2007 Grand Gala Dinner
Fulfilling the African Renaissance by Bringing
Together a Continent Looking to the Future
New York City

Celebrate Africa Foundation Not-For-Profit Corporation
44 East 32nd St., 11th Floor New York, NY 10016
917-279-4038
FAX: 973-675-5704
onyeani@celebrateafricafoundation.org
Celebrate Africa Foundation, in collaboration with New
York University (NYU) Africa House, will host this
dinner on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 in New York City
At New York University 's Rosenthal Pavilion Kimmel Center
60 Washington Square South
New York City  6:00 - 10:00 PM  
E-Mail: Celebrateafricafoundation@yahoo.com  
973-675.9919----917-279-4038
Gaborone,
Botswana
***Click here sign up for the Celebrate Africa Foundation Dinner***
May 4, 2007 - "Today Africans and friends of Africa assembled at the United Nations Delegates
Dining Room to honor a man who has been a fighter and continues to be a fighter for African
issues in America as a whole, and in the U.S. House of Representatives in particular.
Congressman Donald Payne, (Democrat of New Jersey), was feted in this rarefied sanctum of
the international body.  The occasion was organized by the Celebrate Africa Foundation, which
has become the go-to organization for Africans, to present the prestigious
African Grand
Leadership Award
to Congressman Payne."  Chika Onyeani, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief,
African Sun Times, Reporting from United Nations, New York City.
Presenting the African Grand Leadership Award to Congressman
Donald Payne, Chairman, Sub-Committee on Africa of the House
Foreign Relations Committee is Her Excellency Mrs. Maria de
Fatima Lima da Veiga, Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotenitary and Permanent Representative of Cape Verde
to the United Nations, while Mrs. Aissiatou Ndao, President of
the Women's wing of the Association of Senegalese in America,
and Dr. Chika Onyeani, Chair/CEO of the Celebrate Africa
Foundation look on. (Photos by John Oko Nyaku)
Donald M. Payne, a native of Newark , New Jersey , was elected to represent the 10th Congressional
District of New Jersey in 1988 as New Jersey 's first African American Congressman by an
overwhelming majority and has been returned by a wide margin of the vote in each subsequent
election. In 2006, he won election to his tenth term to represent the 10th District in the historic 110th
Congress.  A past Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, he is a member of the Democratic
Whip Organization and has served as a member of the House Democratic Leadership Advisory Group.

He formerly served on the powerful Democratic Steering Committee, whose membership determines
each individual committee assignment for Democratic members and plays an active role in shaping the
legislative agenda. Through his efforts in Washington, several million dollars for economic
development and other key programs have been allocated to Essex, Hudson and Union Counties in his
Congressional District.

In 2003, President Bush appointed Payne as one of two members of Congress to serve as a
Congressional delegate to the United Nations and reappointed him in 2005 to an unprecedented
second term. In this role, he has met with the U.N. Secretary General, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
and regularly attended sessions of the U.N. General Assembly and other high level meetings. He is a
member of the House Committee on Education and Labor, where he serves on two subcommittees—
the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections and the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary
and Secondary Education, which has jurisdiction over the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind
Act.
Congressman Donald Payne is Honored by the Celebrate Africa Foundation, 2007