Photo by Michael Tubes Creation

By JULIUS MBALUTO

EMY Africa, a Pan-African platform has brought to focus the African success stories. It's Landmark Activation event at UK Parliament and Exclusive Soiree at London Hilton Park Lane Hotel strengthened UK- Africa relations.

Not only did it elevate African success stories; but also shaped the next chapter of leadership and culture with impact across the African continent and its Diaspora. The two landmark events happening in London, re-affirmed the City’s growing status as a global gateway connecting Africa with international investment, innovation, diplomacy and it's thriving Diaspora.

On 30th July 2026, EMY Africa hosted the Africa Rising Symposium at the Terrace Pavilion, UK Parliament, Palace of Westminster, bringing together policymakers, academics, business leaders, and creatives to explore Africa's cultural diplomacy, global partnerships, and diaspora engagement.

The symposium also marked the launch of the inaugural EMY Africa Magazine UK Special Issue, a curated publication spotlighting the Black British experience, and its contribution to global culture, leadership, and progress.

This was followed on Sunday 2nd August 2026 by the EMY Africa Soirée London, a premium gathering for EMY Africa alumni, partners, and dignitaries at the London Hilton, Park Lane, uniting an influential cross-section of policymakers, business leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, parliamentarians, creatives, and cultural figures from across Africa, the UK, and the global diaspora. 

The events reflected EMY Africa's evolution into a global platform championing African excellence, leadership and opportunity while positioning the diaspora as a strategic driver of investment, innovation, cultural diplomacy and sustainable partnerships.

For over a decade, EMY Africa has celebrated individuals whose achievements, integrity and leadership continue to shape the African continent. Since its establishment in 2016 as an awards platform recognising exceptional Africans, EMY Africa has grown into an internationally respected institution with continental and global relevance.

"Africa's future will increasingly be shaped through collaboration that extends beyond borders. London remains one of the world's most important meeting points for African entrepreneurship, investment, diplomacy and innovation. Our vision is to ensure that the African diaspora is recognised not simply as a community abroad, but as a strategic partner in building Africa's future. Through the Africa Rising Symposium and the EMY Africa London Soirée, we are creating spaces where meaningful partnerships are formed, ideas are exchanged and lasting impact begins." Daniel Kojo Soboh commented.

In recognition of this evolution, EMY Africa marked its tenth anniversary with a strategic rebrand. EMY Africa now stands for Evolve. Motivate. Yield Africa. The new philosophy reflects EMY Africa's expanded mission to tell Africa's story through leadership, innovation, enterprise and achievement while building stronger bridges between Africa and the global diaspora.

Hosted at the historic Terrace Pavilion within the Palace of Westminster, the Africa Rising Symposium convened senior policymakers, academics, diplomats, entrepreneurs and cultural leaders to examine how Africa's growing global influence can be accelerated through stronger UK-Africa partnerships, cultural diplomacy and diaspora engagement.

A major highlight of the symposium was the unveiling of the inaugural EMY Africa Magazine UK Special Issue, a landmark publication exploring the Black British experience and celebrating the profound contribution of African and Caribbean communities to Britain's political, economic, cultural and creative landscape.

Under the editorial theme "The Legacy We Carry," the publication explores identity, representation, leadership and belonging through the stories of some of the most influential voices shaping Britain today.

The inaugural UK Special Issue features distinguished personalities including Rudolph Walker CBE, Hugh Quarshie, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Abena Oppong-Asare MP, David Gyasi and Lavinya Stennett, alongside an extraordinary collection of contributors reflecting on the enduring ties connecting Britain, Africa and the Caribbean.

The issue asks an important question for future generations:

Legacy is less a possession than a practice, shaped by those willing to carry it forward.

Appropriately, the publication was launched inside the UK Parliament, where history is debated, recorded and continually shaped.

Legendary actor Rudolph Walker CBE, who graces the cover of the inaugural edition, reflected on the significance of legacy, emphasising that the responsibility of today's generation is not only to celebrate the achievements of those who came before them but to actively build a stronger future through collaboration across Africa, the Caribbean and the wider diaspora.

