The African Union (AU) has invited the African Diaspora to become “voting members” of the AU so that together African people can move toward
making the unification of the African continent into the reality
called the Union of African States (or United States of Africa) in
the near future.

The AU (through its Executive Council and the implications of its amended constitution) designated the Diaspora as the Sixth Region of Africa (the other five regions are North,
South, East, West and Central Africa).
The African Diaspora consists of the diasporas created by the movement and transfer of
Africans and their descendants throughout the world, to places such as the Americas (including the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America and South America), Europe and Asia. Much of the African Diasporas are descended from people that were sold into slavery during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, with the largest
population living in Brazil.

The mobilization of African Diaspora bodies is an initiative that has been formally mandated by the African Union for the creation of a stronger and meaningful
contribution by Diasporas to the development of the African Continent. This is also aligned with efforts to get the international community to respond and contribute to the overall development of the African Continent.

The initiative for the active implementation of the proposal is a part of the process
mandated by the 2006 African Union Summit in Khartoum that will prepare for, and feed into, the African Diaspora Summit scheduled for 26-27 October 2007 in South Africa.

As part of the preparations for this great opportunity, a number of Regional, Sub
Regional, National and local meetings will be organized for the African Diaspora Community in the several parts of the defined, conceptual Sixth Region.
As in other parts of the world, formal preparation meetings have already taken place such as in the United States of America, Latin America, Brazil, Canada, the Caribbean and in Europe (in the UK and in Holland).

For a summary of the process that has taken place in the Netherlands see vision
paper.

The primary purpose of this document was to provide the African Embassies in European countries with relevant information towards motivating the political and strategic decision-making process necessary to convene the up-coming first AU African Diaspora European Regional “Town Hall” Consultation Assembly. Secondly, it
is to present The Netherlands Model for organizing the Diaspora community as a working reference to possibly adopt in the rest of the European Region. Thirdly, there is a brief synopsis of the history of Dutch economic involvement in the enslavement of African People, and, according to the current Dutch Statistics and Demographic Data, some facts and figures about the different migration “motives” of African People to the Netherlands. Fourthly, a summary of the Diaspora Organizing Method advocated by Holland is presented, in compliance with standing AU guidelines. Finally, recommendations are made, based on this method, for planning the First AU African
Diaspora European Regional “Town Hall” Consultatative Conference
RCC.

On behalf of the AU 6th Region African Diaspora Facilitators Working Group the Netherlands,

Ms Drs Barryl A Biekman

Secretariat Facilitators Working Group
African Diaspora
AU 6th Region Strategy

e-mail: secretariat@AU6thRegionFWG.nl