- Africa must demand reparation from former colonisers, says activist
NKOMBO KACHEMBA
Accra, Ghana
AFRICA must refuse to repay illegitimate debt and demand reparations from former colonial powers and corporations, Roger McKenzie said on Tuesday in the Opa Kapijimpanga Lecture ahead of the Fifth African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD V), which started yesterday.
Speaking virtually, Mr McKenzie, who is international editor of the Morning Star and author of African Uhuru, described Africa’s US$1.5 trillion debt as “neo-enslavement” and a deliberate tool of control maintained by global financial institutions.
He said more than 30 African countries now spend more on debt repayments than healthcare, calling this a manufactured dependency designed to maintain Africa’s economic weakness.
“This is not development,” Mr McKenzie said. “This is a system built to keep us dependent. If the World Bank and IMF refuse to cancel Africa’s odious debt, then Africa should simply refuse to pay.”
Citing precedents such as Ecuador and Argentina, which defaulted on illegitimate debts and recovered, Mr McKenzie urged African leaders to take coordinated action against what he called a predatory global financial system.
He said Africa’s economic crisis is inseparable from the historical legacy of slavery, colonialism, and resource extraction.
“It is not Africa that owes Europe — it is Europe that owes Africa,” Mr McKenzie said.
He referenced the British government’s compensation of slave owners in 1833 and the continued economic exclusion of African descendants of slavery.
“This grotesque reversal of justice must be corrected. Reparations are not a handout.
They are a debt long overdue,” he said
Mr McKenzie said corporations that profited from slavery and colonialism must be held accountable.
He singled out Lloyd’s of London, which insured slave ships and issued an apology in 2020, calling such statements insufficient.
“These companies are sitting on the compounded interest of centuries of theft,” he said. “If they were serious, they would transfer wealth.”
He also linked Africa’s debt and historical exploitation to the climate crisis, noting that the continent is among the least responsible for global emissions but bears a disproportionate share of climate-related disasters and food insecurity.
“Climate reparations are as essential as financial reparations,” Mr McKenzie said.
He criticised the structure of international climate negotiations, arguing that they routinely sideline Africa’s interests.
“We cannot remain in an abusive relationship and keep coping with it,” he said. “We must walk away and rebuild global engagement on our terms.”
Mr McKenzie outlined specific measures that reparations should include, such as debt cancellation, the return of looted artefacts, windfall taxes on companies that benefited from slavery and colonisation, and investment in African-led development strategies.
He said Africa has the capacity to lead its own development and does not need to rely on external models or validation.
He also called for the establishment of scholarship and trust funds for the descendants of the enslaved and condemned the refusal of European institutions to return stolen cultural property, calling it “deeply racist and indefensible.”
The lecture was delivered ahead of AfCoDD V, which opened on Wednesday in Accra under the theme “Reimagining the global order: Debt, reparations and reparative justice for Africa.”
The event is organised by AFRODAD and brings together African policymakers, economists, civil society, and international institutions.
The annual lecture is held in memory of Opa Kapijimpanga, the late Zambian economist who founded AFRODAD and dedicated his career to African economic sovereignty.
Mr McKenzie’s remarks were aligned with Kapijimpanga’s legacy, emphasising the need for systemic change rather than reform within existing global structures.
“There will be no Harriet Tubman figure to rescue us this time,” Mr McKenzie concluded.
“Liberation will come only through collective struggle — by us, for us.”
