Many U.S. cities have become a cherished home for diaspora communities. In Providence, the city’s prominent Cape Verdean community started to arrive in the mid-1800s through New England’s whaling industry. According to the Migration Policy Institute, there are 99,000 African diaspora members in Dallas, 94,000 in Minneapolis, 43,000 in Columbus, 15,000 in Detriot, and 5,000 in Durham.
Once diaspora communities are established in the United States, they often become rich focal points for African festivals, music, food, and art in major metropolitan areas throughout the country.
Detroit has hosted the African World Festival for more than three decades,attractingover 125,000 people every year. Similarly, the annualSpirit of Africaat the Seattle Center brings to life the “richness, diversity, and joyfulness” of African music and dance. In Columbus, there are Somali and Ghanaian cultural events, including the Columbus African Festival, whichaimsto “unite immigrants while introducing their ways of life to the rest of the city.” Georgia Tech stagedAfrica Atlanta 2014, a year-long series of art exhibits, lectures, performances, and conferences that was designed to reshape the relationship between Africa, Europe, and the Americas.
Beyond festivals and cultural events, many cities in the United States and across Africa have established rewarding exchanges with African institutions. For example, there are partnerships between Albuquerque’s ABQ BioPark and Cote d’Ivoire’s Zoo National d’Abidjan and also between Zoo Boise and Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique.
But perhaps the most symbolic form this exchange takes is through sister cities, which foster strong people-to-people ties across the Atlantic. Nine of the 15 cities featured in this project have sister-city relations, which can create lasting ties in both of the communities involved. Lukonde Mulenga, who studied at University of Michigan,sharedthat her father traveled from Kitwe, Zambia, a sister city to Detroit, on “a dare” and forged a lasting family connection to the city and state.
