The Africa Center’s New Leader Focuses on Connection

The Africa Center in New York has named a new leader, Martin Kimani, a former Kenyan diplomat with a multidisciplinary background who embodies the wide spectrum of offerings the institution is embracing as it expands its audience.

Kimani, 53, a former permanent representative of Kenya to the United Nations who also held other government positions in Kenya, started as the organization’s new leader on Jan. 21. His appointment comes nine months after Uzodinma Iweala, chief executive of the center, announced he was stepping down after seven years.

Kimani, who is Kenyan with American residency, has a background in security — he served as Kenya’s special envoy for countering violent extremism, for instance — and has experience working in political risk analysis, and bond and currency sales. His background is a departure from the Center’s past leaders who worked in the arts and humanities.

But Kimani said his previous work positions him to build on the diverse programming the Africa Center has embraced that goes beyond art exhibitions to include lectures on geopolitics, author readings and visits from sitting African presidents.

“By the time Uzo took over, there was a lot of frustration about where the Center was heading, and things that have not worked out,” Kimani said in a recent interview, discussing the former director and the era that preceded him. “He has fought that and brought it to a more vibrant phase. I want to build on what he’s done.”

The Center, in Harlem, went through years of stumbles and transitions as it changed locations and transformed from an art museum to an institution that is more broadly focused on building connections among Africa’s diaspora community.