Dear ACFR Board Members, African and World Leaders, Ambassadors and Diplomats, Distinguished Young Leaders, ACFR Supporters, Ladies and Gentlemen

May God bless you, your families, and the work of your hands. 

Happy New Year 2024! I hope that this letter finds you in good health and high spirits. About six months ago, I made a public declaration for the first time in my existence to present to you the Official Launch of The African Council on Foreign Relations, a pan-African institution that is helping shape the future of Africa. In my keynote remarks, I address the existential challenges facing Africa in many areas. In my keynote remarks, I also chart a new course for building a brighter destiny and future for African nations.  

Looking back to where the institution began last year, there is much hope that has transpired. I would like to offer heartfelt gratitude to African leaders who rose on the global stage to address the hurdles of their countries and of their times. My 2024 New Year message turned to the queries that ran through all their thoughts and addresses at the African Union, United Nations, European Union, and World Economic Forum political stages and podiums. It is the question of what Africa’s future will look like for the next generations of leaders. It is also the central question of what actions are we taking today to prepare a brighter future for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The answers to these questions are as diverse as the leaders who pose them.

Today, I am celebrating the small and big victories in the Africa’s struggle to rise and deliver for its peoples. Today, I am humbly sharing some of the great achievements we have accomplished as well as the challenges lying ahead of us as an organization and as a continent in 2024 and 2025. 

Recognizing ACFR Founding Fathers

Building this organization has been a labor of love from the get-go and I am blessed by the wonderful synergies of inputs of several individuals who have offered tremendous support. I owe a huge debt of eternal gratitude to Dr. Toby Malichi, Hon. D. Bus. D.H.L, Founding Executive Chairman and Global Head of Development, Investment & Diplomacy, The Malichi Group and Founding Executive Committee Chair of the African Council on Foreign Relations and Executive Chairman for being a beacon of hope and inspiration to millions of young people across America. I also want to thank Hon. Calherbe Monel, Vice Chairman of the Board of the African Council on Foreign Relations for his unflinching assistance and faith in my ongoing work. 

Kudos go out to Dan Chenok, Executive Director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government, Tadios Belay, Ph.D., President & CEO, US-Africa Institute; Charles Kojo Vandyck, Head of Capacity Unit, West Africa Civil Society Africa Institute; Prof. Chimizie Anyakora, CEO, Bloom Public Health; Dell Gines, Ph.D., VP Partnerships, Advisory Services, and Thought Leadership, International Economic Development Council; Krista Johnson, Ph.D., Associate Professor & Director, Center for African Studies at Howard University; Melvin Foote, President at Constituency for Africa; Paul Samson, Ph.D., President, Centre for International Governance Innovation; Stanislas Zeze, President & CEO, Bloomfield Corporation; Prof. Joav Toker, Ph.D., world-renowned geopolitical expert & Associate Professor, American Graduate School of Paris & Professor of Media, Columbia University of New York for their support during the official launch of the African Council on Foreign Relations. 

One of my missions as the Founding President and Chairman of the African Council on Foreign Relations is to promote the beauty of African cultures, traditions, and languages across the world. Africa is richer and the peoples of Africa are beautiful. This constellation of people bound together by their uniqueness is also bright. From West to North Africa, each culture is unique, each very special, and each shining very bright in its African region. In Africa, we see nations bound together by a shared past of political and economic struggles and working hand in hand to achieve a common destined future. 

Celebrating African Nations With Pride

One of my missions as the Founding President and Chairman of the African Council on Foreign Relations is to promote the beauty of African cultures, traditions, and languages across the world. Africa is richer and the peoples of Africa are beautiful. This constellation of people bound together by their uniqueness is also bright. From West to North Africa, each culture is unique, each very special, and each shining very bright in its African region. In Africa, we see nations bound together by a shared past of political and economic struggles and working hand in hand to achieve a common destined future. I celebrate nations like Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Rwanda, Cote D’Ivoire, and all African nations championing the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area. Presidents Willam Ruto and Paul Kagame successfully are pursuing bold economic development policies to boost inter-African trade. 

Remembering Our African Heroes

As I write these lines, I remember great African leaders who worked tirelessly to address the hurdles facing their countries, communities, and of their times. I want to remember Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Wangari Muta Maathai, Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, Haile Selassie, Julius Nyerere, Patrice Lumumba, Kofi Annan, Thomas Isidore Noel Sankara, Kenneth Kaunda, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Laurent Gbagbo, Felix Houphouet Boigny, Paul Kagame, William Ruto, George Weah, and many more.  They focus on economic growth and development and their efforts to promote African unity and international cooperation. I also want to remember living leaders who continue to fight for the rise and real economic development of Africa. I want to cite Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba, Kenyan lawyer and activist; HE Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, MD, Former Permanent Representative of the African Union to the United States. Peter Gregory Obi, Former Governor of Anambra State, Nigerian politician, and businessman. I also want to remember young economic and thought leaders such as Nanna Kwame Bediako, Ghanaian businessman, and leader of the Ghanaian New Force movement; Julius Seko Malema, President of the Economic Freedom Fighters of South Africa, Fred Swaniker from Kenya; Wamkele Keabetswe Mene, Secretary-general of African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat.

