News from Berlin

News from Berlin – H.E Ken Nyauncho Osinde, the Ambassador of Kenya to Germany, has decided to organize a Kenyan Diaspora Day in Germany on May 10th. The event will take place in Frankfurt am Main, and aims at gathering the entire Kenyan community in Germany. The event is held in keeping with the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Kenya’s independence, which was gained on December 13th 1963. One year later, the Republic of Kenya was officially proclaimed.

The conference organized by H.E. the Ambassador of Kenya in Mannheim takes place in the framework of the Kenyan “Diaspora Diplomacy”, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kenya has incorporated it as a major pillar of its foreign policy strategy. The event aims at both bringing Kenyans together in order to “mutually work out ways in which [Kenyans] shall engage in building [their] beautiful Country for the future”, as well as reflecting on common history and heritage. The organization of this event is representative of a rather important change of perception of diasporas in the past decades. Indeed, following the blossoming of academic and scholarly publications on the subject, the word “diaspora” itself gradually changed meaning, going from evoking uprooting and exclusion of individuals outside of their country to being synonymous of a transnational community, linked to common identity and the preservation of traditions. If the reality of the phenomenon is complex, it has nonetheless become of growing importance, particularly for developing countries in Africa. Indeed, Diasporas are widely called on to contribute to the nation building of their country of origin, and for example, the Kenyan diaspora contributed in 2011 towards approximately 5% of the country’s GDP.

Events such as the one held by the Embassy of Kenya are therefore aimed at enhancing the feeling of belonging to a community, as well as at strengthening ties between the nation of origins and its diaspora. Moreover, it also contributes to a better understanding between the host nation and the Kenyan nationals, as such events are often open to the general public and display a variety of cultural assets.

To find out more about this event: http://www.embassy-of-kenya.de/

News from Berlin – Berlin Global