This year’s 2025 G-20 Foreign Ministers’ Forum was kicked off officially yesterday in Johannesburg, South Africa under the theme: “Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability.” It came days after Africans have made their 38th Summit with a pivotal theme for the continent’s future: “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations.”
Both themes forced me to think as if both parties have discussed though most of the G-20 Member States prosperity was built on pains of Africans and African descents. Anyhow, both came at the time when the world is undergoing various challenges posed by geopolitical tensions, conflicts and climate change.
It is time to strike right balance between competition and cooperation. We need joint collaboration among the international community, including the G-20 Member States, in a bid to build a stable, safe and prosperous future for the marginalized and undermined Africans.
For this reason, Africans and people of African descents have proposed reparations as a civilized only and a must solution to remove the historical injustice Africans have been experiencing in the colonial legacy. We urgently need for accountability, healing, and restitution curtailing from historical injustices that have long plagued African societies with our own mechanisms for its implementation without a middleman.
We Africans believe that the renewal of collective security architecture, the reform of global institutions and the need to ensure inclusivity are a must to do list. In such a way, we can strengthen the development aspirations we have to be prosperous.
As UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, recently said, the world should never overlook that Africa is the victim of two colossal and compounded injustices: the profound impact of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. The roots stretch back centuries, and the bitter fruit continues to affect Africans and people of African descent to this day.
It is high time for reparatory justice frameworks to be put in place. Justice for the historical trauma perpetrated on global Africa should not be just a conversation, but has to be made a reality.
Therefore, the G-20 Forum which is being held for the first time on our beloved continent, chaired by South Africa, must accept our ways to heal our colonial scars.
All the international communities have to work on eradicating the lasting impact of the transatlantic slave trade and colonial exploitation which robbed Africa of its people, resources, and dignity, as Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Claver Gatete said on the 46th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union.
Consequently, the historical injustices experienced by African nations and their people have to come to an end. These historical injustices have resulted in tenacious inequalities in global financial systems, trade structures, and governance institutions that continue to afflict the continent even today.
The continent is a home to 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves and 65 percent of arable land. Yet, Africa accounts for a meager three percent of global trade and only one percent of manufacturing output. This stark dissimilarity is due to entrenched structural barriers that perpetuate economic dependency.
The G-20 must make prioritizing a comprehensive approach a must to reparative justice that goes beyond financial compensation in the next five key areas of focus to translate the call for justice into tangible outcomes.
Reforming the global financial architecture to ensure equitable representation for Africa in shaping economic policies comes first. As well, enhancing supports to harness the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to boost intra-African trade and industrialization is a must.
Equally, adding values on Africa’s mineral wealth is essential for reparation as it ensures that resources benefit Africans first. And fostering partnerships with the African diaspora is necessary to promote economic and cultural collaboration.
Likewise, the G-20 member states should not obstacle African integration through the implementation of the AU Protocol on Free Movement of Persons as it enhances regional cooperation to make the reparations practical. They should rather assist accelerating the integration for the sake of reparations success.
Also, they need to hinder the continuation of prejudices. The injustices of the past should not define Africa’s future; all have to cooperate African nations to reclaim economic sovereignty and to secure a future where all Africans can live with dignity and prosperity.
Global Forum’s like that of the G-20 must deliberate on broad range of historical unjust issues, including regional and international peace and security, current global geopolitical rivalry, the need to ensure sustainable development and collective action to mitigate impacts of colonialism, among others.
In general, colonialism has affected the lives of Africans and people of African descents putting them under extreme poverty which requires inclusive economic development, enhancing food security, guaranteeing peace and security among others.