Albert Chris Soboh, Editor-in-Chief of EMY Africa, said “The Legacy We Carry' is a tribute to every voice that has shaped our understanding of identity and belonging across Britain, Africa, and the Caribbean. To unveil this issue within the walls of the UK Parliament was a powerful reminder that our stories deserve to be told at the very centre of power and history." 

London Soirée Celebrates Diaspora Leadership

Building on the momentum of the symposium, the EMY Africa London Soirée welcomed an influential gathering of political leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, creatives, senior executives and members of the diplomatic community at the London Hilton on Park Lane.

The evening demonstrated the increasingly strategic role of London's African diaspora in facilitating international investment, entrepreneurship, cultural exchange and commercial partnerships between Africa and global markets.

Guests included distinguished figures such as Rudolph Walker CBE, David Gyasi, Vanessa Kingori OBE, Lady Anne Walsh, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Florence Eshalomi MP, Abena Oppong-Asare MP alongside senior investors, entrepreneurs, business executives and diplomatic representatives.

The soirée provided exceptional opportunities for international media coverage spanning business, politics, diplomacy, culture, diversity, entrepreneurship and UK-Africa relations while highlighting London's growing influence as a gateway for African capital, innovation and diaspora-led enterprise.

More than a celebration of achievement, the two events reflect the increasingly strategic role of the diaspora in driving investment, strengthening UK–Africa partnerships, fostering innovation, and shaping the future of global engagement with the continent. As London's influence continues to grow as a gateway for African capital, entrepreneurship, and diaspora-led innovation, EMY Africa's 2026 London activations provide a powerful platform for telling this evolving story.

By Voice for Justice UK

On 30^th June, while hosting a Pride event at 10 Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer proudly announced that the British House of Commons is “the gayest Parliament … in the world.”  “I’m really proud that we’ve got the gayest Parliament,” he declared. “I don’t think, just of all time, anywhere in the world, I don’t think there’s any Parliament that is gayer than this Parliament. That is fantastic.” 

With 76 MPs identifying as LGBT – 62 from the Labour party, 8 from the LibDems, 4 from the Conservatives, and 1 from the Green Party – he is probably right.  And certainly it is appropriate that different sections of society deserve proportionate representation in public life.   But Sir Keir does not explain why, in a country where only 3.7% of population identifies as gay or bisexual, that minority deserves 11.7% of the votes in Parliament.

Such open preference of one minority over the majority of the population, and proclamation of partisan support for those of its members who advocate an ideology that runs counter to democracy in its determination to suppress what it sees as ‘the opposition’, branding any and all who raise concern as hate-filled bigots, is hardly, one feels, a cause for celebration.
 
Notwithstanding, Sir Keir went on to boast of the Labour Government’s record on LGBTQ+ rights, specifically mentioning the proposed ban on what he called abusive conversion practices – a ban, let it be remembered, that will potentially criminalise not just deliberately coercive practitioners, but spiritual directors, priests offering prayer support, and parents trying to dissuade their vulnerable young child from irreversible and damaging physical mutilation, that in later life they may well regret.

In fact, taking Sir Keir’s words at face value, the only answer for a gender-questioning child would appear to be unquestioning acceptance, while someone older and ‘unhappy’ with their same sex attraction clearly has a problem accepting who they really are, and should presumably receive therapy to help them acknowledge their true identity!  In other words, under the guise of disapproving of conversion, it is reversion to a person’s natural state that is to be condemned, whilst conversion to a different gender is actually to be condoned, and encouraged.
 
Only the day before this adulatory gay-fest, His Majesty’s government had announced a £21 million three year commitment to advance LGBT+ rights internationally, supporting greater protections for the LGBT+ community, and appointing Lord Collins as the new UK envoy, charged with championing UK efforts to support LGBT+ people globally.
 
Sad to say, the phrase ‘fiddling while Rome burns’ comes to mind.  There are so many threats facing our nation at this time – that indeed threaten our very survival – yet all of these apparently pale into insignificance beside our standing on the world stage as the leading champion of ‘gay rights’.   Not only is this misplaced but, to be brutally frank, it is dishonest.  

We have removed previous discriminatory practices, so as to treat all members of society equally, but we are now seeing activists using their position to attack other sections of society, so that it’s no longer the LGBTQ+ community that needs protection, but rather their abused opponents – because anyone today who may have a different opinion and dares take issue, even on the grounds of faith, with the new Weltanschauung, find themselves labelled bigoted fascists, who must at all costs be silenced, lest they pollute society with their intolerant and judgmental views.  
 
