“Europe will, with increased resources, pursue the implementation of one of the fundamental tasks: the development of the African continent.”

Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister

If it is true that all stories have a beginning, the story of africaeuropa.it comes from this sentence of the Schumann Declaration, written on May 9, 1950; the first spark of the European integration project.

A document – we must not forget – written in a delicate moment in the history of relations between the two continents, while the yoke of colonianism was still present and heavy. And it is why when I reread those lines, sixty years later, I had the urge to rediscover the value of this idea, written by the fathers of Europe in their constitutive act, aware of how the future of the two continents is tied, today more than ever.

Connections that, in order to grow, need a new grammar and new lenses that go beyond those perverse logics of colonialism that we all were used to. Talking about Africa and Europe today does not mean only about security, trade or controversial political relations, but it’s also about more and more reciprocal cultural, environmental and human influences. Influences that go in both directions and through routes that the media not always manage to intercept.

The Senegalese president and poet Leopold Sedar Senghor

The logo chosen for AfricaEuropa is not accidental: the “a” and “e” letters hug together and they want to summarize our wish to give our small contribution to reach, one day, that authentic peer relationship that the Senegalese President and poet Senghor called “appointment of giving and receiving“.

AfricaEuropa will try to make a contribution that will be, above all, an information input and consideration through editorials, interviews and insights. Ideas that can expand thanks to your comments.

Without claiming to be an all-news channel, we would ike to simply offer some ideas that will help to clarify and build bridges. Because the basics of any relationship can only be mutual understanding.