Delegates from across Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia gather in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, from Monday, with questions on the table that reach far beyond the conference hall: how the legacy of colonialism continues to shape the daily lives, safety and dignity of Africans and people of African descent, and what concrete steps might follow.
The Africa and African Diaspora Conference runs under the theme “The return to Africa”. It is designed as an independent and unifying platform dedicated to advancing African sovereignty, reparatory justice and sustainable solidarity between the continent and its global diaspora. It ends on Friday and is expected to produce a declaration and action plans, giving the discussions a practical dimension rather than leaving them as statements of principle alone.
The stakes for ordinary people are considerable. The gathering takes place at a time when Africa is grappling with severe instability, including wars, internal conflicts, famine and rising migration pressures. In South Africa itself, 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. Those tensions are not abstract for the delegates. Co-convenor Frank Chikane told a media briefing in Midrand on Thursday that some participants had voiced concern about travelling to a country where, in his words, “our brothers and sisters are being attacked”. He said organisers had assured them they would be safe and that the matter was being dealt with. Delegates also raised concerns over the killing of women in Kempton Park.
Meanwhile, Chikane framed the conference as the product of long-standing conversations among Africans and people of African descent across international forums. “People of African descent and Africans have been meeting in various international conferences. Whenever we meet together, we always find each other,” he said. He recalled a shared recognition that lobbying within individual institutions was not enough, given a history in which people were stolen from the continent 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.
The agenda reflects the breadth of issues that bear directly on citizens’ wellbeing and rights. Reparations, decolonisation, human rights, gender and climate change are all set for discussion. The conference will be addressed by international relations and co-operation minister Ronald Lamola, former president Thabo Mbeki and former president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Central to the proceedings is the intensifying call for reparations for colonialism. Africans, people of African descent and indigenous communities have been demanding compensation for slavery, land dispossession, resource exploitation and cultural destruction. Their argument, made on global platforms, is that colonialism’s legacy continues to fuel inequality and underdevelopment, and that former colonial powers should take responsibility through financial compensation, restitution and investment in affected communities. For the communities concerned, the outcome of such advocacy touches on access to land, economic opportunity and the recognition of cultural loss.
The gathering has the backing of the Kagiso Trust, one of South Africa’s leading development agencies and the main conference sponsor. Its chair, Zwoitwaho Nevhutalu, rallied behind the event, saying they wanted to make it a success.
Whether the declaration and action plans that emerge by Friday translate into tangible improvements for affected communities remains to be seen. What is clear is that the conference signals an effort to move the conversation on reparations and decolonisation from grievance to coordinated action, at a moment when instability, migration pressures and social tensions across the continent make those questions more urgent for the public than ever.