Featuring:
Mehret Tewolde
Ada Ugo Abara
Mackda Ghebremariam Tesfau’
Elena Ndidi Akilo
Moderated by
Justin Randolph Thompson
Co-founder and Director of Black History Month Florence
NYU Florence Faculty
C.H.A.M.P.S. is a European project launched in 2021 by Amref Health Italia Onlus, Osservatorio di Pavia, CSV Net, Le Reseau, Razzismo Brutta Storia and DiverCity. The project’s objective is to contribute, prevent, analyse and address Afrophobia and anti-migrant hatred in Italy by building on the role of potential targets of Afrophobia in order to transform them into new champions for the promotion of human rights perspectives on the basis of successful Afropean practices and experiences. In this talk, the speaker will discuss the birth of the project, what it consists of and its goals.
A collaboration with Black History Month Florence
Featured Biographies
Mehret Tewolde
Born on 20 May 1965 in Asmara (Eritrea), Mehret Tweold moved to Rome at the age of 13 where her mother immigrated in 1974. She is a business and life coach, and an active member of the cultural association “Le Rèseau”. Prior to being a coach, Ms Tewolde was manager of the IOR (Istituto per le Opere di Religione) in Vatican City, where she worked from 1987 until March 2011.
Ada Ugo Abara
Born in Nigeria and raised in Northern Italy, Ada obtained a BA in Political Sciences, International Relations, and Human Rights at the University of Padova, and an MSc in Development, Cooperation and Innovation in the Global Economy at the University of Turin in 2017. After obtaining her master’s degree, she started working in the field of diaspora engagement and policy making; she is now a project management and implementation consultant, working with different public and private entities.
Mackda Ghebremariam Tesfau’
Born in Verona by Eritrean father and Italian mother, Mackda Ghebremariam Tesfau’ holds a PhD in Social Sciences (Università degli Studi di Padova). In her work she explores racism and anti-racism, attempting in the analysis to combine and make explicit the link between daily practices and systems of domination. Mackda is lecturer for UniverMantova, Iuav, and Stanford University Florence, board-member of Refugees Welcome Italia, associated expert of Razzismo Brutta Storia, and resident curator at Centrale Fies.
Elena Ndidi Akilo
Elena Ndidi Akilo is an artistic programmer and cultural manager. Italian and Nigerian, Elena graduated in Business and Economics at the University of Bologna and received an MA in Culture Studies – Management of the Arts and Culture at the Catholic University of Lisbon. Since 2017, she has been working at the Center for Fine Arts (Bozar) in Brussels. She has also collaborated in several artistic projects and collectives which serve the black communities in Europe ( Afropolitan, Disothering, Looking B(l)ack…) that focus on identity and representation issues and promote anti-racism and decolonialism. She has recently started collaborating as project manager with SPAZIO GRIOT in Rome.