There is a missing link in the global economy and that link is Africa,” said Andrew Young, former United States ambassador to the United Nations, at an informal visit to the Brooklyn Campus on February 5. Together with Yusef Juwayeyi, former Malawian ambassador to the UN, Young spoke to a jam-packed audience on a host of issues related to “Africa, the U.S. and the UN.”

“Through the insight of people like ambassadors Young and Juwayeyi – who have lived in both the United States and Africa – we can hope to understand and improve the conditions of our world,” said Provost Gale Stevens Haynes as she introduced the guests.

Among the topics discussed were U.S. foreign policy toward African nations, the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa and global politics. Young noted that people of African descent in America had the “earning power of about $570 billion annually,” more than the discretionary income of Canada, France and England. Both he and Juwayeyi suggested that Africans and African-Americans should link more closely on economic and social levels to ease poverty and the AIDS crisis in Africa.

A distinguished civil rights activist and ordained minister, Young was a top aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He is on the board of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Non-Violent Social Change and is chairman of Goodworks International, a consulting group that provides strategic services to corporations and governments. He has served as mayor of Atlanta, three-term member of the United States House of Representatives and president of the National Council of Churches.

Juwayeyi, a visiting professor in the Campus’ Department of Sociology/Anthropology, was Malawi’s ambassador in 2001 and has served as his country’s commissioner for culture. He has published extensively in the fields of anthro-pology and history, and co-authored a book with Malawi’s President on a history of their country.