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The African Cultural Alliance of North America, or ACANA, spearheads much of Africatown’s newfound unified cultural identity in Southwest Philadelphia. A simple walk across the corridors and you can feel the pride, too. Banner flags string along the streets featuring local and global civic icons. Regional music can be heard from small shops that keep their doors open, while colorful, striking murals line many of the streets.
Communications director and occasional tour guide for the Africatown Food Tour, Kou Dolo said tourists from around the world have signaled to her a rising interest in what Africatown has to offer – and it’s no surprise, given its accessibility to local SEPTA trolleys and bus routes.
“Africatown is very unique from other neighborhoods in Philadelphia,” Dolo said. ”We have very vibrant and thriving small Black businesses, while still a fully diverse community. I did a tour recently, and someone asked why we have an Italian restaurant on the tour. I said, ‘I am glad you asked. Africatown is not a town for just Africans – it’s a diasporic community…it’s a cool community.’”
Black immigrants have revitalized the predominantly residential area and made it a home and tourist spot for all members. Immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean alike have surged in population in recent years.
A 2022 Pew Research Center analysis found that the Black immigrant population in Pennsylvania jumped by 156% from 2000 to 2019. Moreover, Philly’s Black immigrant population increased by 121%, over that same time.
Economic revenue is hard to ignore, too. According to the ACANA, Black immigrants in Southwest Philly make up approximately 700 businesses in the area, which generate nearly $500 million in annual revenues, with many of these enterprises concentrated along the major avenues.
Although accelerated development has occurred more recently, official recognition of Black immigrants in Southwest Philly came in June 2005, when former Mayor John Street and then-Councilmember Jannie L. Blackwell officially established the Mayor’s Commission on African and Caribbean Immigrant Affairs. This historic step made Philadelphia the first city in the nation to recognize Black immigrants in such a manner.
Longtime resident Tamara Staley has lived in the area for 65 years. Staley serves as president and CEO of the Philadelphia Juneteenth Family Inc.
“I think it seems wonderful to have Africatown,” Staley said. “I should say that the [Black immigrant] demographics come together because it creates the African diaspora in our own yard. The projects that ACANA is doing over the next 20 years, I hope that I am well and here to see it. It’s going to be phenomenal.”
One of the largest ongoing projects at ACANA is the $23 million African Center. The building, while still undergoing construction, is slated to be multi-purpose and include a community center, restaurant, health clinic, day care and office space. It is projected to span 37,000 square feet. ACANA headquarters will be on the third floor.
A portion of the project’s funding came from a state-funded grant program, the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, which supplied a $9 million grant. Other local sponsors include Temple University, Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, Saint Joseph’s University, PhilaPort, Philadelphia Housing Authority, and other local loans and grants.
Rev. Cean James of Salt and Light Church, said the community is undergoing a “renaissance” with renewed vibrancy. In his tenure as a pastor, he’s has noticed the area go from desolate to now substantial, through vibrant investments from residents, congregations, and non-profits alike.
Renovations of abandoned spaces turned into homes, upgrades at Bartram’s Garden, Kingsessing Rec. Center, and the Paschalville Library have given residents a new dignified identity, he said. “There’s been a mutual sense of respect and camaraderie between neighbors,” James said.
“You can really notice how a lot of effort is being made to kind of bring some vibrancy back to the neighborhood,” he said. “I think you also see it in neighbors.”
There was a “brief period” where there were tensions between the African community and local Black Americans, James said. However, “that’s long gone in the neighborhood that I know now. Everyone, for the most part, gets along really well and has a lot of respect for one another,” he said.
James said his ministry has evolved to include cultural sensitivity in sermons and has become fascinated through his new neighbors’ cultural parables.
Overall, the rebound of the Southwest Philly area into a cultural hub has brought tourism, education and immigration resources to the city, while positively reflecting the diversity and unity of Philadelphia.
“It’s interesting how everyone in that area, for the most part, is of the African diaspora; there are similarities, but those similarities are only magnified and intensified by nuanced differences—the nuanced differences among those from Liberia, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Haiti,” Rev. James said.
“I’ve been blessed these last 20 years as [the neighborhood] has rebounded, as a lot of the vibrancy has come back. It’s still this neighborhood that reflects the diversity of the city. If you look at Africatown now, it looks like the City of Philadelphia. There’s a little bit of all of us there.”
