
Tempo Afric TV volunteers are passionate visionaries, committed to making a difference not only here in Minnesota and in the USA, but around the world. They seek to counter the colonial and neo-colonial legacy of marginalization and misrepresentations, mindful of the fact that we have the means now, in the form of communication technologies, to tell our own story.
I am a relative new comer to Tempo Afric TV, having been introduced to it last year by Petros Haile, who interviewed me on issues pertaining to my book, Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences. However, having attended the Tempo Afric TV event on Saturday, I am more inspired than ever to fully involve myself in its work, so noble and indispensable.
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