About Us

This body of water is called Lake Tanganyika It is the 5th largest lake in the world and the 2nd largest lake in Africa

Our Mission

Baraza La Afrika’s mission is to facilitate the full integration of immigrants from an African background to achieve a good quality of life in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

This will be accomplished through:

  1. Developing academic support classes through an Afro-centric approach to foster positive self-esteem and confidence among youth. This will positively impact overall academic achievement.

  2. Educating the community about the history of Afrika and the different African cultures and values.

  3. Providing resources and support to women in our community that ensures their health and well-being.

Our Vision

Baraza La Afrika will thrive through an Afro-centric approach rather than through a Western-centric approach. In African culture, everything surrounds community. And a community thrives when both its culture and values are preserved.

African culture is colorful and multi-dimensional. It includes art and languages, music and songs, and clothing and fashion while African values emphasize good norms and morals, respecting elders, and being kind to others regardless of race.

Our vision is to provide a space in which this culture is preserved by being taught to the next generation of Africans in the Fargo-Moorhead Area.

Meet Our Team


  • Founder

    Cleophace Mukeba is a Congolese national who was born in Bujumbura, Burundi. He fled the first Congo War in 1996 and traveled through Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique, in search for safety. He eventually made his way to a Zambian refugee camp and into Lusaka the capital of Zambia, where he was reunited with his wife in 2002, Malinga, after spending six years apart due to the war.

    Three years later in August of 2005, with the help of the refugee resettlement program, Cleophace joined his brother Jules in Winooski, Vermont. In 2010, he would enroll at St. Michaels College and during his time there would co-found an advocacy movement together with SMC’s students called, the Dear Hillary Campaign for the Congo (later rebranded to SMC for DRC). The goal of the group was to advocate for change in U.S foreign policy on illegal exploitation of Congo natural resources through letter-writing campaigns, speakers, and presentations on campus and in the local community. The SMC for DRC was able to secure a campus talk by U.S. Special Representative Barrie Walkley, a visit with Melanne Verveer, and a trip in April 2011 to the U.S. State Department with a petition for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

    Cleophace would go on to graduate in 2012 with a B.A. degree in Political Science with minors in global and environmental studies. Cleophace never wanted to simply settle for a bachelor’s degree so in 2013 he enrolled in a graduate program at Vermont Law School where he graduated with a Master’s in Environmental Law and Policy in 2015.

    While in Vermont, Cleophace was able to achieve many things both personally and for the wider African community. In 2011 he created his very first organization, the Vermont Ibutwa Initiative (VIBI), which aimed to raise awareness of political and socioeconomic issues in eastern Congo. VIBI’s other mission, the most important at that, was to help rebuild the lives of women and girls who were victims of sexual/gendered based violence. From 2011-2021 VIBI would go on to serve 30+ women with direct medical care, initiation of micro-enterprise projects to foster economic independence, and pay for ~140 children’s school fees, uniforms, and supplies.

    In-between his work with VIBI, Cleophace would be appointed as the Director of Youth Programs with the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, was appointed to the Vermont Racial Equity Task Force (RETF) by the governor, and was the cultural liaison Team-Lead at the Howard Center. All of these roles that Cleophace engaged in focused around community, inclusion, and laying down the roadmap on how to harmoniously navigate the hurdles that come with living in a cultural melting pot like Burlington, VT.

    In the Summer of 2022, Cleophace and his family moved to the Moorhead-Fargo area.


  • Co-Founder

    Jules Mukeba, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, co-founded Baraza La Afrika with his brother Cleophace Mukeba. In 2005, Jules was able to resettle in the United States a few months before his brother and would call Vermont his home for the next 9 years. After a few years of working, Jules would decide to further his education. Enrolling at Champlain College, Jules studied and would go on to graduate in 2014 with a B.A. in Social Work.

    Jules served as a school liaison for the Burlington School district for 2 years and then completed an internship with the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program (VRRP). At VRRP, he worked with a team to complete an elaborate 18 page guiding document for newly arrived refugees. He went on to serve as an interpreter and translator for a number of organizations, such as VRRP, AALV, VT District Courts, various hospitals, and the VT Department of Children and Family. Jules also consulted with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative for 4 years, offering translations for transcripts from the Congo. He and Cleophace co-founded the Vermont Ibutwa Initiative, where Jules served as the outreach coordinator, helping to organize events and presentations for the organization.

    In 2014, Jules and his family moved to the Fargo-Moorhead area. He currently serves as treasurer for the board of the Congolese Community of Fargo-Moorhead, and as the program manager for Baraza La Afrika.