Over 100 participants from various ethnic and racial backgrounds attended the third annual Pan African Summit, which was held Saturday, October 8th, 2011 at the Center for Families in Minneapolis. The Pan African Council of Minnesota, which is chaired by The Advocates’ Ahmed Sirleaf, is an organization that brings together African immigrants and African Americans across Minnesota to discuss issues of common concerns. This year’s summit focused on wealth creation in the black community in Minnesota. There were two keynote speakers. The first was Lester Collins who is Executive Director of the Council on Black Minnesotans. Mr. Collins focused on the needs of recognizing each other’s strengths as a way of leveraging community assets to create wealth and maintain positive cultural practices. The other speaker was Bethel University sociology professor, Dr. Samuel Zalanga. Dr. Zalanga focused his remarks on the cultural meanings of wealth and described ways in which the two communities could economically and culturally be vibrant. 

Mr. Sirleaf moderated the conference and emphasized the work of the One Voice Minnesota Network. He encouraged participants to join the OVM network as a way of creating welcoming communities in the state.