logo
Africa Day: reparations as economic justice

Africa Day: reparations as economic justice

IOL News18-05-2025

An aerial drone photo taken on March 4, 2024 shows trains running on the Lagos Rail Mass Transit Blue Line in Lagos, Nigeria. The African Union's proposal to establish a Global Reparations Fund is a visionary step toward shifting the conversation from grievance to economic strategy, the writer says.
Image: Xinhua / Han Xu
As Africa marks 2025 Africa Day under the African Union's theme, 'Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations,' the conversation must evolve beyond apologies, acknowledgements and symbolism.
Reparative justice demands capital: real, sustained and strategic financial commitment. Without it, justice risks becoming little more than rhetoric.
The moral case is long established. Centuries of slavery, colonialism, and racial extraction built Western wealth while impoverishing the African continent.
These were not passive injustices, but deliberate systems of economic dispossession. The legacies remain: weakened institutions, broken infrastructure and generational poverty.
Reparations are not charity. They are overdue investments in rebuilding what was systematically plundered.
The African Union's proposal to establish a Global Reparations Fund is a visionary step toward shifting the conversation from grievance to economic strategy.
Video Player is loading.
Play Video
Play
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
-:-
Loaded :
0%
Stream Type LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque
Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
Advertisement
Next
Stay
Close ✕
Ad Loading
But good intentions are not enough. The fund must be anchored in a robust development finance strategy - one that mobilises diverse, large-scale, concessionary capital.
Africa already has a wide array of development finance tools at its disposal.
Bond guarantees can help African governments and municipalities issue ESG-linked development bonds on favourable terms.
By mitigating country risk, guarantees backed by the Reparations Fund can unlock billions in long-term capital for underserved communities, reducing dependence on foreign aid and reframing reparations as opportunity rather than charity.
Blended finance, which mixes public, private, and philanthropic capital, can de-risk investment in sectors long excluded from global markets: Black-owned businesses, climate adaptation and affordable housing.
By targeting historically disadvantaged communities, blended finance brings justice and development into the conversation.
The Fund must also tap into private loan instruments. Private loans, through project finance, trade credit and loan syndication, can support transformational infrastructure projects such as transport, energy and water, connecting neglected regions to growth.
Letters of credit and soft commodity finance can open global markets to African exporters.
Credit enhancement tools like partial credit guarantees and partial risk guarantees can be deployed to lower risk and attract private capital covering political and commercial risk, improving credit ratings and reducing borrowing costs.
Equity and quasi-equity instruments including mezzanine and preferred shares, can help scale African enterprises in health, agriculture, tech, affordable housing.
But finance without capacity is fragile. Building resilient institutions and local capacity is essential to ensure funds are used effectively.
Reparations must deliver not just infrastructure, but institutional transformation. Technical assistance - from feasibility studies to procurement systems - is essential.
Strong institutions, especially at the local level, are the bedrock of sustainable development. Reparative justice must build capacity, not just capital stock.
The success of this effort hinges on governance.
The AU Reparations Fund must be more than a symbol. It must be transparent, accountable, and community driven. It must prioritise outcomes over optics. Financing schools, not statues, businesses, not bureaucracies.
This is also a matter of reframing. Reparations are not just about redress they are about building a fairer future.
Properly structured, reparative finance aligns with global priorities: sustainable development, climate resilience and inclusive growth. These are not African issues alone. They are universal imperatives.
Critics often argue reparations are impractical. Yet trillions have been mobilised for war, pandemics and financial bailouts. The real barrier is not scarcity of funds but scarcity of political will.
Reparations framed as economic justice can shift the debate from grievance to strategy, from guilt to growth, and from a focus on the past to the future. Africa doesn't need another roundtable of apologies.
It needs critical but patient capital that builds schools, not just statues; funds businesses, not just ceremonies; and finances dignity not mere tokenism.
The African Union's reparations initiative can be that turning point if it draws boldly from the development finance toolbox, grounded in accountability and moral clarity.
Justice without capital is just conversation.
It's time to finance Africa's future and with it, a fairer world.
Dr Paul Terna Gbahabo is a postdoctoral researcher at Stellenbosch Business School and a development finance expert focusing on innovative financing, structural transformation, and inclusive growth in Africa.
Dr Paul Terna Gbahabo.
Image: Supplied.
Dr Paul Terna Gbahabo.
Image: Supplied.
Visit: www.businessreport.co.za
BUSINESS REPORT

