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America’s great strength: The African diaspora

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This article is part of the dossier:

US – Africa: Evolving relations

By Julian Pecquet

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Posted on September 9, 2022 10:10

 © Members of the Ethiopian diaspora, the largest outside of Ethiopia, in Washington, U.S., July 28, 2018.             REUTERS/Mike Theiler
Members of the Ethiopian diaspora, the largest outside of Ethiopia, in Washington, U.S., July 28, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Theiler

More than 100 Nigerian-Americans and their supporters descended on Washington’s luxury Mandarin Oriental Hotel this April to celebrate the record number of diaspora Africans in the Joe Biden administration.

Hosted by the Nigerian Physicians Advocacy Group, the African Primary Healthcare Foundation and the Constituency for Africa, the first-of-its-kind gala honored top officials across the US government. Guests of honour included then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Akunna Cook; US Trade and Development Agency Director Enoh Ebong; and associate White House counsel (now head of compliance at Palantir Technologies) Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo.

Even World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, herself a Nigerian-American, attended the event in a telling display of the African diaspora’s growing clout.

“America’s great diversity is essential to our strength,” Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, said in accepting an award at the gala for elevating the voices of the diaspora community in his role as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations

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