International Year of Afro-Descendants

Diplomats and personalities from the fields of culture and social research met in Havana over the last weekend as part of activities to celebrate the United Nations International Year of Afro-Descendants.

The meeting, organized by the Caribbean Association of Cuba (ACC), brought

together the Ambassadors from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada, as well as representatives from the diplomatic corps accredited to Havana, ACC members and Afro-descendants from 26 nations of the region.

Lina Turner Marti, President of Honor of the Association of Latin American and Caribbean Educators (AELAC), highlighted the importance of educating the new generations on the integrating roots of Cuban identity as a support of the Cuban people’s unity.

ACC President Maria Rollock noted that with this meeting her organization thus joins other Cuban institutions that celebrate the UN’s declaration of 2011 as the International Year of Afro-Descendants, which aims at strengthening the Afro-Descendants’ right to fully enjoy their economic, cultural, social, civic and political privileges.

Representatives from the Association of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC), the Cuban Friendship Institute (ICAP) and others, gave details of Cuba’s efforts in favor of the preservation and promotion of cultural, cooperation and historic elements linked to the African continent.