Africa diaspora conference spotlights reparations and decolonisation

Decolonisation, reparations and human rights are set to come under the spotlight when the Africa and African Diaspora Conference opens in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, on Monday.

The conference, which brings delegates from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia together under the theme “The return to Africa”, serves as an independent, unifying platform dedicated to advancing African sovereignty, reparatory justice and sustainable solidarity between Africa and its global diaspora.

In a media briefing in Midrand on Thursday, co-convenor Frank Chikane said the conference, to be addressed by international relations & co-operation minister Ronald Lamola, former president Thabo Mbeki and former president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, would include issues such as reparations, decolonisation, human rights, gender and climate change.

The conference is taking place while Africa is grappling with severe instability, including wars, internal conflicts, famine and rising migration pressures.

In South Africa, tensions over migration have fuelled a wave of protests against foreign nationals, with some groups demanding stricter immigration controls and the deportation of undocumented migrants.

“People of African descent and Africans have been meeting in various international conferences. Whenever we meet together, we always find each other. At one stage we said, ‘We lobby at our entities [but] our problem is much bigger. People were stolen from this continent some centuries ago and enslaved.

“Now they say, ‘we worked for you, we built your cities, and you left us in the Caribbean. We were colonised, we as Africans. It’s difficult to get out of that state.’ We then said, ‘we need to get together’. That’s what this conference is about,” Chikane said.

Africans, people of African descent and indigenous communities had been intensifying calls for reparations for colonialism, demanding compensation for slavery, land dispossession, resource exploitation and cultural destruction.

They had argued on global platforms that colonialism’s legacy continues to fuel inequality and underdevelopment and want former colonial powers to take responsibility through financial compensation, restitution and investment in affected communities.

Chikane said some delegates had expressed concern that they would be coming to a country where “our brothers and sisters are being attacked; we said they will be safe, we are dealing with the matter. They also expressed concerns over the killing of women in Kempton Park.”

Zwoitwaho Nevhutalu, chair of the Kagiso Trust, one of South Africa’s leading development agencies and the main conference sponsor, rallied behind the gathering, saying they wanted to make it a success.

The conference, which will have a declaration and action plans, ends on Friday.

Business Day

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