Renowned Pan-African activist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has urged African leaders to break away from the vicious cycle of overreliance on financial institutions to save the continent from its current mess.
In a no-holds-barred speech on the final day of the International Conference Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Fifth Pan-African Congress at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra on Wednesday, the veteran journalist said, “Einstein taught us that those who do the same thing over and over, expecting different results, must have problems with their mental capacities,” he stated.
Using Ghana as a typical example, Mr Pratt wondered why leaders of the country still resorted to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank when previous transactions with them made the nation worse off.
“We (Ghana) have gone to the IMF and the World Bank 18 times. Each time we emerge worse. Either these institutions are incompetent, or they were designed to keep us in crisis,” he said in a rather sombre mood.
Mr Pratt said Africa’s modern economic crisis was not accidental, as structural adjustment policies and IMF–World Bank prescriptions had plunged countries deeper into poverty.
Applying his oratorical prowess and his unassuming disposition to full effect before an enthusiastic audience made up of scholars and activists from across Africa and the Caribbean, the author of the latest book on reparations forcefully advocated a more robust approach towards reparative justice.
To achieve that objective, Mr Pratt called for the establishment of a Continental Tribunal to pursue reparations and hold former colonial powers accountable for centuries of exploitation and violence against African peoples.
He believed that only a united legal framework backed by all African states could effectively confront the magnitude of harm inflicted through slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism and contemporary economic domination.
He stated that the fight for reparations was essential to restoring dignity and correcting historical wrongs.
“Let us now create a Continental Tribunal and empower our people to prepare bigger claims against the colonial powers,” he told the large gathering of delegates from Africa and the diaspora.
“Reparations are not limited to what others owe us. We must reclaim the narrative, restore the dignity of African knowledge, and restore the light of humanity.”
Mr Pratt outlined in detail the historical roots of Africa’s economic and political challenges, stressing that the wealth of Europe and the modern world was built on Africa’s labour and resources. “From the 15th to the 19th century, over 12.5 million of our ancestors were captured, shackled and shipped across the Atlantic. Nearly two million died in the Middle Passage. The Atlantic became a cemetery without graves,” he said, adding that the profits from enslaved Africans financed major European cities and global financial institutions. “Liverpool’s docks, Bristol’s warehouses and the Stock Exchange of London and New York were financed by the sweat and blood of African men, women and children.”
He argued that after the abolition, justice was once again denied, as compensation went to enslavers rather than the enslaved.
“Slaveholders received £25 million, and British taxpayers only completed these payments in 2015,” he stressed.
He further stated that the imposition of colonial rule, forced labour, cultural suppression and the theft of African artefacts were deliberate systems designed to maintain Europe’s dominance.
The two-day conference, organised by the Pan-African Progressive Front (PPF) and headquartered in Accra, placed reparations at the centre of its agenda, proposing concrete steps, including the establishment of a legal institution for accurate damage assessment, expert examinations and preparation of claims before higher courts, the creation of a Continental Reparations Fund, and the introduction of customs duties on goods from former colonial countries. Delegates agreed that such measures were necessary to correct centuries of harm.
The consensus across the conference was that “the former colonisers must pay for their crimes.”
The formal opening ceremony on Tuesday featured speeches from former Ghana President John Agyekum Kufuor, President Nicolás Maduro (via envoy), President Abdourahamane Tchiani of Niger (via representative),
and delegations from Cuba, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Sierra Leone, Tunisia and Western Sahara, among others.
President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana, the African Union’s Champion for Reparations, officially opened the conference, reaffirming Africa’s commitment to building a just global order.
Prior to that, a documentary dubbed “Pan-Africanism: The Fire of Freedom” was premiered, after which popular Ghanaian musician, Amandzeba, performed a specially composed Pan-African anthem.
Symbolising the occasion, the delegates formed a giant illuminated Black Star around the Kwame Nkrumah Monument, pledging to maintain the struggle for liberation and unity.
On the flipside, the PPF Coordinating Committee met Monsieur Emile Parfait of SIMB to discuss plans towards a unified Pan-African media holding.
The Libyan Foreign Minister hinted that Benghazi was being considered as the host city for the next PPF conference.
