THE AFRICAN PEOPLES’ FORUM

Eugene Puryear is a longtime journalist and community organizer currently-based in New York City. Puryear is the author of Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America, He is currently the host of BreakThrough News, a social justice media project based in New York. Puryear previously hosted “By Any Means Necessary” a public affairs radio program in Washington D.C. 

Paul Sankara is a member of the Committee Against Impunity in Burkina Faso. He is a Washington DC based consultant and does work on anti-imperialist education. He is also the brother of Thomas Sankara, the former Burkina Faso President, a Pan-African revolutionary who was assassinated in 1987. 

Elias Amare is a journalist who is editor of Horn of Africa TV. He is also a founding member of the Asmara-based Peacebuilding Center for the Horn of Africa. A veteran political activist of the Eritrean struggle, Elias is also a
Pan-Africanist deeply interested in the “New Horn of Africa vision.”

Jacqueline Luqman is the co-organizer of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the Black Alliance for Peace. She is also the co-host of the daily radio show By Any Means Necessary on Radio Sputnik, host of Luqman Nation on Black Power Media on Youtube. Jacqueline focuses on political analysis of domestic and international politics affecting the working class, poor, and colonized peoples.

Simon Tesfamariam is a medical doctor, writer and political analyst with a history of organizing centered around Eritrea, the Horn of Africa and the global Pan-African community. He is a co-founder of the #NoMore Movement. He currently serves as the executive director of the New Africa Institute.

Kamau Franklin is a former practicing attorney, co-chair of the National Conference of Black Lawyers. He was the first Legal Program Director of New York City Police-Watch, establishing the first watchdog accountability organization of its kind in New York. Franklin is also the co-founder of Black Power Media which seeks to challenge the narrative about Black politics and the Black condition. 

Erica Caines is a coordinating committee of The Black Alliance For Peace and a member of the Black working-class centered Ujima People’s Progress Party in Maryland. Caines is the founder of Liberation Through Reading and is also co-editor of the Revolutionary African blog, Hood Communist.

Nebiyu Asfaw is a social justice advocate in Denver. He is the co-founder of the Ethiopian American Development Council and the #NoMore global movement. Nebiyu received the “African Americans Who Make a Difference” award in 2019, from the Denver Urban Spectrum for promoting social justice. He can be reached at nebiyuasfaw@gmail.com.

Sean Blackmon is an activist, organizer and broadcaster living in Washington, D.C. He has taken an active role in anti-imperialist, international solidarity movements, serving as a mainstay in struggles against police misconduct and mass incarceration in the nation’s capital. He is currently co-host of By Any Means Necessary on Radio Sputnik. 

Imani Countess directs the U.S.-Africa Bridge Building Project, a new initiative launched in January 2021. The Bridge Building Project links economic equality activists and social movements to strengthen collective efforts for tax justice at all levels of the global economy. Imani has worked with US-based Africa advocacy, development, and social justice organizations for more than 30 years and was awarded an Open Society Foundations Economic Inequality Fellowship in 2019.

Elias Hiruy is an Ethiopian American organizer with the American Ethiopian Public Affairs Committee (AEPAC) who leads efforts to mobilize African peoples voting blocks across the country, particularly in the Washington DC area. He is an active advocate for fair and equitable US foreign policy in Africa.

Karanja Gaçuça is a Kenyan journalist based in the U.S. He is a publisher on thebriefscoop.com and executive director of Panafricmedia.org. Karanja played a key organizing role during Occupy Wall Street but saw a glaring racial gap in the advocay that fuels his current work. Karanja uses new media to break down stereotypical perceptions of African peoples both on and off the continent.

Hermela Aregawi is an Ethiopian American journalist and organizer. She reported and anchored for several news outlets including Al Jazeera America, Current TV and most recently CBS Los Angeles. Hermela is a co-founder of the #NoMore global movement which serves to resist exploitation through disinformation, division & war. Hermela also founded Eyes on Africa News EOANews.com to tell stories about Africa from the perspective of the African people.

Yolian Ogbu is an Eritrean American organizer, writer, and member of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party. She produces political education materials and analysis on the Horn of Africa.