1st Pan African Parenting Conference
PLAY
I do not support the war in Palestine. By living in America, I am contributing finacially to the death of people. I hope that I am doing a helpful part by working to free humans from global racism. Join us.
Call for Pan African Child Rearing Researchers and Storytellers
Pan African Parenting Conference: Liberating Black Children From Global Racism
We are excited to announce the inaugural Pan African Parenting Conference titled "Liberating Black Children from Global Racism." This significant event aims to bring together Pan African storytellers and researchers who have explored the diverse traditions of parenting across different eras. Our goal is to celebrate and examine the past, present, and future of parenting in the Pan African context, addressing the unique challenges and triumphs of our communities.
Conference Details
The Pan African Parenting Conference will take place from February 21-23, 2026 at University of California, Davis. The event will feature keynote addresses, panel discussions, workshops, and cultural performances. Selected submissions will be included in our conference proceedings and highlighted during the event.
Objective
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Showcase the diverse parenting practices employed throughout history within Pan African communities through storytelling.
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Create additional Pan African parenting strategies to deconstruct the effects of racism.
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Encourage research and the sharing of innovative parenting practices that honor our heritage while adapting to contemporary needs.
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For long term support, build into a network of storytellers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and parents dedicated to worldwide success of Black children and families.
Call for Submissions
We invite submissions from Pan African storytellers and researchers who have explored the rich heritage of parenting practices within our communities. We are particularly interested in workshops that address:
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Traditional parenting practices from various Pan African cultures and their evolution over time, before and after slavery and colonization. (Day 1-Febuary 21, 2026)
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Current parenting trends, challenges, and successes within Pan African families. (Day 2-Febuary 22, 2026)
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Networking innovative parenting strategies and solutions to counter the impacts of global racism and ensure the success of future generations. (Day 3-Febuary 23, 2026)
Submission Guidelines
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Submissions may include research papers, oral histories, multimedia presentations, and artistic works such as poetry, storytelling, and visual arts.
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Written submissions should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. Multimedia presentations should not exceed 20 minutes.
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All submissions must be received by October 15, 2025
We look forward to your participation in this groundbreaking conference. Together, we can honor our past, understand our present, and shape a future where Pan African parenting practices thrive, free from the harm of global racism. Join us in this important effort to support and uplift our children and families.
Workshop Topics.
Traditional Parenting Practices
Share your knowledge and research on traditional Pan African parenting practices before or after colonization and slavery. Let the world learn from the wisdom of our ancestors.
Math, Its African Origins
Explore the intersection of cultural diversity on parenting math within Pan African communities. Share your expertise and experiences.
Basics African Science
Workshop leaders, storytellers and researchers contribute your insights and ideas on countering the negative impacts of global racism on parenting styles that promote basic concepts of science within Pan African communities.
Contemporary Parenting Solutions
Children: Present innovative parenting strategies and contemporary solutions aimed at addressing the challenges faced by Pan African children and parents in today's world.(To hear video voices click the note on bottom right side of picture.)
Play and Storeytelling
Narst Dase 2022 Webinar:
SUBMISSONS
Call for Researchers, Storytellers, Facilitators On Parenting to Deconstruct Global Racism
About Us.
I am Diane Evans, 80 years young. I founded this network to honor a lifetime of confronting one of humanity’s oldest poisons: racism. The Global Pan African Parenting Network is a call to action by a collective of everyday parents across the African diaspora committed to dismantling systemic oppression by reimagining how we nurture our children, families, and communities.
We focus on parent education and the most effective time to plant the seeds for cultural change which is early childhood, between in utero and five years old. For older children it is educating parents to a process of repair and preparing their older children to plant the new cultural seeds during their child bearing years.
Our board members are experienced caregivers and breadwinners who understand this fundamental truth: Child liberation lies not in competing but in weaving our strengths together. We are not just raising children; we are cultivating cultures where millions of children can be free.
The evolution begins in our homes.
Board Members Sharings:
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Briefly describe your your experiences as a Pan African parent. Highlight the resources that motivated you to be apart of this global Pan African parent support network. Share your success in coping with racism.
Briefly describe your your experiences as a Pan African parent. Highlight the resources that motivated you to be apart of this global Pan African parent support network. Share your success in coping with racism.
