Africa Day is observed annually to commemorate the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which was created on 25 May 1963. It is the precursor of the African Union (AU).

Africa day provides an opportunity to celebrate the socio-economic achievements of the continent and in line with the African Union Theme for the year 2021 “Arts Culture and Heritage: Levers for Building the Africa We Want, this year’s Africa Day activities celebrated the diversity of Africa’s culture and heritage and our shared values  enshrined in the spirit of pan-Africanism.

Africa Day has become a day of celebration for Africans and people of African descent all over the world and has even morphed into Africa Month which is celebrated throughout the month of May. In the May issue of the AU Monthly Bulletin, we covered Africa Day celebrations at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa in Brussels and in Burkina Faso. This month, we continue with more coverage of other celebratory activities

The Information and Communication Directorate (ICD) launched a digital campaign to share interesting facts about the Continent, the AU Member States as well as to celebrate achievements by Africans

The false impression about Africa’s true size was reinforced through the use of maps designed centuries ago which distorted shapes and sizes and made areas far from the equator such as Europe and North America appear larger than they actually were #AfricaDay pic.twitter.com/qh4FTmQRbh

— African Union (@_AfricanUnion) May 25, 2021

The ICD also partnered with  Twitter to launch a special Africa Day emoji to create an avenue for users on the social media platform across the world to share how they were celebrating Africa Day. The Africa Day emoji was in the  6 official AU languages ( English, French, Swahili, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish.).  

We have partnered with @TwitterGov again this year to celebrate #AfricaDay

Share with us how your celebrating by using our special #AfricaDay emoji pic.twitter.com/iB1iPs8jnD

— African Union (@_AfricanUnion) May 25, 2021

The Women, Gender and Youth Directorate (WGYD) youth division partnered with TikTok and Trace TV to celebrate Africa Day through a half month-long digital campaign titled #IAmAfrican. in line with the AU 2021 Theme. The campaign aimed to: -

• Celebrate and highlight the different and creative identities of young people across Africa and the diaspora through the lens of arts, culture, and heritage. 
• Mobilize young people across Africa and the diaspora to creatively express their interpretation of the #IAmAfrican theme and encourage their peers to do the same for a catalytic effect.    
• Discuss pathways to reimagine African identity alongside thought-leaders and celebrities in the arts, culture, and heritage sector.  
• Creatively capture and amplify the voices of young people through digital and new media such as Tik Tok, and create archival content. 

TikTok users took part in the campaign by creatively expressing their views on what makes them proudly African across various categories, fashion, makeup, dance, food, and music. 

In addition an Africa day Dance challenge was held with  over 100,000 youth, participating

The @AUYouthProgram + @TikTokForGood & @TRACENaija have joined forces to celebrate #AfricaDay

Join in on the fun!!!
Make a video and share what makes you proudly African on @tiktok_us using #IAmAfrican

Follow @AUYouthProgram for live updates. pic.twitter.com/pRn0QUFnvl

— African Union (@_AfricanUnion) May 25, 2021

As part of the commemorative activities for Africa Day, the Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department(PAPS) commemorated the 1000th Meeting of the Peace and Security Council since its launch in 2004. The commemoration ceremony honored the heroes and heroines; civilians, police and military who paid the ultimate price for peace and stability across Africa. It was led by the Chairperson of the Permanent Representative Committee (PRC), Amb Jean-Leon Ngandu llunga, the Chairperson of the AU Peace and Security Council H.E Amb. Salah Francis Elhamdi, and the Commissioner of the Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department, Amb Adeoye Bankole.

Zero Malaria starts with me

The #ZeroMalariaStartsWithMeCampaign on Africa day celebrated the African Union member states who have rolled out the campaign, which aims to close #malaria information gaps and improve the participation of communities in ‎‎the journey to #zeromalaria. Malaria continues to claim the lives of more than 435 000 people each year, largely in Africa. Children under 5 years are especially vulnerable and the fact that every two minutes a child dies from this preventable and curable disease is both tragic and unacceptable.

In support #Zeromalaria, MTV Base, YouTube and the actor Idris Elba hosted the 2^nd annual Africa Day concert to drive global action and support for ending malaria in Africa. The virtual Pan African event featured trailblazing African stars from across the continent with messages of support and encouragement for sustainable action on how to eliminate Malaria.

Street Hearts - Two continents, one beat

To celebrate Africa day, the delegation of the European Union to the African Union celebrated art & creativity, to showcase the people cooperation in the AU -EU partnership.

Following an open call, four talented street artists from Africa and Europe were selected to paint murals. The artists honoured the themes of unity in diversity and of partnership through the universal language of art, in line with the African union theme of year “Arts Culture and Heritage.

The 4 artists are:

From Africa: Wesley Van Eeden - South Africa, Mohammed Awudu - Ghana

From Europe: Maria Peña Coto – Spain, Edoardo Trionfera – Italy

The murals can be found around Addis-Ababa on three walls under the Pushkin Round-about, Roosevelt Street and on the office building of the Delegation of the EU to the AU.