African leaders are advancing a campaign to have colonial-era crimes officially recognized, criminalized, and addressed through reparations. At a conference in Algiers, diplomats and leaders gathered to build on an African Union resolution from earlier this year that calls for justice for the victims of colonialism.
Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf stated that his country’s experience under French rule underscores the necessity of seeking compensation and reclaiming stolen property. He argued for a legal framework to ensure that restitution is treated as a right, “neither a gift nor a favour.”
“Africa is entitled to demand the official and explicit recognition of the crimes committed against its peoples during the colonial period,” Attaf said. “This is an indispensable first step toward addressing the consequences of that era, for which African countries and peoples continue to pay a heavy price in terms of exclusion, marginalisation and backwardness.”
While international conventions have outlawed practices like slavery and apartheid, and the UN Charter prohibits the seizure of territory by force, there is no explicit reference to colonialism as a crime. This legal gap was a central topic at the African Union’s February summit, where leaders proposed developing a unified position on reparations and formally defining colonization as a crime against humanity.
The economic toll of colonialism in Africa is estimated to be in the trillions of dollars. European powers extracted vast profits from gold, rubber, diamonds, and other natural resources, often through brutal methods that left local populations impoverished. In recent years, African states have also intensified their demands for the return of looted artifacts held in European museums.
Attaf noted that Algeria was a fitting host for the conference, having endured one of the most brutal forms of French colonial rule and fought a devastating war for independence from 1954 to 1962. Hundreds of thousands died during the conflict, in which French forces used torture, forced disappearances, and the destruction of villages as part of their counterinsurgency strategy.
Algeria’s history has long informed its stance on the disputed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony claimed by Morocco. Attaf described the territory as “Africa’s last colony” and a case of unfinished decolonization, reaffirming the African Union’s official position.
The push for reparations creates a sensitive dynamic with former colonial powers like France. In 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron described elements of his country’s colonial history in Algeria as a crime against humanity but stopped short of an official apology. Mohamed Arezki Ferrad, an Algerian parliament member, stressed that compensation must be more than symbolic, pointing to looted artifacts yet to be returned by France, including a 16th-century cannon known as Baba Merzoug.
This movement is part of a growing global call for reparative justice. Caribbean governments have also been demanding a full formal apology and financial reparations from former colonizers to address the lasting legacy of colonialism and enslavement.
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