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A series of virtual events celebrating Black History Month and being presented by the African Caribbean and International Association of Eastern Ontario is underway.
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An opening ceremony and welcome words of participants in their languages was held early on Tuesday evening, the first of five days of events.
“The big day is Saturday,” said Calixte Yepseu, the ACIAEO president. “There’ll be quite a few activities.”
Following the opening Tuesday, cooking workshops were held, and the virtual events on Zoom will continue on Wednesday.
The ACIAEO, based in Cornwall, lists as one of its purposes and objectives implementing programs designed to create and maintain a sense of cultural pride among its members. The organization looks to develop and implement cultural exchange programs and activities within the community, and provide a supportive and safe forum assisting in members’ integration efforts – culturally, socially, economically, professionally, and academically.
Yepseu said the ACIAEO was founded in 2015, and it’s had Black History Month activities each year, but of course has had to pivot in format.
“For the last two years our events have been (virtual),” Yepseu said.
Speakers during the week will include Cornwall Mayor Glen Grant, Yepseu, ACIAEO founder Kemi Micho, MP Eric Duncan, ACIAEO vice-president Jacinta Gwanyama, and CMHA-Champlain East mental health promoter Angele D’Alessio.
Wednesday’s programming is from 6-7 p.m. and will be a presentation focusing on mental health and COVID-19. On Thursday, from 6:10 to 6:40 p.m., there’s an ACIAEO presentation in French, and on Friday (6:25 to 7:55 p.m.) there’ll be an ACIAEO English presentation.
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The series wraps up on Saturday, beginning at 4 p.m. and concluding with closing remarks at 5:45 p.m. Grant and Duncan will both speak on Saturday, and there will be various presentations, including on the Black History Month theme, African culture and African dance.
The ACIAEO on its information page says “we’ve all immigrated to Canada to discover the Canadian culture and make the country our new home. We are all African descendants including the Caribbeans through birth or marriage. All of us are hard-working, very creative, highly intelligent and have a good education background. We are very sociable, we share in the joy and suffering of anyone and everyone around us. We enjoy living together, we are proud and happy to be Canadians.”
The ACIAEO says it is an apolitical organization, one providing a forum for members to share information about current events in their various heritage, but not promoting nor bashing the agenda of a political organization.
The Black History Month events can be accessed by the Zoom link, or by phone at 613-808-8090 (password 300333).