Challenges Facing Africa in 2024 and 2025

Challenges facing the African continent come in many sizes, forms, shapes, and types. Africa faces political, economic, and social challenges. First, let us begin with the political ones. Indeed, the greatest hurdle facing Africa is the failure of multilateralism. Continental multilateral political organizations such as the African Union, ECOWAS, CEMAC, and others have become a total embarrassment within their circles of influence and impact. Many experts agree that these institutions have become instruments through which foreign powers impose their agendas in Africa. 

Second, on the economic front, there is so much to address. This includes the rise of national debts, lack of private capital investment, SME leadership and development problems, emerging technological disruption, and innovation hurdles, just to name a few. These challenges continue to cause havoc as I am writing these lines. 

Third, the social challenges facing Africa are enormous. The first is the current crisis between the notions of values and rules in the global economic and political leadership systems. Many African leaders reject the ideology of an international rules-based system while voicing for a values-based international cooperation system. They believe the rules-based system has benefited the West economically and caused poor African nations. As everyone might know, rules-based international organizations such as the United Nations, World Trade Organization, International Labor Organization, World Bank Group, and International Monetary Fund are rules. These rules direct their actions toward other countries. Every member nation lives up to the expectations when they join them. Other social challenges include the rising disintegration of African cultures, traditions, and languages in the 21st international economic system. 

Embracing Challenges with Great Hope For The Future

To overcome the challenges of the present and realize the huge promise of the future, we must hope that it is still possible to compete and win the battles before us as a continent. We must also begin by embracing the wisdom and resiliency of great leaders of the past who never lost hope at a time of both immense promise and huge perils. By wearing the coat of great optimism, we believe it is our responsibility to bring Africa to new heights of success and victory or let the Mother Land fall into a valley of despair. By choosing hope as our battlefield motivation, we also believe that we possess the ability should we choose so to lift the continent from chaos and oppressive dominations, help young people achieve their very aspirations and dreams in their home countries, and ensure that the next generations are protected at all costs. 

Of all the human virtues, Hope remains one of the most needed in our time in Africa today. Hope is the place where hearts and minds meet in struggle times for development like this. Young leaders working to propel Africa must always plant themselves at the gate of hope, optimism, and possibility. Maya Angelou, the late activist and literary icon, once said, “Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. Invite one to stay.” We must only invite hope to stay with us as we fight for our continent. We must continue to preach the tenets of hope to current and future generations. Hope remains our best weapon for moving forward with our plans. 

Pursue New Avenues for Peace and Cooperation 

There Pan-Africans of true substance ready to be peace ambassadors and activists across the entire African continent and diaspora. Peace has proven to have a direct positive impact on economic development. Where there is peace, there are good development opportunities for nations and their populations. This is why Africa, under their continental multilateral institutions such as the African Union and many others, must continue its pursuit of peace and stability. When we do, we will new avenues for international cooperation unfolding before us. We will discover new aspirations, passions, optimism, resolve, purpose, and Pan-Africanism for peace and stability in the region. And now we have a historic opportunity to renew our commitment to defending Africa’s best interests on the global stage and to adapt them to the current economic and political realities on the continent.

Moving Forward With ACFR and Africa

Times ahead will be radically different and hard for Africa. The continent has become a strategic competition ground among major powers. This competition could turn into high politics as it gains momentum in Africa every year. This, however, will complicate things for African governments who lack a clear vision of where they want their countries to go in the coming years. The Horn of Africa’s important geopolitical and geostrategic position continues to attract several major foreign countries. 

Challenges are inevitable. And Africa will continue to face challenges. How does Africa react to these challenges? We must work side by side in unity to take ownership of our future, control our destiny, and provide young people who are the future of the continent with the opportunity to thrive in their own countries in the fullness of their lives given by the Most High. No matter how difficult the hurdles may be, younger generations are resolved to position Africa to win big in the global system. And the African Council on Foreign Relations is ready to play its part in shaping Africa’s future for the next two hundred years. 

African nations must continue to pursue their unique aspirations and visions build their futures in their interests, and chase their dreams of development, international cooperation, transformation, and unity. 

A Call To Action

Let us choose a future of great optimism over abject pessimism. Let us choose stability over colonial domination and mental defeat. Let us choose Pan-Africanism, pride, and love over anything else. Let us stand for our cultures, traditions, and people forever proud, forever strong, and forever resilient. Let us stand for Africa, this constellation of countries: each nation very exceptional, singular, and gleaming resplendently in its place in Africa. 

We all will rise to the current challenges facing Africa. We will rise to the challenge of peace, unity, and bravery. The future of Africa depends on it. This is how we will represent Africa: diplomacy, mutual respect, win-win partnership, and unconditional love for Africa. 

In the great spirit that guided me to build the African Council on Foreign Relations, I would like to wish you once again a very beautiful and successful year 2024 in good health and peace. May God bless us all with good hope to make this year a successful and enjoyable one!

Thank you.

Jean Narcisse Djaha, PhD

Founding President & Chairman, African Council on Foreign Relations