A nonprofit calling itself the African Union Day Foundation is soliciting national artifacts and political backing for what it describes as an inaugural Museum of Africa exhibition in New York City, according to a “Save the Date” message the group circulated to New York officials on May 25.
In the message, the foundation said it had sent a formal letter to African ambassadors at the United Nations in New York and in Washington, D.C., inviting their governments to contribute national artifacts to the planned exhibition. The group said that within 48 hours of receiving the letter, several ambassadors had praised the initiative and pledged their countries’ official endorsement and support. The foundation did not name the ambassadors or governments involved, and those claims could not be independently confirmed.
The foundation described the effort as a cultural and diplomatic initiative meant to strengthen Africa’s global image and to promote tourism, investment and what it called people-to-people engagement with the continent. It said the project was led by African immigrants in New York who want to correct what the group characterized as long-standing misconceptions about Africa as a travel destination. The continent remains underrepresented in global tourism, the foundation said, asserting that France alone draws as many tourists each year as all of Africa combined — a comparison borne out by UN Tourism data showing France with about 102 million international arrivals in 2024 against roughly 74 million for the entire continent.
The group tied the exhibition to Daylight Africa, also referred to as Africa Open House, which it described as a weeklong, continent-wide annual promotion running September 2 through 9 to showcase African culture and tourism. The foundation said it would send a formal invitation to the inaugural exhibition in April 2026, but its message did not specify a venue, an opening date or the borough where the exhibition would be held.
The outreach was signed from the African Union Day Foundation under the name Daylight Africa and sent from a Gmail address. The message did not include a website, a phone number or the name of an individual organizer, and it did not point to any confirmed institutional partner, public agency or developer associated with the project.