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Iran says to submit own nuclear proposal to US soon
Iran says to submit own nuclear proposal to US soon

eNCA

timean hour ago

  • eNCA

Iran says to submit own nuclear proposal to US soon

Iran said on Monday it will soon present a counter-proposal on a nuclear deal with the United States, after it had described Washington's offer as containing "ambiguities". Tehran and Washington have held five rounds of talks since April to thrash out a new nuclear accord to replace the deal with major powers that US President Donald Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018. The longtime foes have been locked in a diplomatic standoff over Iran's uranium enrichment, with Tehran defending it as a "non-negotiable" right and Washington describing it as a "red line". On May 31, after the fifth round of talks, Iran said it had received "elements" of a US proposal, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later saying the text contained "ambiguities". Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei criticised the US proposal as "lacking elements" reflective of the previous rounds of negotiations, without providing further details. "We will soon submit our own proposed plan to the other side through (mediator) Oman once it is finalised," Baqaei told a weekly press briefing. "It is a proposal that is reasonable, logical and balanced, and we strongly recommend that the American side value this opportunity." Iran's parliament speaker has said the US proposal failed to include the lifting of sanctions -- a key demand for Tehran, which has been reeling under their weight for years. - 'Strategic mistake' - Trump, who has revived his "maximum pressure" campaign of sanctions on Iran since taking office in January, has repeatedly said Tehran will not be allowed any uranium enrichment under a potential deal. On Wednesday, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the US offer was "100 percent against" notions of independence and self-reliance. He insisted that uranium enrichment was "key" to Iran's nuclear programme and that the US "cannot have a say" on the issue. Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set in the 2015 deal and close though still short of the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead. Western countries, including the United States, have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire atomic weapons, while Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. The United Nations nuclear watchdog on Monday began a Board of Governors meeting in Vienna that will last until Friday to discuss Iran's nuclear activities among other topics. "I call upon Iran urgently to cooperate fully and effectively with the International Atomic Energy Agency," said agency chief Rafael Grossi in his opening speech. "Unless and until Iran assists the agency in resolving the outstanding safeguards issues, the agency will not be in a position to provide assurance that Iran's nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful," he added. Earlier, the agency released a report criticising "less than satisfactory" cooperation from Tehran, particularly in explaining past cases of nuclear material found at undeclared sites. Iran has criticised the IAEA report as unbalanced, saying it relied on "forged documents" provided by its arch foe Israel. Britain, France and Germany, the three European countries that are party to the 2015 deal, are currently weighing whether to trigger the sanctions "snapback" mechanism in the accord. The mechanism would reinstate UN sanctions in response to Iranian non-compliance -- an option that expires in October. On Friday, Araghchi warned European powers against backing a draft resolution at the IAEA accusing Tehran of non-compliance, calling it a "strategic mistake". On Monday, Baqaei said Iran has "prepared and formulated a series of steps and measures" if the resolution is passed. "Without a doubt, the response to confrontation will not be more cooperation," he added.

Russia, Ukraine swap first prisoners in large-scale exchange
Russia, Ukraine swap first prisoners in large-scale exchange

