Namibian High Commissioner visits ACSONI ahead of Community Dialogue

Her Excellency Linda Anne Scott, Namibian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and her counterpart His Excellency Kevin O’Neill, Honorary High Commissioner for Namibia in Northern Ireland visited ACSONI during HE Linda Scotts first official visit to Northern Ireland and ROI 27/02/2023 to 28/02/2023

Her Excellency was received by ACSONI Chairperson and Chair of the Racial Equality Subgroup in The Executive Office Dr. Livingstone Thompson, ACSONI Treasurer Lori Gatsi-Barnett and ACSONI staff. The delegation was also joined by Dr Dina Zoe Belluigi , Reader in Critical Higher Education Studies, SSESW, Queen’s University Belfast, and founding member of  the African Scholars Research Network (AfSRN).

Dear valued community members, friends in the sector and colleagues, ACSONI’s Official WhatApp platform is an area where ACSONI & members & others in our networks can receive quick updates on ACSONI’s Services, Activities and products. This group also provides sector news & updates. By joining this group and sharing your phone number you agree that your number will be shared publicly and accessible to all other members of this group. For GDPR transparency..

If you would like to share information about your services, events, organisation or community functions please send your prepared text or graphic to ACSONI WhatsApp number on +44 7311 300397 or send an email to admin@acsoni.org and we will share your information on the platform.

African and Caribbean Community Dialogue for individuals, families, organisations, migrants, refugees, students, mixed race. All welcome!

Opportunities for engagement must be created through consultation with the community. ACSONI [African Caribbean Support Organisation Northern Ireland] is having a series of community dialogues with members of the community representing themselves and/or groups and organisations; the dialogue is to be broad-ranging and inclusive. ACSONI invite all to bring forward their questions, concerns, suggestions and feedback.

Current and ongoing events and attitudes within local and global geopolitics continue to underpin the undermining of development within African/Caribbean/Mixed Race communities across the globe. Within the local context – marginalisation, discrimination and general apathy toward the African & Caribbean communities general wellbeing is statistically documented. The community is burdened with many historical issues pertaining to under representation and lack of socio-economic support which have been exacerbated by the uncertainty accompanying the global pandemic, it’s lasting legacy, the prospect of a European nuclear war and the glaring disparities in the treatment of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from ‘dark skinned’ countries by UK Border Agency, its affiliate organisations and other law enforcement institutions.

Northern Ireland has a growing culturally, geographically and religiously diverse population of migrants from the African/Black Diaspora, including those of mixed race heritage or with linkages to the America’s, the Caribbean and/or Africa. ACSONI is a representative organisation of all people of African descent in Northern Ireland. Due to the economic effects of the global pandemic ACSONI was significantly incapacitated while the world moved on and many changes happened in the community.

The African & Caribbean Community Dialogue is an opportunity for ACSONI to reintroduce ourself to those who know us and introduce ourselves to those who are unaware of who we are, who we represent and what we do. It is more importantly an opportunity for members of the community; individuals, groups, organisations, families, scholars, shop owners, health care workers, refugees and asylum seekers – to voice their concerns, ask their questions, participate in mapping solutions to our collective challenges in an inclusive and sensitive manner.

ACSONI operates at a policy level and this organisational capacity is of benefit to the community if all voices are taken on board and all concerns put on the table. Starting with this community dialogue ACSONI and members of the community, representative organisations and groups can better tackle issues from a grass roots and policy level.

We look forward to seeing you on Friday 10th March at 2 Royal Avenue, Belfast at 430pm. Light beverages will be available including Halaal, Vegetarian and Vegan options.

Please register for the event via the link below, this will help us to ensure we cater for everyone as there is limited capacity.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/african-caribbean-community-dialogue-tickets-559164234277

Registration for online attendees will be available by alternative registration.

“True Facts” online Global Community Dialogue hosted by ACSONI & JoinHer Network as part of their Black History Month Showcase series of events in October 2022 @ with Dr. Jahlani A. H. Niaah – Lecturer/Coordinator University of West Indies & Mutabaruka of ‘The Cutting Edge with Mutabaruk’a . Dr. Jahlani A.H Niaah and Mutabaruka put forth their respective grounds for reparatory justice, cultural fortitude and many other themes surrounding the upliftment and organisation of African people at home on the continent and abroad around the world. Here you will see and hear about the long standing links between Ireland and The Caribbean, Jamaica in particular, exploring the legacy of the British Empire, religion and economic marginalisation steeped in racism and world hegemony. Themes including the importance of ownership of natural resources including the land, fresh water, arable land etc were discussed among many other related topics around Black Ourstory, the present and the future for our collective global community.

