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NEW YEAR RECEPTION OF THE FEDERATION OF ANGLOPHONE AFRICANS IN BELGIUM (FAAB)
WELCOME SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT
Madam Schepen, Your Excellencies from the various Missions, Officers of the Antwerp City Council, Colleague Leaders of sister Federations and other organizations, Nananom, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great honor to have you all this evening at this historic place in Antwerp, to usher in the New Year of 2011, which is very important in the annals of our dear federation. It is significant because it is a new beginning for us after some set backs in 2010.
It is not my intention to go back into the past but you will bear with me that New Year Receptions are the moments to cast our mind a little back to the year before and then draw inspirations for the future.
I will begin by saying who we are, and this is important especially for some of us in Antwerp. There have been some distortions and the lack of clarity on what FAAB stands for so please permit me to use this opportunity to shed some light on the federation.
FAAB is one of the original 14 Migrant federations in the Flanders, with our specific role of being the defender of the interest of the English speaking African Community in Belgium. We are one of the 14 representative organizations of people with migrant background as Minister Bourgeois characterized us during in his speech last week Friday during the New Year Reception of the Minderhedenforum in Brussels. The 14 are the contact points and partners of the Flemish institutions for all matters around socio-cultural integration, participation as well as for the wellbeing of the New Belgians, as we are also referred to sometimes.
We chose to direct our focus on the English speaking African countries because of the common language and other colonial heritages, which binds us together. The English Speaking African communities are also specific in other areas, like the fact that we are relatively new migrants in Belgium, when compared to our French speaking brothers and sisters. Of course, it is not our intention to exclude or deny our brothers and sisters who in spite of these differences, still want to join us. In fact, we have some examples of organizations from countries like Cameroun that are members of our federation.
In June 2010, nine of the 14 Federations were upgraded as “fully fledged organizations (volwaardige verenigingen)” within the criteria of the Flemish Government. Which opens the way for these organizations to work like other mainstream Flemish socio-cultural organizations that have been operating within these criteria.
Unfortunately, in the first round of the recognition, we failed the criteria for qualification. This of course, brought us through a period of confusion and near destabilization. That feeling and the reaction of some of our people are quite understandable. But as leaders of our community, we didn’t relent in our efforts to echo the relevance of our communities in the Flemish community. Together with the four other federations that were not recognized, and with the help and support of our sister-federations that were recognized we made our case to the Flemish Minister for Culture. Today, I am most happy and grateful to the minister that she listened to our reasons and therefore helped device a means to give us a second chance. An Act of the Flemish Parliament passed on 23 December 2010 has extended the period for us and the three other federations to reintroduce our application for permanent recognition up to 2015. This takes a lot of burden off our shoulders as we will continue to receive subsidies to provide support to our member association whilst we work towards our permanent recognition
Having gone through the test before, we are very confident that with some hard work and dedicated support from our member associations and from our English-speaking African communities, we will achieve the goal of getting a permanent status for our federation in the shortest possible time. And the signs are everywhere, our federations is growing stronger, not only in numbers but also in qualitative work since this new development. We have had to take some hard decisions in the last few months, all with the objective of restructuring ourselves to achieve the goal.
We are therefore, expecting a kind treatment and support from authorities of the city of Antwerp in order for us to be able to meet our commitment to our communities. It is a verifiable fact (and maybe a historical one too), that the vast number of Sub-Saharan Africans residing, in and around Antwerp are originally people from English speaking countries. These groups and communities are even becoming more significant, not only in the city of Antwerp, but also in the Flanders at large. Therefore, as representative of these communities, our federation (FAAB) is demanding that due attention be paid to our people within the laudable inclusive policy of the city of Antwerp and in the Flanders.
Many of our first generation members did not, and still are not having it easy here. Many of them lack the required training; can’t speak the Dutch language properly, cannot find jobs and therefore cannot participate well in the social, political and economic activities in Belgium. We cannot leave the situation like that. As new citizens, we are conscious of our responsibility and duty to change our lives for the better. But our government must also give us the needed support and opportunities to become meaningful participants.
Some of our Youths are leaving the Flanders to England and the United States of America to find better opportunities; and that is due to the lack of attention and future prospects in the country where they are born and brought up. This I foresee will bring about more social inconveniences in the future. In this era where Europe is being described demographically as the grey continent it will be to the disadvantage of the Flanders to lose the new blood and a well-trained working class.
Minister Bourgeois during his speech last Friday admitted that it took up into the 90s for the Flemish Government to put in measures to facilitate the integration and participation of the new Belgians into the economic and social spheres. They thought the migrants were here for a short period as “guest workers” and so approached the issue as a temporary phenomenon. Now we all know that the phenomenon is not at all temporal, and that migration will continue as long man exist on earth.
It is important to state that in a new globalised world no single country or community can continue to live in a monoculture. Diversity and multiculturalism are the buzzwords. But we need to give real meaning to the word “diversity”. It must be reflected in our work places, schools, cultural and political activities. As new citizens, we want to make our contribution towards that state.
FAAB has a role to play and we want to do that. Our priority areas for the coming years are therefore the following:
We want to assist members of our communities in the Flanders with information that will enable them to organize themselves properly and provide quality leadership by so doing. To assist our organizations in organizing their members properly so that they can achieve the aims they set for themselves. To provide information to parents in order for them to be able to assist their children to find their ways into the right education and training. We will do what we can to sensitize our communities on matters concerning their personal health and that of their families, jobs, housing, youth development and help build leadership. We want to assist our communities to become self-empowered to manage their own lives in whichever area that will make them become meaningful citizens.
We can only achieve this when we work together with the relevant organizations and stakeholders. We are glad that you are here today to chart this new course with us. We are reorganizing ourselves to meet these challenges and we need the support of all.
Let 2011 be a good and new start for us all
Thank you.
Kwaku Acheampong
29 January 2011 |
