By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
Gov. Wes Moore (D) officially recognized September 2024 as African Heritage Month in Maryland. The proclamation highlights what African immigrants have and continue to contribute to the state economically and socially.
According to the governor’s office, 10 percent of Marylanders are African-born. Maryland is also home to the fourth-largest population of African immigrants living in the U.S., according to the George Mason University Institute for Immigration Research.
At the announcement on Sept. 10, Moore recognized the state’s history concerning Africans and African Americans.
“There is a power in understanding that this building that we are standing in was built by enslavement,” said Moore at the Maryland State House.
Moore recognized that the slaves who built the Maryland State House are those “whose stories are oftentimes not known, whose portraits are not emblazoned and frankly whose sacrifices have not always been celebrated.”
Chukwunonso “Vincent” Iweanoge, chair of the Governor’s Commission on African Affairs, thanked and commended the governor for standing by Maryland’s African community.
The Governor’s Commission on African Affairs was created in 2009 in part to respond to the needs and concerns of Maryland’s African immigrants.
Iweanoge pressed that Moore is not just a politician, but a leader.“Politicians are the ones that will work for the next election and do the things that are not controversial,” said Iweanoge. “The leaders are the ones that do the things that are necessary, even if it is not going to get them elected.”