The African Descent Society, British Columbia (ADSBC) is a non-profit organization registered under the BC society registry  with an office address at #777-600 Hornby Street. Vancouver BC; located at Downtown Vancouver historic city for People of African Descent (PAD) community. The ADSBC is an art and culture organization whose main mission to promote art and culture for the people of African descent and advocating the International Decade for People of African Descent and UNESCO’s General History of Africa Project in Vancouver, BC and Canada. ADSBC signed a collaboration agreement with office of United Nation general assembly of public affairs to promote the UN International Decade for People of African Descent and UNESCO General History of Africa. ADSBC has been operating in Vancouver for several years in a small office at Hogan’s Alley with no official central cultural space in Vancouver to serve the community and a space we can call African Descent Cultural Centre in Vancouver to archive our history.

ADSBC empowers and advocates for the social, economic and cultural development of PAD in British Columbia and Canada. It seeks to foster tolerance for, promotion of, as well as the preservation of the varieties of African descent cultures, customs, values, history, arts, heritage, and ways of life within Canada.  The ADSBC has, at its short-term goal, the acquisition of a space for setting up an African Descent Cultural Centre, to be called the African Descent Cultural Centre Vancouver (ADCCV) that will serve as a legacy for Vancouver’s PAD community. Its long-term goal is the expansion of the ADCCV into a state of the art complex that will meet the expanding needs of the PAD community.

The ADSBC works to produce and present cultural, heritage, educational and social events that profile and celebrate Canadians of African descent and to acquire all real and personal property, which the Society shall deem necessary or convenient to carry out its purposes. The ADSBC intends to connect and better serve all PAD and the general public through this vision.  The ADSBC is a well-known and established organization that was started by Yasin Kiraga Misago as a founder to revive Black Canadians Cultural Association, which was started by the late Honorable Emery Barnes, Roger B Jones,Lawyer Paul win and many notable African Descent people who left organization after the death of Emery Barnes in 1988.The organization was revived in 2014 by Yasin Kiraga Misago assisted by Terry Hunter, Vicent Fodera as United Black Canadian Community Association and has undergone rehabilitation to become African Descent Society BC to carry out the original mission, which is to create a cultural centre for PAD in Vancouver. Yasin and other notable PAD came together in Vancouver and having learnt the history of African Descent, they realized the need to consult the community to create African Descent space to document, archive history and run social innovation programmes mentioned already but until now there is no public space by the organization and the community at large.

The ADSBC is governed by a solid Board of Directors and the project is led by a team of experts from both the African and Canadian communities, as well as experienced staff consultants (please refer to the attached list for project management team).  The project team is made of five volunteer experts assisted by two paid consultants.  We also have over one hundred volunteers that help us in our community and cultural programming, including festivals, conferences, community historical tours, a webmaster /web-designer, etc.  The ADSBC’s activities include cultural programmes, such as cultural community connections through dialogues and African festivals, art entertainment including music, dance, sport, games, poetry, storytelling, and many other activities that promotes African arts, culture and heritage.  We also have seniors and elders community engagement activities as part of the community cultural services, as well as intercultural activities through sports programmes (example soccer) for youth and adults.  

The ADSBC provides cultural services programmes and social innovation to the PAD community as well as to the community at large. Among the many programmes run by ADSBC for past years include; organize African Descent Festival, history travelling exhibition, Strathcona heritage walking tour, research and history programmes, UN International decade for people of African Descent, pioneered the Conversation and advocate for recognition of PAD after the Viaduct, Black history month in 28 communities in BC, Youth engagements and drumming, ADSBC restored AME Church in temporary place bring back people to Strathcona. Geographically, the ADSBC is rooted in multiple locations in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, but its mandate extends to the whole of British Columbia.  We engage our communities and audiences through several art and cultural programmes, such as the Black Strathcona, Vancouver Moving Theater, the Black Dot Poetry, the black community cultural historical walk/tour and community gatherings for elders who used to live in Hogan’s Alley, etc.  We organize the African Descent Festivals and activities every summer. Training, learning, and research are also conducted in our shared office in the vicinity of Hogan’s Alley.