About the GABA Foundation
We Are Not Studying the Community. We Are the Community.
The GABA Foundation is an African Research Institute producing the knowledge, policy, and data that drives economic power for the African and Caribbean diaspora.
Who We Are
Born from a Belief That Our Communities Deserve More Than Survival.
Born in 2014 as a determined voice for African business, we emerged from the belief that our communities, both here in America and across the ocean, deserve more than survival. They deserve connection, dignity, and a permanent institutional home that belongs to them.
Reintroduced in 2019 with a broader vision and a bolder name, GABA now stands at the intersection of community and knowledge, linking the streets of Detroit to the markets of Dakar, not just through trade, but through data, research, and policy that finally centers the African and Caribbean experience.
"We are not studying the community. We are the community."
And for eleven years we have been building the infrastructure to prove it.
The Future of the African World Is Not Waiting to Be Written. It Is Already in Motion.
GABA is the institution that documents it, interprets it, and ensures that the communities living it have a permanent seat at every table where decisions are made.
Our Foundation
Research Rooted in Community. Policy Built for the Future.
Every decision GABA makes flows from a clear mission, a defined vision, and values that keep us accountable to the community we serve and the institution we are building.
Our Mission
To produce the research, policy analysis, and community data that drives economic power and political permanence for the African and Caribbean diaspora.
Across Michigan and the United States, we build the evidence base that ensures this community's voice is heard wherever decisions are made.
Our Vision
A world where decisions that affect African and Caribbean communities are made using data that belongs to those communities.
Produced by an institution that answers to them first. That institution is the GABA Foundation.
Community Ownership of Knowledge
The data we produce belongs to the community that generated it. We publish in service of the people we represent, ensuring their story is told with accuracy, dignity, and on their own terms.
Research Integrity
We ask honest questions and report honest findings. The community's trust in our data is the foundation of everything we build. Without that trust, nothing else holds.
Generational Permanence
We are not building a program. We are building an institution designed to outlast any single administration, funding cycle, or political moment. GABA is built to last generations.
Policy as Power
Research without advocacy is incomplete. We produce knowledge with the explicit intention of changing the policy environment for this community. Data is not the destination. Power is.
Our Delivery Arm
The GABA Marketplace Center
The GABA Foundation produces the research and drives the policy. The GABA Marketplace Center is where that work touches the ground. Michigan's first African and Caribbean trade and distribution hub, the Marketplace Center is the physical infrastructure that turns GABA's research into economic reality for entrepreneurs and businesses across the region.
Workforce development, business technical assistance, trade facilitation, and supply chain access all live at the Marketplace Center, operated in partnership with the GABA Foundation as the community's economic delivery arm.
Ready to Learn More or Partner With Us?
Whether you are a funder, a researcher, a policymaker, or a community member, there is a place for you in what GABA is building.