The Africans Rising Coordinating Collective, the governing body of the movement for Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity, has constituted a new leadership.

The new leadership has Mr. Deji Adeyanju, a human rights activist, as Co-Chair, Ms. Wangui wa Goro, a renowned translator, writer, poet, academician and cultural curator, as Co-Chair, and Ms. Nalucha Bernadette Nganga, a gender and women’s rights activist as Treasurer.

Other members of the Coordinating Collective include Catherine Rodgers (Kenya, East Africa), Mutemi wa Kiama (Kenya, East Africa), Cidia Chissungu (Mozambique, Southern Africa) and Milouda Bouichou (Morocco, North Africa).

The rest are Nashwa Salah El Sakka (Egypt, North Africa), Tandungang Laura Njiju (Cameroon, Central Africa) and Rokhaya Dieye (Senegal, West Africa).

A statement issued and initialled by Ms. Ann Njagi, of the Media Outreach Section, Africans Rising, copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi, said the new leaders were elected by the Collective during a week-long governance meeting at the MS Training Centre for Development Cooperation (MSTCDC) in Arusha, Tanzania.

Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity is a pan-African social movement of over 30,000 members working to foster solidarity and unity of purpose for the people of Africa.

Living by its Kilimanjaro Declaration put together in 2016, the Pan-African movement had over the years provided support to various members and organizations responding to political crises.

They encompass solidarity missions in Togo, the Gambia and Zambia.

The movement had also promoted the ideals of the African Creative Actions Network, by using creative actions to hold African leaders accountable on issues of environment, political stability and transparent and fair elections.

The members had been working together to build local, national, continental and global campaigns towards expanding justice, peace and dignity for all Africans wherever they lived.

Giving a background of the new leadership, the statement said Mr. Deji Adeyanju is one of the leading human rights defenders in Nigeria. He is an ex-student unionist and an activist extraordinaire who had been jailed and harassed by the government actors in the country for his activism work.

He is the Convener of Concerned Nigerians, a civil rights movement group, and also the Chair of Centre for Liberty Organization in Nigeria.

According to the statement, Ms. Wangui wa Goro (United Kingdom, Diaspora) has enjoyed a multidisciplinary life spent over forty years as a public intellectual.

She is a widely-acclaimed translator, writer, poet, academician and cultural curator, as well as an editor with a great passion for languages, literature and activist for intersectional freedom, primarily in relation to African people globally.

The statement said she spent many years engaged in the struggles for freedom, human rights, justice and equality including supporting the Anti-Apartheid Movement, women’s and workers’ movements worldwide.

Highlighting the achievements of Ms. Nalucha Bernadette Nganga (Zambia, Southern Africa), the statement indicated that, “she has over ten years’ experience in the development sector, working across a broad range of disciplines with a strong focus and bias towards gender, women’s rights, youth and governance.”