Briefly describe your your experiences as a Pan African parent. Highlight your resources that motivated you to be apart of this global Pan African parent support network. Share your success in coping with racism.
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NEWSLETTER
Storytelling and Research
Clinical Fellow; Solnit Integrated Program, Yale Child Study Center
Another unique aspect of the conference is its emphasis on storytelling. Presenting the cases in a narrative form makes the event more accessible to diverse groups of parents, Calhoun explains. But even for psychiatrists, the use of storytelling can make discussions more powerful. “You can’t really know the patient just by that bland and sterile history that we typically use,” she says. “The narrative brings the patient alive in a way that the audience feels like it knows that child.”
Black Preschoolers Experience Racism
Black children report experiencing an average of five instances of racial discrimination per day, causing a profound impact on their mental health. Research and data show a growing mental health crisis among Black youth over several decades, including a rise in prevalence of suicide attempts among Black adolescents of nearly 80%.
Steven Kniffley Jr., PsyD, senior associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, told the Associated Press that children of color as young as 4 to 6 years old begin to experience race-based traumatic stress.
This racism affects mental health on multiple levels, including direct hostility and microagressions, but also the toll of seeing other people of color subjected to racist violence, he said.
“When we think about our young folks specifically, because of the strong influence of social media on their lived experience, they’re constantly inundated and really overexposed to all the bad things that are going on in our society,” said Kniffley, who also serves as an associate professor in the College of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience.
“You see a police shooting, and they’re retraumatized over and over again.”
Black adolescents are far less likely than their white peers to seek mental health care, in part due to a long history of systemic racism and mistreatment of Black patients by the medical community.
There is still work to do on that front, as the American Psychological Association reports only 4% of psychologists are Black and Kniffley noted 80% of mental health providers are not trained in treating race-based trauma.
Specifically within mental health care, racist treatment of Black people includes the 1850s diagnosis of "drapetomania" that argued enslaved Black Americans were driven to escape to freedom due to mental illness.
In 1968, psychologists developed the theory of "protest psychosis" that claimed Black male participation in the Civil Rights Movement caused violent, schizophrenic symptoms.
“That legacy has contributed to a mistrust that Black and brown folks have where their experience has been pathologized,” Kniffley said.
“They’ve been overlabeled with behavioral challenges and learning challenges that have very real-world consequences in terms of what type of schooling you get, what type of jobs are accessible to you, how people treat you.”
https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2023/02/kniffley-named-senior-associate-dean.html
Black Children and The Power of Play
As adults who want our children to thrive we need to ensure that they have safe spaces for them to explore themselves through play—and this means more than just providing them toys or books about black people or other people of color (though these things are certainly important). We also need to foster a culture where everyone in the family feels comfortable engaging with each other honestly and respectfully so that when something does come up related to race or racism someone will feel safe talking about it without fear of being judged negatively by those around them.
"...play is essential for all children, but it is especially important for black children. Play can help them develop crucial skills such as concepts, creativity, imagination, critical thinking and problem solving—skills that they will need to succeed in life. Without an understanding of how important play is to black children’s development, we are at risk of losing a generation that is capable of great things."
https://www.brilliantandkind.com/black-children-and-the-power-of-play
Global Pan African Parenting Network
We are all working together
If you have not applied for membership, click the Join Our Network button. Fill out the form and submit it.
As parents, we are networking to deconstruct global racism to liberate Black children worldwide. We are establishing 8 ways on our website to reach this goal:
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Mobile Phone: worldwide, monthly Pan African parent support groups by phone.
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Local Universities: monthly support groups at Child Development Departments or in the Black/African studies Departments.
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Emergencies: a hotline number to call for high risks parenting situations.
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Library: our website resources are videos, books and articles.
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Parent Financial Development: AfriZon, an online store for the sale of your special products to provide financial aid e to meet family needs.
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Newsletter: a presentation of new Pan African parenting ideas and research.
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Comment blog: a place for Pan African parents to express thoughts, reactions and questions regarding parenting behaviors that deconstruct racism.
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Buy to Donate: a unique online shop for Pan African community disasters. i.e. famines, floods and volcano eruptions etc.
Network Membership Form
