10 Interesting Facts About Africa Day

Today we celebrate Africa Day, the day set aside to celebrate the achievements we have made and how far we’ve come as a continent since colonialism. Here in Zimbabwe Africa Day is a public holiday, here are some facts about Africa Day you can reflect on, on this historic day.

1. African freedom day as formerly known was founded during the first conference of Independent African states which attracted African leaders and political activists from various African countries.

2. The purpose of Africa Day was to annually mark liberation movements progress and to symbolize the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation.

3. 1960 was proclaimed the year of Africa in 17 countries. On May 25 1963, 31 African leaders convened a summit meeting to found the Organization of African Unity.

4. African Freedom Day was renamed African Liberation Day, the founding date of OAU is refereed to as Africa Day.

5. The African Union comprises of 53 member states has brought together the continent of Africa to collectively address the challenges it has faced such as armed conflict, climate change and poverty.

6. Only six countries observe Africa as a public holiday, the countries are, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Mali, Namibia, Zambia and Lesotho.

7. The headquarters of African Union is in Adidas Ababa and the Pan African Parliament in South Africa.

8. Every year Africa Day has a different theme and the theme for 2015 is “We are Africa”.

9. Many organizations use an outline of the map of Africa, as a feature to symbolize the day in three pan-African colors which are green, red and black.

10. President Robert Mugabe is the current chairman of the African Union.