Forum supplements Africa lessons

If the only knowledge students have of Africa comes from the daily news and the average high… If the only knowledge students have of Africa comes from the daily news and the average high school textbook, it’s probably not the whole story.

At least that’s what the organizers of yesterday’s Teach Africa Youth Forum, held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center Downtown, maintain.

About 1,900 middle and high school students and 100 teachers from Pittsburgh and West Virginia attended the forum, where a panel of ambassadors and government officials spoke about both serious problems and positive developments currently being made in Africa.

The Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa and the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh organized the event, which was the largest ever educational program on Africa to be held in the Ohio Valley.

Bernadette Paolo, president of The Africa Society, said the program is designed to show students that the continent of Africa is not just something to be taught in social studies, but in literature, art, science and health, as well.

Another purpose of the forum was to dispel misconceptions Americans have about Africa.

“If you just watch television or read the news, you’ll think that the only things that are on the continent of Africa are animals, starving children and war,” Paolo told students.

Florizelle Liser, an assistant U.S. trade representative for Africa, said many people are unaware of the strength and potential of Africa’s economies.

“We trade four times more with Sub-Saharan Africa than we do with all of Eastern Europe,” Liser said.

Liser said she is currently trying to help Africa to produce more of its own goods rather than trade raw materials to more developed countries such as China.

“If you’ve got diamonds you should also be the one selling those beautiful rings,” Liser said.

Thomas Greenfield, an assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau for African Affairs, said he has worked on a government team in partnership with African leaders to end wars in six African countries in the last nine years.

One of those countries was Liberia, which was rapt in civil war for 14 years before it ended in 2006.

In that same year, Greenfield witnessed a free election in Liberia, where thousands of people were in line at 4 a.m. in the rain and mud to cast their votes, electing the first female president of an African nation.

After the forum, students attended sessions on a variety subjects, including U.S.-Africa relations, how to take action in Darfur and African drumming.

At the session on Darfur, David Rosenberg, of the Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition, said this genocide has mobilized more students than any issue since the Vietnam War. He challenged students who do not already have a Darfur awareness group at their schools to create one.

“When you see people are being killed