Transatlantic Fellowship
Future Initiative
The flagship program of African Diaspora United
As perceptions and lack of access to economic opportunities are key factors to intergenerational poverty in the United State, so too are developed African nations limited in their global economic reach due to misperceptions and unawareness of the highly advanced communities of their metropolitan regions.
AATF Fellowship
The flagship program of African Diaspora United will be the African American Transatlantic Fellowship (AATF) which will have two interwoven goals:
- To develop transatlantic relationships on the African continent that support the growth and prosperity of African metropolitan societies as well as black communities of the United States.
- To provide African Americans educational and cultural exposures to African nations as a form of healing, reconciliation, self-awareness, national diplomacy, and shared prosperity.
AATF aims
AATF aims to dispel the wide misrepresentation that Africa is void of thriving metropolitan economies rich in the multiplicity of urban modernization, indigenous culture and livelihood. The fellowship will introduce the best of black communities of the United States to progressive African nations and vice versa. This will produce cross pollination of ideas where expanded investment, venture capital and partnerships are to emerge. The spirit of collaboration, social-emotional healing, and mutual economic growth are at the heart of the AATF fellowship. This effort will foster access to global networks for talent rich individuals of the United State and developed countries of Africa allowing those who lack access to global networks to diversify and grow their talents, ideas, influence, capital and assets.
Ubuntu Community Approach
The Fellowship will be facilitated as a community activity rather than a stand-alone opportunity for disassociated individuals. Different from typical fellowships, the goal is to develop a group of no fewer than five vested stakeholders of the same community to experience this life-altering journey together.
Five to ten community-oriented groups throughout the United States will come together to form a national fellowship cohort of connected and like-minded individuals who all desire to work together to collectively uplift black communities. After their African travels, in each participating community, the groups will stay connected to focus on issues germane to local concerns, while collectively the groups will form a national network to address national issues including foreign policy that impact African nations.
The groups will demonstrate an interest to invest in the power of their connections with each other, and an interest to use their new relationships in Africa, to design and implement strategies for community transformation. With multiple community stakeholders taking part in the fellowship experience, the accountability and responsibility for applying educational and cultural experiences to the betterment of the community won’t rest on the shoulders of one. The weight of needed change will be more manageable through a team-oriented approach to organizing, planning, design and implementation for collective impact.