Youth of Africa, Africa’s Freedom in their Hands -By Humphrey Quaye

The youth of Africa possesses the unbreakable spirit of Pan-Africanism and struggle, in the spirit of solidarity. The youth has the spirit of the unfinished work of Pan-Africanism forebears. It is befitting to consider Accra – the city that Kwame Nkrumah made the heartbeat of the continental struggle against colonialism and imperialism, when he declared that, “Ghana’s independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa.”

The most urgent question for our generation now is: *Debt and Reparations.* The plain and simple truth that demands constant echoing is that the so-called debt crisis of Africa is not an accident, neither is it an African creation. It is the continuation of the same plunder of slavery, colonialism, neocolonialism and imperialism by other refined and well camouflaged means and methods.

For 400 years they took our know-how without due credit  and our labour for free. For 100 years they took our lands,  minerals and other resources for free. Now, they lend us our own stolen wealth at interest, and call us debtors.

We cannot discuss debt without discussing resetting, repair and restitution. And we cannot discuss repair without demanding justice. The demand for reparative justice reflects the very essence of the existence of the Pan African Progressive Front. The PPF is not just an NGO. We are a front – a united front of progressive political parties, trade unions, youth and women’s movements, peasant associations, socialist formations, and mass organizations from across Africa, the Caribbean, and the Black Diaspora.

In the last 18 months, we have moved from idea to institution:

*1. We have built our home.* On June 30th, 2025, we opened the PPF International Headquarters here in Accra. Accra is once again the capital of Pan-African organizing.

*2. We have built our unity.* In preparation for our historic task, we convened a landmark online conference bringing together over 60 influential Pan-African formations from 32 countries – from IMANI NA UMOJA of Guinea-Bissau to the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, to comrades in Brazil and the United States. The Conference underscored the importance of the Trade Union struggles, Women’s emancipation, and Youth engagement going forward.

*3. And we have made history.*

On 18th and 19th of November 2025, at the iconic Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra, the PPF convened the *International Conference of Progressive Pan-African Forces to Commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the 5th Pan-African Congress held in Manchester in 1945.* Manchester 1945 gave us political independence. Manchester 2.0 – Accra 2025 – must give us economic independence, which is intrinsically linked to reparative justice.

That Conference, held under the motto *”From Historical Memory to Economic and Political Justice,”* was opened by H.E. President John Dramani Mahama, the African Union Champion for Reparations, and brought together over 200 delegates from *57 countries*.

In that hall were trade unionists like Comrade Irvin Jim of NUMSA, South Africa’s largest union; political leaders like Comrade Martin Fayulu from Congo and Fred M’membe from Zambia; veteran pan-Africanists like Kwesi Pratt Jr., Prof. Akua Britwum, and the presence of even the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires – proof that the world can no longer ignore the reparations question.

That Conference produced not communiques, but concrete instruments:

We adopted the *Accra Declaration* – a comprehensive program for Africa’s complete liberation: resource sovereignty, industrialization, agricultural revolution, and financial independence.

We adopted the *Special Accra Declaration on Reparations*, which declares reparations an inalienable right of Africans and people of African descent.

And we moved from rhetoric to architecture. The Declaration proclaims:

1. a) The creation of the *Joint Institute for the Assessment of Damage and Documentation of the Colonial Legacy* – to build the scientific, legal and archival evidence base for our claims in international courts and at the UN;
2. b) The creation of the *Pan-African Reparations Justice Fund* – based on principles of transparency and accountability to manage and redistribute reparatory resources;
3. c) The demand for the *return of stolen cultural artifacts*, with a special exhibition of looted treasures held alongside our conference to remind the world that they still hold our soul in their museums.

The 1945 Congress was led by Nkrumah, Padmore, Du Bois, Kenyatta, and Banda. They were young men and women then. They declared Africa must be free. Today, in 2026, we are here to declare that Africa must be *free from debt, free from neocolonial control, and paid what is owed to her.*

Your student loans, your inability to find work after graduation, the IMF dictating your national budgets – that is the debt trap. The reparations we demand is the key to break it.

The Youth of Africa demand: Cancel the odious debt. Pay the reparatory debt. Therefore, I charge this Forum with three tasks:

1. Formulate the Youth Chapter of the Accra Declaration – what does reparations mean for climate justice, for tech sovereignty, for your future?
2. Organize in every campus, every community, every digital space.
3. Prepare to join us in the Continental Campaign for the establishment of National and Regional Reparations Bodies.

The 5th Pan-African Congress told the colonial powers: We are coming. Today, the youth must tell the creditors and the former colonizers: We are here to collect. Forward ever! Reparations now! Long live Pan-African Unity! Long live the Youth of Africa and its Diaspora!

Author: Humphrey Quaye, Head of the Pan-African Progessive Front (PPF).