A 4-day high-profiled symposium on the theme:

'The United States of Africa and forum on the role and place of Africa in global governance' has just concluded in Dakar, Senegal. The symposium was organized by the Senegalese ministry of Foreign Affairs and the University of Cheikh Anta Diop, in collaboration with CODESTRIA. Held at Hotel Meridien from the 27th to the 30th of July 2009, the programme drew together more than 300 participants in over 56 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean.

It was designed to bring together African intellectuals, in the continent and in the Diaspora, policy makers, civil societies, women's groups, and researchers to a common platform, to share their ideas in the drive towards a federal African state. Ebrima Dem, the national representative of the Global Unification Gambia chapter, was one of the participants in that high-profiled intellectual forum. In an exclusive interview with him, the GU-Gambia rep, said the forum was opened by His Excellency, Maitre Abdoulaye Wade, the president of the Republic of Senegal. According to him, President Wade thanked all the delegates for honoring the invitation to take part in the African renaissance.

He (President Wade), reiterated his stance that the only way Africa can compete with other regions of the world is to create federal African states that embrace diversity. According to Dem, Maitre Wade went further to challenge African intellectuals, civil society and NGOs to do more in convincing African political leaders to make the United Sates of Africa dream a political priority. Maitre Wade blamed the African intellectuals for their quiet stance in engaging the African political leaders. "For far too long, African intellectuals do not come out to support African leaders on how to move the continent forward," Wade said.

President Wade's speech was amplified by Prof. Iba Der Thaim, who dilated on the need to create forums of this nature to educate the African masses. Dr. Cheick Tijan Gadio,  Senegalese minister of Foreign Affairs and the brain behind the symposium, talked at length on Africa and on the possibility and prospects of federal government of the proposed United States of Africa. He stressed that for Africa to regain its lost dignity and move out of its current decadence characterized by poverty, marginalisation, xenophobic attack, border conflict, it should create the long awaited United States of Africa, to ensure free movement of goods and persons, developing a single currency for Africa and one passport for all citizens of Africa.

He called on Africans to work together for the common good of the people living in the continent. Gadio also suggested the need to create a 6th region of Africa in federal states that would represent Africans in the diaspora. Other speakers included, Jean Ping, president of African Union authority; Prof. Honorat Aguessy, president of the World Pan African Council; Prof. Francis Nesbit of San Diego University; Prof. Molefi Kete Asante of Temple University among others.   

Each of these speakers talked on Africa's long-term development effort based on the following themes:
* Federalism and African union authority
* Federalism, culture and national languages
* Federalism, economic development and science and technology
* Federalism, Diaspora, civil societies and the African people
* Role and place of Africa in the global governance

Asked what he hoped to do having attended the forum, Dem said he has come with the copies of the resolutions passed at the forum, which he would distribute to various relevant institutions. He added that attending the symposium had availed him the opportunity to learn more about African unity, the role of youth and African intellectuals, and that it would help him in his civil society activities particularly in empowering GU- Gambia in its crusade for the advancement of humanity, especially in strengthening its One voice, One action, One Africa campaign.

The forum, according to the GU representative, led to birth of two pro-pan African associations - the Provisional Pan African Scientific Council on the United States of Africa, a body involving scholars and other stakeholders in African higher education and research and Pan African Youth Alliance on the United States of Africa, which comprises youths from 15 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Europe.