Next spring, the Sweet Mother Tour (SMT) will host its first annual conference entitled “Youth and the New Pan-African Renaissance: Rebuilding Africa for the 21st Century.” The conference will draw together youth activists, artists, scientists, educators and entrepreneurs from Africa and the Diaspora to engage with global leaders in African development in a dialogue about the future of the African continent.

The conference will serve as a platform to present the work of the SMT and its partners towards the betterment of African youth worldwide. Participants will depart with practical tools that will empower them to develop peer networks of practice – networks that will facilitate local, regional and trans-national collaboration between people engaged in the development of African communities.

The SMT Conference will feature three main elements:
1. A 2 day conference exploring the role of youth in the building of a “21st Century Africa”
2. A film festival presenting works that look at the impact of popular culture on young people in Africa and the African Diaspora
3. A closing musical concert/festival featuring major artists from Africa, the Caribbean and N. America.

The inaugural conference will explore five primary themes:
1. African Image & Identity
2. Technology
3. Economic Empowerment & Public Health
4. Education
5. Arts & Culture

Sessions focusing on each of these themes will feature presentations by youth leaders in their respective fields, as well as by established and pioneering new ventures in the for-profit and non-profit worlds.

We have identified one area, Music, which will be addressed within each of the five themes. In the evenings the conference will feature films that explore the impact of popular culture and particularly Hip Hop, on young people in Africa and around the Diaspora.

The conference will close out with a day-long musical festival featuring major artists from Ghana, Jamaica, and the United States. This festival will serve as a prototype for the SMT World Tour 2007 – a four-month jaunt through Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and North America, that will feature local, regional and international stars from Africa and the Diaspora in a celebration of global African youth culture.

Participants will leave the SMT Conference equipped with:
? A greater understanding of the challenges facing African youth in today’s world
? Further perspective on ongoing youth-led work to address these challenges
? Practical tools to facilitate participation in this ongoing work, as well as the development of new initiatives.

Want to get involved in the SMT Conference? Email fam@sweetmother.org with your contact info and visit www.sweetmother.org for more information.