Africa Day Celebrates the Africa We Want

Across the continent and the diaspora, citizens marked Africa Day on 25 May with renewed commitment to the Africa we want. The day commemorates the founding in 1963 of the Organisation of African Unity, the precursor of the African Union, and has become an annual moment to celebrate African unity, culture and progress.

This year the celebrations placed Agenda 2063 at the centre. Schools, universities, youth clubs and community groups held events linking the day's festivities to the seven Aspirations and the seven Moonshots, from prosperity and integration to peace, culture and people driven development.

Africa Day is also a call to participation. The African Union has long emphasised that Agenda 2063 will be delivered, and inherited, by Africa's people, especially its young people, who make up the youngest population of any continent. Citizens were encouraged to learn the vision, share it, and pledge one concrete action toward the Africa they want.

On this platform, the day was marked with a surge of pledges added to the continental Map of Commitments, alongside quizzes, flashcards and games that turn the aspirations into something everyone can learn and act on.