And if this sounds extreme, then consider the number of people arrested in recent years for having quoted from the Bible, or for having offered to pray with someone who confessed they were finding life difficult.  Consider too the vicious campaigns launched against women who have protested the invasion of female-only space by trans activists.
 
But there’s another side to the State-sponsored prioritisation of ‘gay rights’ that should alarm us all.  We live in a world increasingly riven by conflict.  Ukraine is fighting a war for its survival, which threatens at any moment to spill over into the rest of Europe; nations in the Middle East, egged on by the US and others, continue to lob missiles at each other, and the whole region could go up in flames at any moment; and all the while China continues its unremitting campaign of cyber-attack and espionage, aimed at further destabilising the West.

In light of all this, military analysts warn that Britain could find itself at war as early as 2030.  A war for which we are woefully unprepared, because, after years of chronic underfunding, our armed forces are at an all-time low.  We lack personnel, and we lack fire-power, and the truth is that, if we were attacked tomorrow, as things stand, it is unlikely we could survive.      
 
President Trump has made his assessment of our armed forces all too clear, and Telegraph defence editor Tom Cotterill estimates that we need £70 billion to bring our defence capabilities up to speed.  So the question is, when surplus funds are limited or supposedly non-existent, does Sir Keir Starmer honestly believe that using his position shortly before leaving office to pour public money into the bottomless pit of LBGTQ+ demands for ever-greater ‘equality’ is money well spent?  
 
The security of all of us is at stake, and this is surely not the time to waste vital resources promoting the imposition of extreme views held by a vocal minority onto the more traditionally minded majority of society.  If Sir Keir Starmer’s only legacy is to have overseen the gayest Parliament in the world and made it an offence to offer help to someone unhappy with same sex attraction, while potentially criminalizing parents struggling to protect their child from unnecessary and irreversible mutilation, then we have a problem.  Our outgoing Prime Minister’s boasted prioritisation of LGBTQ+ ideology over religious freedom and freedom of expression is yet another nail in the coffin of British democracy.  It endangers the survival of us all. 

Island Pharma has been granted the regulatory approvals needed to allow compassionate use of its antiviral galidesivir in the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in Uganda.

The Melbourne, Australia-based biotech said it expects galidesivir to be deployed in the country this year, giving it an opportunity to generate "prospective human efficacy, safety and virological data" during an active outbreak of an Ebola virus species.

Shares in the company on Australia's ASX exchange were trading up nearly 27% at the time of writing.

The announcement comes shortly after two other potential Bundibugyo Ebola treatments - Mapp Biopharmaceutical's MBP134 and Gilead's remdesivir – started human testing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), thought to be the epicentre of the current outbreak.

It also comes as the death toll has passed 500, according to WHO figures released yesterday, which also revealed 1,561 confirmed cases in DR Congo since the outbreak was declared in mid-May. There have been two deaths and 20 confirmed cases in neighbouring Uganda.

Island said the approvals "position galidesivir as a potential treatment for Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease, where patients currently have no approved therapeutic options."

The company also said that concurrent Ebola and Marburg activity in Uganda "highlights the growing importance of broad-spectrum antiviral therapies and medical countermeasures, such as galidesivir," and advances the drug across two potential complementary development pathways.

Island is now starting to make clinical supplies of galidesivir available to investigation sites in Uganda for a planned study under the WHO's MEURI framework for accessing experimental therapies during public health emergencies, where no approved treatment options exist and conventional randomised clinical trials cannot be implemented.

Unlike conventional compassionate use programs, MEURI requires prospective collection of clinical, safety and virological data under an approved protocol, enabling investigators to systematically evaluate patient outcomes while providing access to potentially beneficial investigational therapies.

"The decision to approve this program reflects a rigorous scientific and ethical review process involving Uganda's leading regulatory and public health authorities and provides an important validation of galidesivir's existing body of preclinical and clinical evidence," said Dr David Foster, Island's chief executive and managing director.

"This study represents a rare dual-pathway opportunity to advance galidesivir toward potential approval and future government procurement." Pharmaphorum