All across this world, especially within the African diaspora, we feel like there is a constant devaluing of our culture and our livelihood.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I've got to where am in life not because of something I brought to the world but through something I found - the wealth of African culture.
In short, we have, among African countries, a duty of solidarity.
We all have that capacity to lose our humanity when circumstances force us to do so. It's not specific to people who live in Africa or Latin America or Asia. And equally, we are capable of regaining ourselves.
It would be good for us Africans to accept ourselves as we are and recapture some of the positive aspects of our culture.
I think when you've travelled around a lot in Africa, you understand something that many people here don't recognize: the extraordinary power that is Africa at village level - at community level.
Our culture is at its best when we protect and encourage the weakest. Every life - at every stage, in every place - has a dignity beyond our imagining.
I grew up in Africa surrounded by a lot of culture. It's made me aware that the world is a big place.
The global community has become irreversibly interdependent, with the constant movement of people, ideas, goods and resources.
At the same, we need to remain sensitive to the reality that we are still an African society in which the majority of the people and communities live under severe deprivations and afflictions that are no fault of theirs.
The culture of philanthropy is alive and very well in Africa. International aid strengthens and extends it, but in the communities where I have spent time, it is all-pervasive.