UMass hosts Pan African forum with Cuba as focus

The Boston Pan African Forum and the National Network on Cuba joined together Oct. 13 for a conference at UMass Boston on Cuba, Haiti and the wider Caribbean. Two goals expressed were removing Cuba from the State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism and ending the U.S. blockade against the country. After Barack Obama reopened diplomatic relations in 2016, Donald Trump’s administration added 243 new crippling sanctions against Cuba and placed it on the terrorism list.

Dr. Veronique Helenon, Dr,Jemadari Kamara, Dr. Keith Jones, Gail Walker. PHOTO: TONY VAN DER MEER

Speakers at the forum included Yasser Ibarra and David Ramirez, first and second secretaries of the Cuban Embassy in Washington; Marciel Reves Aquilera from the University of Oriente in Santiago de Cuba; Jemadari Kamara of UMass Boston; and Alix Cantave, senior program officer of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Moderating was Tony Van Der Meer of the UMass Boston Africana Studies Department, which hosted the 13th annual Boston Pan African forum.