Obviously the best people to talk about the Global Economic and Development of Africa are…. erm, Americans! At least that seems to be the message given off as this year’s African Global Economic and Development Summit in the University of Southern California in Los Angeles had no Africans in attendance!

The conference takes place each year. Business leaders from Africa and the United States are supposed to meet and discuss economic strategies. However, this year, no Africans came! And it wasn’t because they didn’t want to!

Mary Flowers, chair of the committee, said that “around 100 guests, from Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and South Africa, were unable to attend.” because this year no visas had been granted! In previous years about 40 percent of delegates were denied visas!

Flowers said:

“I have to say that most of us feel it’s a discrimination issue with the African nations, we experience it over and over and over, and the people being rejected are legitimate business people with ties to the continent,”

And as per usual, the State Department said that they could not comment on individual cases according to Indy 100.

So, a bunch of Americans had to sit around and make plans with no representation from the country of focus…. hmmmm, sounds familiar!!! What a mess.

Thanks to Okay Africa for the story details. Read more here.