Ndongo Samba Sylla (PhD) is a Senegalese Development Economist. He is currently a Senior Research and Program Manager at the West Africa office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Dakar). He authored The Fair Trade Scandal. Marketing Poverty to Benefit the Rich (Pluto Press & Ohio University Press 2014) and co-authored Africa’s Last Colonial Currency. The CFA Franc Story (Pluto Press 2021). He is a co-editor of Economic and Monetary Sovereignty for 21st century Africa (Pluto Press 2021) and of Revolutionary Movements in Africa. An Untold Story (Pluto Press 2023). He is the editor of Imperialism and the Political Economy of Global South’s Debt (Emerald 2023). Sylla is four-time World Champion of French-speaking Scrabble. He tweets at @nssylla

Dr. Amara Enyia is a Strategist, Public Policy Expert and Social Impact professional on city and state policy as well as international affairs with expertise in Africa, Latin America, and Central

Asia.

In addition to her role as President of transnational advocacy

organization Global Black, she also serves as the Manager of Policy & Research for the Movement for Black Lives, Senior Advisor for the

Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy at The New School, and as a Strategy Advisor for organizations, companies, political campaigns, and public sector institutions globally. She is a Leader-in-Residence for Policy and Change with the Atlantic Institute. Dr. Enyia also serves as Chairwoman of the International Working Group for the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.

Her strategy and policy work connects her to the 6th Region of the African Union Commission and she is member of the 2020-2022 cohort with the London School of Economics Executive

Program in Cities. Prior to her current roles, she worked in the Mayor’s Office for the City of Chicago and served as Executive Director of community-based organizations. As a grassroots

organizer she worked on issues of education equity, economic justice, and environmental justice.

Amara holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and bachelor’s degree in Political Science. She also holds a master’s degree in education, a masters degree in Cities from the London School of Economics, a law degree, and a PhD in Education Policy with a specialization in Evaluation. She serves on the Board of the Pakistan Journal of Urban Affairs, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, and Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives Microfinance Group. She also serves on the National Advisory Board of the Public Banking Institute and is a 2022 inductee into the Illini Media Company Hall of Fame. Dr. Enyia maintains proficiency in Igbo, Spanish, French, and Portuguese and was named a Public Policy Global Leadership Fellow with the Global Strategists Association.

She is President of the Permanent Forum on Afro-descendant people of the United Nations, President of the High-Level Commission on Mental Health and COVID-19 of PAHO, Member of the Jury of the Human Fraternity Award, Vice President of the Republic of Costa Rica (2018-2022), the first Afro-descendant woman to occupy this high position in the Americas, Afro-Costa Rican leader, two-time Congresswoman and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship. 

She is the main proponent of the Global Coalition Against Systemic Racism and for Reparations. Honorary Doctor of Humanities of Humanities from Brenau University. She graduated as an economist and holds two master's degrees: one in International Development Cooperation and the other in Advanced Management and Policy Decision Techniques. Lecturer and international researcher on issues of Social Inclusion, Human Development and Welfare, Antiracism, Women, and Human Rights, among others, in different universities and seminars organized by intergovernmental and multilateral organizations, as well as public institutions, electoral institutes, political parties in America and the Caribbean, and non-governmental organizations. 

She has been recognized by the Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) as one of the most important women of African descent in the world, in addition to receiving the "Lifetime Achievement Award" from Justice in recognition of her work for the rights of people of African descent, received recognition from Forbes Magazine as one of the most powerful women in Latin America and the Caribbean (2019), by Estrategia y Negocios Magazine as one of the most influential women in the region (2019), by the African Renaissance and Diaspora Network as one of the most relevant Afro-descendant leaders in the region (2019). 

She was the coordinator of the Network of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean Women; coordinator of the Women's Forum for Central American Integration; Member and Founder of the Center of Afro-Costa Rican Women, Founder of the Black Parliament of the Americas and Founder of the Women's Forum for Central American Integration. She was a proponent in Costa Rica of the approval of the Inter-American Convention against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Forms of Intolerance (2016); a member of the Committee that prepared the "Regional Human Development Report (IRDH) for Latin America and the Caribbean: Multidimensional Progress" (2016) coordinated by UNDP; director of more than fifteen international research and author of 20 publications on social inclusion.