Addis Ababa, September 7, 2025
Your Excellency Mr. João Gonçalves Lourenço, President of the Republic of Angola and Chairperson of the African Union;
Your Excellency Mr. Abiy Ahmed Ali, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia;
The Most Honourable Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica and Chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM);
Your Excellency Dr. Carla Barnett, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM);
Your Excellency Mr. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the African Union Commission;
Your Excellency Mr. AntĂłnio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations;
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, dear brothers and sisters of Africa and the Diaspora;
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the outset of my statement, I wish to convey to you the apologies and warm greetings of your brother, His Excellency Mr. Essozimna GNASSINGBÉ, President of the Council of the Republic of Togo, who was unable to travel to personally attend this 2nd Africa–CARICOM Summit held under the theme: “Transcontinental partnership in pursuit of restorative justice for Africans and people of African descent through reparations.”
He has entrusted me with the honour of representing him and speaking on his behalf on the topic: “Qualification of slavery, deportation, and colonization as crimes against humanity and genocide against the peoples of Africa and the 9th Pan-African congress,” as requested of Togo.
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The partnership between Africa and CARICOM is one of fraternity. Placing this partnership between continental Africa and the Africa of the Caribbean at the service of the common cause of reparations reflects the following truth: by joining forces to carry the cause of reparations, we will serve it better. This awareness marks an important step in the fight and the long journey of Africa and the Caribbean Community for the recognition and reparation of the crimes their peoples have endured.
For more than four centuries, millions of our ancestors were torn from their families and their lands, chained, crammed into the dark holds of slave ships, reduced to mere commodities in a sinister logic of objectification. They were sold in the public squares of the Americas and the Caribbean, subjected to the harshest labour, stripped of their identity, deprived of their freedom, in flagrant violation of the sacred laws of humanity and human dignity.
To this tragedy of the slave trade and slavery, was added that of colonization. Behind the hypocritical mask of the so-called “civilizing mission” lay the systematic humiliation of African peoples, the confiscation of their lands, the plundering of their wealth, and the removal of their cultural identity. It was also the massacres: those of the Herero and Nama in Namibia between 1904 and 1908, of Thiaroye in 1944 in Senegal, of Madagascar in 1947, of Congo under King Leopold II, and of the Mau Mau in Kenya between 1952 and 1960. Aimé Césaire powerfully declared: “Colonialism is not about civilizing, it is about decivilizing,”it is aboutdehumanizing, destroying, and stripping away.
The gravity of these historical injustices, which were criminal acts carefully conceived, planned, and systematically executed against the peoples of Africa and persons of African descent, have determined Togo to submit to the decision making bodies of the African Union the request that led to the historic Decision on the “Qualification of slavery, deportation, and colonization as crimes against humanity and genocide against the peoples of Africa,” adopted by the Conference of Heads of State and Government on February 16 of this year.
This decision of qualification responds to the most pressing aspirations of the peoples of Africa, of Afro-descendants, of diaspora organizations, and of African civil society for justice and reparation.
It has enabled Africa to put its own words to its historical suffering, to promote a better knowledge of the painful periods of the continent’s history among younger generations, to begin healing the deep scars left on African societies, to send a strong message to the international community about its thirst and expectations for recognition and reparations for the historical injustices its peoples endured, and to assert its leadership on the question of reparations in order to avoid having the terms of the debate dictated to it.
Africa does not expect pity or charity from the world. We demand recognition and reparations. Recognition of the magnitude of the crimes committed. Recognition of the deportation of our peoples, recognition of the disruption of Africa’s historical trajectory, recognition of the duty of justice toward the peoples of Africa and the African diasporas, recognition of our peoples’ right to reparations, reparations for the crimes committed against Africans and people of African descent.
In itself, this act of qualification represents a shift of paradigm. Instead of leaving to the descendants of the perpetrators the right to define their crimes, Africa and Africans have placed their own words on the crimes they endured. This act of qualification is a significant milestone in the African and Caribbean struggles for reparations.
Reparations, both material and symbolic, to heal the wounds of history. Rehabilitation of African memory, to restore to dispossessed peoples the pride of their dignity. For what was destroyed were not only lives, but also the self-esteem of an entire continent. Acknowledging these crimes is not about resentment. It is about affirming a universal truth and strengthening the common humanity of all peoples.
Excellencies, Heads of State and Government,
Distinguished Guests,
Togo’s commitment, alongside the brotherly nations of the continent and the Caribbean, to the cause of reparations is fully in line with the implementation of the 2021–2031 Decade of “African Roots and the African Diaspora,” proclaimed by the Conference of Heads of State and Government in February 2021 at its request.
This Decade honors people of African descent and African diasporas because we became fully aware that the destinies of continental Africa and of Africa in the diasporas are closely linked. It is within the framework of this same Decade that the organization of the 9th Pan-African congress, to be held from December 8 to 12, 2025, in Lomé under the theme “Renewal of Pan-Africanism and the role of Africa in the reform of multilateral institutions: mobilizing resources and reinventing ourselves for action,”was entrusted to Togo by the Conference.
Pan-Africanism, as we know, emphasizes solidarity among African nations in order to transcend the divisions inherited from colonization, and solidarity between Africans and Afro-descendants with the aim of reconnecting Africa and its diaspora. According to President Kwame Nkrumah, the term came into use at the beginning of the 20th century when the Trinidadian Henry Sylvester-Williams and African American William Edward Burghardt Du Bois “used it during several Pan-African congresses.”
“The idea of Pan-Africanism first arose as a manifestation of fraternal solidarity between Africans and peoples of African descent” as George Padmore said. The 9th Pan-African Congress in Lomé will provide an opportunity to reaffirm the paradigmatic value of Pan-Africanism. The true importance of Pan-Africanism in this 21st century, for Africa and for people of African descent, lies in the renewed awareness that it is only by being united that Africa will be able to play a meaningful role in global governance.
The transformation of Pan-Africanism into a people’s movement is an essential element on which we must build in order to advance Africa’s and people of African descent’s current concerns regarding dignity, freedom, sovereignty, independence, respect, and representation within the community of continents and on the international stage.
The 9th Pan-African congress, whose preparatory phase took us to Brazil last year for a regional conference dedicated to diasporas and people of African descent, will be a moment where Africa and its diaspora will speak with one single voice.
The Congress in Lomé will serve as a platform to reaffirm the value of Pan-Africanism in ensuring historical continuity for the movement, to reaffirm unity and solidarity between Africa, its diaspora, and peoples of African descent, to mobilize African states and peoples around the cause of reforming multilateral institutions, to propose concrete courses of action in favor of reforming global governance, reparations, and the restitution of Africa’s cultural heritage, to affirm African cultural identity and creativity, and to explore the current and future prospects of Pan-Africanism.
The 9th Pan-African Congress will mark a decisive stage in our march toward emancipation and in the struggle to obtain the reparations owed to Africa and to peoples of African descent in the framework of global governance. It will be an essential milestone for an Africa reconciled with its past, standing up in its present, and refusing to have its future dictated to it.
It is with these words of hope that, on behalf of the President of the Council, H.E. Faure Essozimna GNASSINGBÉ, I wish to invite you to honor us with your presence this coming December in Lomé at the 9th Pan-African congress, which will bring together the entire African community.
I thank you.