Experts from the African continent and its global diasporas called on European governments to address their colonial past and ongoing impacts at the Dekoloniale Berlin Africa Conference, a decolonial counter-version of the 1884/5 Berlin Africa Conference 140 years ago.
Representatives from Africa and people of African descent came together at the conference on November 15, 2024, to reflect on the history and lasting impacts 140 years after the opening of the 1884/5 Berlin Africa Conference, where European powers expanded their colonial reach across the African continent. Civil society organizations working on the legacies of colonialism in the world, including its ongoing impact on human rights, also joined the November 15 conference.
At the Dekoloniale Berlin Africa Conference, 19 experts discussed how the legacies of those historical injustices are linked to systemic racism and global inequality. The 19 experts included the award-winning UK broadcaster Gary Younge, the Angolan artist Kiluanji Kia Henda, the Cameroonian lawyer Alice Nkom, and Pumla Dineo Gqola, the South African academic, award-winning writer, and gender activist.
"It's important the Dekoloniale Berlin conference took place at the site that changed the world in many ways, powered by an enormous sense of entitlement, which can never be fully returned," said Pumla Dineo Gqola.
"The conversations around debt, human rights, and reparations, even at the level of art and culture, the conversation of coloniality, is one that shows every aspect of how the EU is a power block. Going forward, I want to see a significant shift in the negotiation of states inside and out of the EU, and whatever that looks like needs to move beyond diplomacy, while conversations about reparations must be serious and move out of the realms of superficiality."
The 19 experts, either from the African diaspora or invited from countries affected by the 19 European powers represented in the 1884/5 conference, set out a 10-point list of demands on human rights, reparations, migration, economy, trade, and anti-racism.
Among their demands are calls for European governments to address their selective advocacy of human rights in their relations with the African continent based on political, economic, and diplomatic interests; the need for European governments to adopt transformative actions that unconditionally recognize systemic racism, inequalities and inequities; fair and equitable trade and investment regimes between Africa and Europe while also consulting the African diaspora; an end to EU externalization of its border which has created EU borders on African soil; the return of what was stolen from communities, whether land, objects or the remains of ancestors; and inclusive dialogue where African communities lead the conversation on their terms.
As part of a wider Dekoloniale festival marking 140 years since the Berlin Africa Conference, African Futures Lab, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch organized a joint workshop to explore strategies for communities impacted by colonial legacies - and who continue to be affected today - to achieve justice and fulfilment of their human rights in line with European governments' obligations under international human rights law.
"For far too long communities and individuals directly impacted by historical injustices have been demanding reparations, especially Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent," said Rym Khadhraoui, Amnesty International's racial justice researcher. "Colonialism, enslavement, the slave trade and their ongoing legacies remain largely unaccounted for by European states and others who are responsible."
Based on experts' interventions, participants at the workshop shared and exchanged reparations struggles they have experienced and obstacles to upholding communities' rights. Participants noted the failure of meaningful consultations of affected communities in the Namibia-Germany negotiations process to address Germany's colonial crimes in Southwest Africa and by the UK government in the context of its negotiations with Mauritius around sovereignty over the Chagos Islands.
African Futures Lab recently released a report on the Métis children - children of mixed African and European ancestry - abducted by Belgium's colonial administration. In the Great Lakes region, organizations concerned with the rights of Métis children are demanding concrete reparations measures from the Belgian state. Five Métis women, who were forcibly taken during Belgium's colonization of Congo, are pursuing legal action in Belgium against the Belgian state. They seek justice and reparations for crimes against humanity, with a ruling expected in early December.
"Reckoning with these European colonial legacies is not optional for European governments, it's an obligation under international human rights law," said Almaz Teffera, researcher on racism in Europe at Human Rights Watch. "European governments should embrace the need for victim-centred reparations processes that genuinely recognize and address the ongoing harms and losses as a result of their historic actions over the years."
Going forward, those affected by colonialism are calling for accountability and acknowledgment of the historical injustices of European colonialism and its impacts on human rights in line with European governments' obligation under international human rights law.
The far-reaching impacts are manifold, with Amnesty International highlighting the impacts of colonialism in a submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
"Governments can no longer dismiss our call for reparations: they must be held accountable," said Geneviève Kaninda, advocacy and policy officer for African Futures Lab.
"True reparatory justice isn't just a step forward; it's a necessity for building a fair and equitable world rooted in racial justice. The colonial legacies of oppression have entrenched systemic racism, widened global wealth gaps, and fuelled inequality. It's time to dismantle these structures and correct the historical wrongs that still shape our world today."
