“Africa is not poor. Africa is being looted of natural and human resources! We ask you not to look at Africa with pitying eyes, but with eyes of outrage. We must change the relationship that Africa has with the West!”

These were powerful words from the keynote presentation by Omali Yeshitela which opened the European Foundation for North-South Cooperation's 1st International Congress, entitled "Africa and the West: The Need for New Relationships", held November 14 - 16, 2007 in Huelva, Spain.

This Sunday, December 16, Uhuru Radio will devote it's full broadcast day to excerpts and analysis on the historic conference. Listeners can tune in from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time via the internet at www.uhururadio.com or via telephone by calling 425 905 1825 (U.S.) or 0820 068 4407 (UK).

The day-long broadcast will feature excerpts from conference presenters including Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former Director General of UNESCO; Ms. Aminata Traore, ex-Minister of Culture and Tourism of Mali; Ms. Angelina Muganza, Secretary of State for the Development of Training and Labor in Rwanda; and Dr. Sami Nair, Professor of Political Science at the University of Paris.

Omali Yeshitela is Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party and leader of the Uhuru Movement. Yeshitela is founder of the African Socialist International, which is organizing African people worldwide to build for one united Africa as the solution to the devastating problems facing Africa and African people everywhere.

Yeshitela’s opening keynote address set the tone for entire conference whose focus was on building a new economic and political relationship of Spain with Africa. Throughout his presentation, Yeshitela emphasized the fact that the devastating poverty and crises facing Africa and African people around the world today is the result of more than 500 years of European and American enslavement and colonial extraction.

Based on Yeshitela’s presentation, other speakers addressed Africa in its broader historical context and began to look at solutions beyond charity and U.S. and European aid.

As former UNESCO head Federico Zaragoza acknowledged: “The history of Africa is a history of domination, dependency and lack of solidarity. Once there was independence we should have also given economic, technical and media independence. But we retained the resources. We substituted aid with loans given in terrible conditions out of greed and a lack of solidarity. Instead of economic independence we have made Africa indebted.”