Philadelphia PA On Saturday, April 21st the African People’s Education and Defense Fund (APEDF) is holding our 7th annual Uhuru Health Festival & Flea Market and April 28 APEDF and Black Star Industries (BSI) in Oakland are hosting the 4th Annual Uhuru Health Fair at our own Akwaaba Hall. The theme from coast to coast is Family • Fitness • Freedom: Putting the Power of African Health in African Hands.
The free all day program in West Philly’s beautiful Clark Park at 43rd and Chester Ave. features live music in the park, fitness workshops including African Kemet Yoga, Zumba, and Soul Line Dance, free health screenings, giveaways, 100 + vendors and the Children’s Circle. Special guest Diakiesse Lungisani, will lead his African dance exercise program “Gettin’ Bodied” to contribute to the fight against diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, which disproportionately kill our people.
The beautiful historic Uhuru House in East Oakland at 7911 MacArthur Blvd. will provide free health screenings, interactive fitness workshops, alternative health services, entertainment, free food, children’s activities, community vendors, and information on APEDF and BSI institutions. We’ll speak to the needs of our community and showcase APEDF and BSI’s leadership .
These events carry out the APEDF mission for African self-determination to address the grave disparities in health, education, economic development, and justice for African people, and carry out the BSI mission to develop commerce by and between the African community.
These programs give our community a way to taste and feel our freedom, to see what a health system looks like when Africans control it and create an economy that works in our interest! Compare that to the oppressive colonial conditions we face daily that make us sick, hungry and poor while the capitalist American health system reaps huge profits at our expense.
In North Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion section, the life expectancy of an African is 20 years less than a white person born in Center City. In Oakland’s Alameda County, African people from birth to age 64 die at rates over two times higher than white people, and infant mortality rates are almost double the county average.
Philadelphia has the highest rates of deep poverty and hunger of any major U.S. city. African women are almost four times more likely to die of complications during pregnancy and delivery than white women. Colonialism destroys the health of the African community and the Uhuru Health Festivals bring the solution — building our own institutions to feed, clothe, and house our people.
The Oakland Health Festival Organizing Committee is committed to building health and economic development programs year-round out of Akwaaba hall and growing our backyard garden. We collaborate with local non-profit organizations, businesses, and health practitioners who promote and provide financial or in-kind support.
In Philly the APEDF Volunteer Team meets every other week to build all our institutions including Uhuru Flea Markets, Uhuru Health Festivals, Uhuru Book Fairs, and Uhuru Furniture.
Join the Uhuru Health Festivals to put crucially needed resources in the hands of our African community, to involve people of all nationalities under African leadership to fight the conditions of colonialism by building liberated African institutions. African self-determination means WE take charge of our individual and collective health, our economy and our future!
