Africa Awareness

Bridging cultures, fostering understanding, and creating meaningful connections between Morehouse students and the African continent for over 25 years.

Our History

For 25 years, Morehouse's Africa Awareness Week (AAW) has engaged students in meaningful projects across the African continent. Guided by principles that emphasize positive narratives, integrated learning, and tangible outcomes, AAW has successfully executed impactful programs including reforestation brigades, the Morehouse Pan-African Global Experience (MPAGE) study abroad and research initiatives, and a solar energy project funded by the National Science Foundation in partnership with Kwame Nkrumah University.

Collaborations with 26 faculty members, administrators, and students from eight Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), alongside unions represented by the A. Philip Randolph Institute, have enriched our efforts through workshops and service-learning opportunities.

Under the leadership of Dr. Cynthia Hewitt, Avalon Professor of Sociology and Chair of International Comparative Labor Studies at Morehouse College, we uphold the vision that our contributions are rooted in the discovery of our own truths, making collaboration with us uniquely meaningful.

Our Guiding Principles

Push the Positive

AAW is an opportunity to counteract dominant negative discourse about Africa.

Integrate Learning

Engage with people and ideas from the African experience we read about.

Do Something Tangible

Turn energy and knowledge into concrete actions and results.

Our Motto

"We are here to learn. We are not here to teach."

Dr. Cynthia Hewitt, Ph.D.

Avalon Professor of Sociology
Chair, Int. Comparative Labor Studies
Morehouse College

A Statement from our Director

"Our work signals that we are not just followers of the global discourse on sustainability but black scholars having found some of our own truths, which is why it is worthwhile to work with us and not just anybody."

Africa Awareness Week began as a thirst to imbue and take in African culture. We seek to no longer live in ignorance of what the "African" in African-American means. We seek to utilize new science and tech to bring life to old wisdom.

We are in Africa to unbury the truth. We're not there to "teach the natives" although we contribute what knowledge we have. We uphold and nurture the African ethical heritage of right and wrong. It is prior to western appropriated ethics.

We are heirs of Cheikh Anta Diop and believe that it is important to always cite him, and equally, Kwame Nkrumah.

Our key finding is that African society was historically a balanced female-male dual gender system, which is usually called "matriarchy." The principles upheld - PEACE, REPRODUCTION, and COLLECTIVITY UPON THE LAND - are precisely those things which were crushed by empires and colonialism. We look to our Queen Mothers and Good Governance initiative to guide our path and our work on the continent.

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