ASI Director of Organization, Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, who convened the East Africa conference described the gathering as, “the most significant revolutionary event in Kenya since the Mau Mau challenged the British colonial administration in the 1950s.” He reported a large attendance with representatives from across the region.

Workshops addressed strategies around issues such as reparations, AFRICOM, western military presence, and multinational corporate exploitation of Africa. The struggle for control of Africa’s natural resources was underscored by the situation in neighboring Somalia where Africans continue to assert sovereignty over their coastline and waters. Portrayed as “pirates” by western media, ASI Secretary General Luwezi Kinshasa characterized these forces as a coast guard, protecting their waters from foreign vessels that fish illegally and dump toxic waste in the African territory.

Bah spoke about the significance of building the ASI. He said, “We are faced with a defining moment in history which demands our collective effort as a people to further deepen the crisis of imperialism. The struggle for socialism is a genuine struggle for popular democracy and creation of a new world in the hands of African workers and poor peasants.”

Following the conference, Bah and other organizers were denied entry to Tanzania where they were scheduled to participate in the Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival at the University of Dar es Salaam. Authorities confiscated their books and copies of The Burning Spear newspaper. An editorial in the Patriotic Vanguard newspaper of Sierra Leone condemned the action stating that, “Chernoh Alpha M. Bah is one of the fiercest advocates for African unity and socialism, and for the last five years devoted his entire time traveling across the world to build and consolidate the scattered efforts of African revolutionaries into the African Socialist International.”

Chernoh Alpha M. Bah will travel to Washington, DC in May where he’ll speak at a conference recognizing African Liberation Day with the theme, “One Africa, One Nation: Separated by Colonial Slavery, Reunited by Revolutionary Resistance!” The event, organized by the African People’s Socialist Party, continues the series of ASI conferences and will serve to establish the North American regional committee of the organization. Luwezi Kinshasa will convene a simultaneous conference in Manchester, England to consolidate a regional presence of the African Socialist International in Europe.

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