“Arts Heritage” Online Global Community Dialogue hosted by  ACSONI & JoinHer Network as part of their Black History Month showcase series of events in October 2022 with Professor Mhoze Chikowero, Department of History UC Santa Barbara. In this reading Professor Chikowero discusses ‘States of Dis/armament: Reading State-making in Africa’s recent History’. A stimulating and honest account of the militaristic exploits of the British empire under the guise of introducing Christianity, civilisation and development to Africans on the continent.The talk interrogates issues such as the weaponisation of culture, religion and education to subjugate an entire people and their descendants. The discussion includes powerful images from Professor Chikowero’s book  ‘African Music, Power, and Being in Colonial Zimbabwe’ published by  Indiana University Press.

A representative of ACSONI enquires of the NIHRC regarding the recently released Lucy Michael Report on Inequalities experienced by Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic & Traveller People in Belfast. Alyson Kilpatrick Chief Commissioner of NIHRC took one for the team!

JMS Immigration Solicitors launched their first Immigration Clinic on Wednesday 8 February 2023 at ACSONI in South Belfast.

The Immigration Clinic is FREE and aims to deal with all immigration matters including Asylum, Refugees, Leave To Remain and varying types of Visas.

The free Immigration Clinic will be held every Wednesday at ACSONI,  1st Floor, 9 lower Crescent, Belfast m, BT7 1NR

The service is a ‘walk-in’ service, no appointment required every Wednesdays from 11am to 1pm.

National Museums NI, in partnership with the African and Caribbean Support Organisation Northern Ireland (ACSONI) and Northern Ireland Museums Council (NIMC), are among 10 UK museum applicants successful in a grant from the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund, which is awarded by the Museums Association. Their project titled, ‘Global Voices, Local Choices’ has secured a grant of £80,187, and will support a dedicated post for 18 months.

The partners will be working to engage marginalised communities availing them a fair opportunity for their community representatives to assert their right to make choices relating to National Museums NI’s World Cultures collections and how they are interpreted. The project will bring diverse cultures and perspectives into Northern Ireland’s local and national museums and will be a learning experience for all partners and participants.

Hannah Crowdy, Head of Curatorial at National Museums NI said:

“We are delighted to be awarded this funding which will enable better community engagement with our collections through a dedicated post. Our ‘Global Voices, Local Choices’ project will raise awareness and understanding of these collections, and how a decolonisation approach can be implemented in a fresh and inclusive way through creativity.

“Recognising the failures of the past, this will be an opportunity of us to deliberately include present marginalised global voices and learn from the expertise within marginalised communities, as we seek to devise a new approach for connecting people with collections, which have a complex legacy but present significant opportunities for promoting understanding and respect and supporting good relations.”

ACSONI quote: Dr Livingstone Thompson, Chair of ACSONI said:

“ACSONI is pleased to be associated with this project. It is only in more recent times that the need to do justice to the memory and heritage of ethnic minorities communities has been appreciated. For centuries, colonial nations gave themselves the right to tell the stories about the life and experiences of people from colonised contexts. The remnant of this self-proclaimed right is preserved in the presence of artefacts in museums and the narratives perpetrated about them. There is growing awareness that this self-proclaimed right must not only be questioned but also that the narratives need to changed and reckon more with what the true owners of these sometimes-ill-gotten artefacts have to say.

This project will give such an opportunity to address errors, injustice and failures relating to the acquisition of artefacts, the stories that are told about them and who is best to tell these stories. It will and ought to explore how the history can be upended so that those who were treated as footnotes in the stories of others can come to tell their own stories.”

Siobhan Stevenson, Director at Northern Ireland Museums Council said:

“Northern Ireland Museums Council are delighted to be partners in this project and will be keen to work with our member museums to engage them and their local communities in this journey of mutual learning and understanding. In sharing collections and creative responses to them, in public museum spaces across Northern Ireland, the project will help to raise awareness of the rich complexity and diversity of cultural heritage and identities in this place, and in doing so will help challenge misconceptions and promote empathy and understanding.”