The concept of an “African Band” was birthed after almost fifteen years of the Washington DC Caribbean Carnival taking place on Georgia Avenue. In the previous years, there has of course, been mass participation from the different Caribbean countries. As the Carnival grew bigger, a good number of Africans started to take part in the festivities, dressing up in costumes and enjoying the parade. Culturally speaking, both African and Caribbean are similar for the most part so assimilation was not an issue. However, the sad part is that there were many more Africans watching from the corridors with a feeling on “not-belonging”. AfriCarnival will be the newest addition to the DC Carnival in June 2006.