IMPORTANT NOTE: The Saturday, May 23 African Liberation Day Celebration scheduled for Baltimore’s Lafayette Square Park had to be cancelled due to the inclement weather. The wet and soft ground, which prevented the construction of the stage, and the constant, incessant rain, which made running electrical equipment for the sound system impossible, forced the organizers to cancel the event. Camp Harambee The People and its founder, Baba Charlie Dugger, hoped to see the community at their June 20 Fatherhood and Manhood Celebration at MUND Park, Greenmount Avenue at 24th Street in central Baltimore.
Every year on May 25, African Liberation Day (ALD), originally dubbed Africa Day, commemorates the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) on May 25, 1963. That accomplishment announced the determination of the nations of Afrika to free themselves from the yoke of colonialism and establish political independence. This, of course, was only partially accomplished, as the countries of Western Europe and the United States ushered in a new era of neocolonialism in which African leaders were often reduced to the role of puppets for the former colonial powers while strong, independent leaders like Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, Amilcar Cabral, Patrice Lumumba and Thomas Sankara were overthrown and often assassinated, to be replaced by puppet leaders easily manipulated or outright controlled by the Western powers.
Still, the significance of the OAU, which was succeeded by the African Union (AU) in 2001, cannot be understated, because the movement for Afrikan unity, freedom and self-determination was not stopped and will never be stopped. African Liberation Day is commemorated across the globe at the end of May, usually on the last Saturdays of the month.
Celebrations may take on different personalities depending on where they are held and who the organizers are. Sponsors of these events are as varied as Baltimore’s Camp Harambee The People, UNIA-ACL Division 106 Barca-Clarke and Maryland Council of Elders; Washington, DC’s Odd Fellows Hall and UNIA-ACL RC2020; the All African People’s Revolutionary Party across the United States and others. The feeling at these commemorations can range from community-centered expressions of family, Black pride, culture and heritage to fiery exhortations for revolutionary resistance to White supremacy and oppression. For the most part, the day often is used to educate and rally grassroots communities to the need for community uplift as well as Pan Afrikan resistance.
The Web site https://africanliberationday.net introduces ALD thus:
ALD was founded in 1958 when Kwame Nkrumah convened the First Conference of Independent States held in Accra, Ghana and attended by eight independent African states. The 15th of April was declared “Africa Freedom Day,” to mark each year the onward progress of the liberation movement, and to symbolize the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation.
Between 1958 and 1963 the nation/class struggle intensified in Africa and the world. Seventeen countries in Africa won their independence and 1960 was proclaimed the Year of Africa. Further advances were made with the defeat of U.S. imperialism in Asia and the Caribbean. Imperialism responded to this tide of victories by assassinating revolutionary leaders and sending U.S. troops to Viet Nam. On the 25th of May 1963, thirty-one African Heads of state convened a summit meeting to found the Organization of African Unity (OAU). They renamed African Freedom Day “African Liberation Day” and changed its date to May 25th.
Since then, the world has witnessed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah, the US invasion of Cuba, the US move to crush liberation movements in Asia, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan; the overthrow of the Democratic Party of Guinea, the US invasion of Grenada, the US bombing of Libya, and the overthrow of Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso. This period had marked a temporary setback for the Pan-African movement and since 1966, was characterized by a lull in ALD activities. Neo-colonialism was imposed upon the people as the new stage of the capitalist, imperialist strategy in Africa.
Out of the intensification of the nation/class struggle, a new generation of African youth emerged and reaffirmed their African personality, history and their Pan-African objectives. This youth was the product of Malcolm X, Sister M’balia Camara, Patrice Lumumba, Frantz Fanon and the countless generations before them. Links were made and maintained with Kwame Nkrumah. Understanding the need for clear and precise ideological and organizational direction for the Pan-African movement, Nkrumah published Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization (1963), Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare (1968), and Class Struggle in Africa (1970). The ideas of Nkrumah infused the Black Power Movement (1960-1972).
Nkrumah taught us, “The total liberation and unification of Africa under an All-African Socialist Government must be the primary objective of all Black revolutionaries throughout the world. It is an objective which, when achieved, will bring about the fulfillment of the aspirations of Africans and people of African descent everywhere. It will at the same time advance the triumph of the international socialist revolution.”
Here, we are announcing an African Liberation Day event scheduled for Saturday May 30 at the Odd Fellows Hall in Sandy Spring, Maryland.
AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY CELEBRATION IN SANDY SPRING, MARYLAND: SATURDAY, MAY 30
On Saturday May 30, the Odd Fellows Lodge and the UNIA-ACL RC2020 will hold their African Liberation Day commemoration in Sandy Spring, Maryland. Their announcement reads as follows:
African Liberation Day 2026 – Odd Fellows Lodge & UNIA-ACL RC2020
Saturday, May 30⋅12:00 – 8:00pm
At the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows Lodge #6430
1308 Olney Sandy Spring Rd, Sandy Spring, MD 20860, USA
Africa Day 2026, marking the 63rd anniversary of the Organization of African Unity (OAU/AU) — marked on Monday, May 25, 2026 — will be celebrated by the Brothers of the Odd Fellows Lodge #6430 and the UNIA-ACL RC2020 Division 330. This annual holiday celebrates African (and People of African Decent) unity, diversity, and progress, with major events scheduled globally and across the continent.
We hope you will be able to check out this event or another ALD commemoration wherever you find yourselves in the world.
As part of the annual series of spring-summer events from Camp Harambee The People’s Motherhood & Womanhood Celebration was held in May 9 at the Wall of Pride and Respect, Carey-Cumberland Park, 1641 N. Carey Street.
The Organization W.O.M.A.N. (Working, Organizing, Making A Nation) was founded by Mwalimu Locy Lumumba after his return to the shores of the United States following the Vietnam War, where he learned the principles of Black Nationalism and anti-imperialist resistance from his experiences there and from elder Brothers who had been caught up in that conflict. Since that time (and even before), Mwalimu has been a consistent “soldier” for Pan Afrikan Nationalist liberation in the United States, centered on his home base of Baltimore, Maryland. W.O.M.A.N. has for decades been a beacon of Black Love, Black Discipline, Black Organization, Black Resistance and Black Excellence, perhaps best exemplified through the community-outreach and self-defense teachings he provides, often free of charge, through their martial arts class, Njia Ya Tayari.
