The African Union (AU) has adopted a landmark resolution to extend its Reparations Theme of the Year by a decade, from 2026 to 2036, with Ghana set to take a leading role in driving the continental campaign for justice, restoration, and racial healing for Africans and people of African descent.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, announced the development following the AU Mid-Year Review held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Writing on his official X (formerly Twitter) account, Mr. Ablakwa described the decision as a “consequential resolution” and confirmed that Ghana has been designated as the Champion of the extended reparations agenda.
Mr. Ablakwa also revealed that he had concluded his tenure as Chair of the Ministerial Committee on Agenda 2063, the AU’s strategic framework for inclusive growth and sustainable development. He noted that South Africa is expected to take over the chairmanship role going forward.
Additionally, he confirmed that the 2026 AU Budget and the Strategic Allocation of Contributions and Assessments (SACA) report had been approved during the sessions.
“This is a great outcome from the AU Mid-Year Review,” he posted, adding a Pan-African rallying call: “Africa shall rise! Justice shall be done! Kwame Nkrumah urges us on: ‘Forward ever, backward never.’”
The African Union had earlier declared 2025 as the “Year of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations,” underscoring the bloc’s long-standing commitment to addressing historical and systemic injustices. The AU’s reparatory agenda focuses on the enduring consequences of the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism, apartheid, and genocide, while also pressing for the restitution of stolen cultural heritage and the empowerment of African communities.
Ghana has been at the forefront of this campaign, playing host to several key initiatives, including the 2022 Africa-Diaspora Summit on Reparations and the 2023 Accra Reparations Conference (ARC). These engagements brought together African governments, civil society, global diaspora groups, and reparations activists to develop frameworks for reparatory justice, economic redress, and racial healing.
The AU’s involvement in reparations advocacy dates back to the era of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), with notable figures such as Nigeria’s Chief M.K.O. Abiola pushing the continental reparations discourse into global focus.
A major milestone was the 1993 Abuja Proclamation on Reparations, issued after the First Pan-African Conference on Reparations.
At the global level, the AU has worked in tandem with the United Nations, particularly through the 2001 Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.
This declaration recognised the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity and called for victims of historical injustices to have access to justice and effective remedies.
The AU has also championed the restitution of looted cultural artifacts. In 2021, it convened a continental experts’ workshop in collaboration with the Government of Senegal and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) to formulate a Common African Position on the return of cultural property.
In 2022, Ghana co-hosted the Africa-Diaspora Reparations Summit alongside key partners such as the Africa Transitional Justice Legacy Fund, Global Circle for Reparations and Healing, and the Africa-America Institute. The resulting Accra Declaration on Reparations and Racial Healing called for reparations to be treated as a multigenerational, transnational mission involving grassroots actors, civil society, governments, and the private sector.
Further reinforcing its commitment, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights in November 2022 adopted a resolution supporting Africa’s reparations agenda and reaffirming the 2001 Durban Declaration as a guiding framework.
The AU’s reparations movement has also established ties with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), with a high-level AU delegation visiting Barbados in early 2023 to deepen AU-CARICOM cooperation on reparatory justice.
In 2023, the AU Assembly endorsed Ghana’s proposal to host an international conference on building a united African front to pursue reparations. It also called for the creation of a continental Committee of Experts on Reparations to develop a Common African Position and an African Reparatory Programme of Action.
With the AU’s decision to extend the reparations theme for another decade, Ghana’s role as Champion places it at the helm of shaping a continental and global narrative—rooted in justice, dignity, and historical redress for African peoples and their descendants around the world.
