BPM comes alive for youths

The conference, which was held at Normandie Hotel’s Conference Room, was attended by more young people this year in comparison to last; one definition of success that the committee’s public relations officer, Kyle Cox, is appreciative of, “the real success is them committing to work in the future.” Khafra Kambon, a former leader of the BPM in Trinidad and Tobago and the ESCTT’s chairman, reminded the intimate audience of the impact that the BPM had on various parts of the world, by shifting the consciousness of blacks.

“The question of hair, which became a big question in the 1960’s, not because of hair itself but what symbolically, psychologically and emotionally hair represented.

African people are made to feel inferior to others from our colour, our facial features and our hair.” Continuing to reinforce the fact that racism from the past still exists in the present, unless people create necessary change, Kambon educated the audience about the unfair treatment and deportation of Haitians from the Dominican Republic due to the racial hostility between the two nations.

Feature speaker, Taharqa Obika, an economist and storyteller who used both his expertise within economics and his entertaining skills to awaken the audience and educate them on the financial possibilities awaiting in Ghana, Nigeria and other countries within the African continent.

Obika broke down many of the misconceptions that the West has created of Africa and its economic power “When the story is told from our perspective it empowers us and that is the importance of getting the facts from Africa.” 2016 marks only the second year of this decade of IDPAD and throughout the conference the feeling that there is much work to be done for the empowerment of people of African descent and the continent as whole was clear. It may be nearing the end of 2016, but it’s only the beginning of return.