No price tag can clean slavery’s bloodstains — Kwesi Pratt

A leading member of the Organising Committee of the Pan-African Progressive Front (PPF), Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has called on African leaders and institutions to unite and demand reparations from colonial powers, declaring that no amount of money can cleanse the moral stains of slavery.

Speaking at the International Conference commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Fifth Pan-African Congress held at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra, Mr Pratt said Africa must create a Continental Tribunal to hold colonial powers accountable for centuries of exploitation and injustice.

He said Africa must rise beyond symbolism and transform the cry for reparations into a united global movement backed by political will, intellectual conviction, and public mobilisation.

“We must send down a clear message that no amount of money is sufficient to pay the crimes of our slavers and their culprits,” he stated, adding that the quest for justice was not a matter of charity but of historical responsibility.

He called on the continent to “create a Continental Tribunal and empower people to prepare bigger claims against the colonial powers supported by a Continental Reparations Fund.”

Kwesi Pratt’s speech traced the origins of Africa’s suffering to what he described as “deliberate, systematic wrongdoing.”

He recounted how, from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, over 12.5 million Africans were captured and shipped across the Atlantic, with nearly two million dying in the Middle Passage.

“The Atlantic became a cemetery without graves,” he said.

“Those who survived built the modern world. Their labour produced the sugar that sweetened European tea, the cotton that fed its mills, and the tobacco that filled its pockets.”

He reminded the audience that the ports of Liverpool, Bristol, and the stock exchanges of London and New York were financed by the sweat and blood of African men, women, and children.

Mr Pratt noted that even after abolition, justice was denied when slaveholders rather than the enslaved were compensated by European governments.

He condemned colonialism as the new mechanism of domination that followed, turning Africa into an economic appendage of Europe and America.

“Colonialism stole not only our land and labour but also our religions, our languages, and our history,” he said.

“Ninety percent of Africa’s cultural treasures now lie in foreign reserves. The Benin Bronzes are in London, the Ashanti gold is in Paris, the Ethiopian crowns are in Lisbon. Even the skulls of our heroes are displayed as curiosities.”

He told delegates that the economic consequences of slavery and colonialism continue to shape global inequalities today, noting that between 1970 and 2018, over 1.3 trillion dollars were drained from Africa through exploitative financial systems. “We have gone to the World Bank and IMF eighteen times, and every time our condition gets worse,” he said.

“There can only be two reasons for this—either these institutions are woefully incompetent, or they were designed to keep us in this position. In either case, our leaders must stop returning there expecting different results.”

The conference, organised by the Pan-African Progressive Front, attracted delegations from across the continent and the diaspora, including statements of solidarity from former President John Agyekum Kufuor, representatives from Morocco, Western Sahara, Algeria, Sierra Leone, Tunisia, and Libya.

President John Dramani Mahama, the African Union’s Champion for Reparations, delivered the final solidarity message, urging African leaders to “stand united and fearless in the pursuit of justice.”

The event also premiered a documentary titled “Pan-Africanism: The Fire of Freedom,” which revisited the movement’s origins, and concluded with Ghanaian musician Amandzeba’s stirring performance of the Pan-African Anthem written for the conference.

Delegates later gathered at the Kwame Nkrumah monument to form a human Black Star, lighting torches in remembrance of the 80-year legacy of the Manchester Congress and pledging to continue its mission.

Throughout the sessions, participants discussed the urgent need for reparations and economic justice. Session one, chaired by Fred M’membe of the Socialist Party of Zambia, focused on the struggle for political unity and African sovereignty, with Dr Gamel Nasser Adam highlighting how Africa’s underdevelopment is rooted in colonialism and neo-colonialism.

Delegates agreed that the return of cultural treasures and the demand for reparations must be integral to Africa’s path forward.

The “Stolen Artifacts” exhibition, featuring 20 white canvases marked with QR codes linking to information about looted African artifacts, symbolised both loss and the hope of return.

In the second session on economic justice chaired by Philippe Noudjenoume of Benin, Professor Akua Britwum spoke on how global financial power shapes the lives of working women in Africa.

Delegates concluded that Africa’s development cannot proceed without substantial reparations from its former colonisers, declaring that the time had come for those nations to pay the price for centuries of exploitation.

On the sidelines of the forum, members of the Pan-African Coordinating Committee met with Monsieur Emile Parfait of SIMB to discuss the creation of a unified Pan-African media holding.

The Libyan Foreign Minister announced the possibility of hosting the next Pan-African Progressive Front forum in Benghazi, while President Mahama revealed plans for a visa-free travel zone across seven African countries to strengthen integration and mobility.

The conference concluded with a collective resolution that emphasised the creation of a legal institution for assessing damages and preparing claims in international courts, the establishment of a single African reparations fund, and the introduction of customs duties on goods from former colonial countries.

The participants pledged to intensify global media coverage to ensure that reparations remain a constant agenda in international dialogue.

Kwesi Pratt ended his address with a call to action. “Let every African government adopt a reparations policy. Let every parliament debate it. Let every school teach it. Let our diplomats carry it to the United Nations, our economists to the World Bank, and our lawyers to the International Court of Justice,” he said. “Let our people carry it into the streets, into the parks, into the hearts of the weak, and into the heavens.”

He affirmed that Africa’s fight for reparations was not merely an economic demand but a spiritual and moral duty to restore the dignity of African humanity.

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