By
Kester Kenn Klomegah
Africa-Press – Mauritius. The historic 9th Pan-African Congress, held in Lomé, in the Republic of Togo, signified a clear recognition of the significance of the African diaspora and its role in the development of the continent. The gathering’s central contribution is to reinforce the vital ties with the African Diaspora and people of African descent.
This engaging preparatory process extended to salient themes for our continent and the diaspora, ranging from Pan-Africanism, Sciences, Knowledges and Technologies, Diaspora, Afrodescendants and Development, Pan-Africanism and Migration: Morocco, Economic Pan-Africanism, African Emergence, and Africanophonie, Cultures, Education and Pan-African Identity, and Pan-Africanism, Memories, Restitutions, Reparations, and Reconstructions.
Highlights of the forum include the following: (i) the 9th Pan-African Congress responds to challenges as decisive as those faced by our forebearers—an unequal global order, structural vulnerabilities, climate injustice, external dependencies, and threats to peace and constitutional order. But this moment is also filled with unprecedented promise: Africa is the world’s youngest continent and home to the largest free trade area, AfCFTA, in the globe, and it is set to achieve its Agenda 2063.
(ii) The Heads of State and Government reaffirmed that in the context of the claim for reparatory justice, there is a need to address the inequities that characterize the current international economic and political systems, necessitating the reform of the global financial and trade architecture, as well as the United Nations Security Council.
In the same context of reparatory justice, they recognized the need to address the consequences of transatlantic enslavement, colonialism, and apartheid, which have persisted in many forms, including, among others, debt burden, illicit financial flows, and climate injustice.
This was the guidance received from the Summit in the decision that designated the Theme of the Year as “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations.” The deliberations of the theme of this 9th Pan African Congress are therefore an indispensable contribution to reparatory justice not only for this year, but also for the decade to be launched at the upcoming summit in February 2026.
(iii) The Congress is committed to deepening joint Africa–Caribbean–Diaspora legal strategies and advocacy platforms for cooperation. In that context, talks are underway to host, for the first time, an annual session of the United Nations Permanent Forum of the People of African Descent at the premises of the African Union in Addis Ababa. This is a continuing partnership as a contribution to the Forum’s fourth session dedicated to artificial intelligence and digital justice, an important topic that, in a cross-cutting perspective, is given its centrality in shaping the future.
In relation to the diaspora of people of African descent, the Atlantic Ocean is only a geographic reality; historically and culturally, it is a river that binds both its shores.
(iv) The Congress addresses the fundamental questions of culture, knowledge, and identity. The role of African women and youth could not be overemphasized in this regard. Africa has suffered from past colonial rule that involved systematic looting and destruction of African cultural, intellectual, and spiritual heritage, as well as the deliberate erasure and distortion of African histories.
(v) Education and knowledge production are central to decolonization. The AU Commission will continue to promote initiatives that embed Pan‑African consciousness, historical truth, and reparatory justice into formal and informal education across the continent and the diaspora.
The Congress marked another important step towards the “Africa We Want” and called for forward-looking multilateral reforms, resource mobilization, cultural restitution and reparations, youth and women recognition, mechanisms for diaspora engagement, and an African narrative agenda.
Pan-Africanism has evolved—from resistance to liberation to integration to transformation. The Congress agenda—dialogue between youth, scholars, spiritual leaders, private sector actors, and policymakers—symbolizes another step in a continuous journey of renewal as it addresses Africa and the reform of multilateral institutions.
It was held under the theme “Renewal of Pan-Africanism and the role of Africa in the reform of multilateral institutions: mobilizing resources and reinventing ourselves to act” as part of the activities of the “2021-2031 Decade of African Roots and the African Diaspora” and attended by high-level dignitaries from across Africa.
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