eNCA

time3 hours ago

  • eNCA

Russia, Ukraine swap first prisoners in large-scale exchange

Russia and Ukraine on Monday swapped a first group of captured soldiers -- part of an agreement reached during peace talks that appeared to be in doubt over the weekend. The deal to exchange prisoners of war and repatriate the bodies of killed fighters was the only concrete agreement reached at the talks, which have failed to lead to a breakthrough towards ending the three-year war. Progress has stalled. Russia has issued tough conditions for halting its invasion and has repeatedly rejected calls for an unconditional ceasefire. "Today an exchange began, which will continue in several stages over the coming days," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media. He posted images of soldiers draped in Ukrainian flags, cheering and hugging. "Among those we are bringing back now are the wounded, the severely wounded, and those under the age of 25," he added. Russia's defence ministry also confirmed the swap was part of "agreements reached on 2 June in Istanbul". Neither side said how many prisoners were released. After the talks in Istanbul, both said it would involve more than 1,000 captured soldiers, making it the largest exchange of the three-year war. The swap itself had appeared in jeopardy over the weekend, when Moscow and Kyiv traded accusations of delaying and thwarting the planned exchange. Zelensky accused Russia on Sunday of playing a "dirty, political game" and of not sticking to the agreed parameters -- to free all captured soldiers that are sick, wounded or under the age of 25. Russia said Kyiv was refusing to take back bodies of dead soldiers, 1,200 of which it said were waiting in refrigerated trucks near the border. - Talks 'pointless' - Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered the biggest European conflict since World War II, forced millions to flee their homes and decimated much of eastern and southern Ukraine. Pressed by US President Donald Trump to end the conflict, the two sides have opened direct negotiations for the first time in more than three years in search of an agreement. But they appear as far apart as ever from an agreement. In Istanbul on June 2, Russia demanded Ukraine withdraw its forces from areas still under its control, recognise Moscow's annexation of five Ukrainian regions and renounce all Western military support. Kyiv is seeking a full ceasefire and a summit between Zelensky, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump to try to break the impasse. While welcoming POW exchanges, Zelensky said last week said it was "pointless" to hold further talks with the current Russian delegation -- who he previously dismissed as "empty heads" -- since they could not agree to a ceasefire. Meanwhile fighting on the front lines and in the skies has intensified. Russia said on Sunday its troops had crossed into Ukraine's industrial Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time in its campaign -- a potentially key advance given that Moscow has not put forward a territorial claim to that region. war And Moscow launched a record 479 drones at Ukraine overnight, Kyiv's air force said on Monday. The Ukrainian mayor of the western city of Rivne, Oleksandr Tretyak, called it "the largest attack" on the region since the start of the war. Russia said it had targeted an airfield near the village of Dubno in the Rivne region. It called the attack "one of the retaliatory strikes" for a brazen drone attack by Ukraine on June 1 against Russian military jets stationed at air bases thousands of kilometres (miles) behind the front line. Kyiv also claimed responsibility for an attack on a Russian electronics factory overnight, saying it manufactured parts for drones.

G20 Sherpas convene in South Africa to shape urban policy
G20 Sherpas convene in South Africa to shape urban policy

IOL News

time4 hours ago

  • IOL News

G20 Sherpas convene in South Africa to shape urban policy

Tshwane Mayo Dr Nasiphi Moya and Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero brief the media about the forthcoming U20 Sherpa gathering to be held in Tshwane. Image: Oupa Mokoena/Independent Newspapers Over the next few days, 96 U20 Sherpas from G20 member cities will be leading discussions and crafting policy recommendations - hosted by the Cities of Tshwane and Johannesburg. The Group of Twenty (G20) is an international forum for global economic and financial cooperation, bringing together the world's largest economies and South Africa holds the presidency of the G20 this year. The City is ready for this landmark occasion, Tshwane Executive Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya said. She gave the assurance that the City of Tshwane, where this first Urban 20 Sherpa Meeting and African Mayors Assembly will take place - a first on African soil - is geared for the occasion. 'This is a landmark moment for our capital city. It is also a turning point in the story of how cities, particularly African cities, are stepping forward to shape the future of our urban world,' Moya said during a media briefing on Monday. It is the first time the Urban 20 convenes on the African continent. Moya said it comes at a time when the global context demands urgency, unity, and bold leadership. Cities will align their voices and set out a shared vision for urban progress. 'Across South Africa and around the world, cities are grappling with the interconnected challenges of climate change, inequality, and economic strain. These pressures require more than conversation. They call for coordination, commitment, and action.' Moya added that by hosting the U20 Sherpa Meeting and the African Mayors Assembly, we are ensuring that Africa's voice is not only present but actively shaping the G20 agenda at the highest level. She explained that while the issues we face are global, the most effective solutions are local. Cities are where policy meets reality. 'African cities, with all their complexity, determination, and creativity, are central to building a more just and sustainable future.' The U20 will for the first time also take place alongside a dedicated African Mayors Assembly - a platform for addressing our continent's specific priorities. From climate adaptation to equitable service delivery, the Assembly will ensure that Africa's urban agenda is meaningfully reflected in the final Communiqué, Moya said. As part of this week's programme, the U20 Schools Legacy Programme will also be launched at Groenkloof Nature Reserve. It aims to equip young people with the practical skills, exposure, and inspiration they need to succeed in a rapidly changing world. On June 14, some of the City's most iconic sites, such as the Union Buildings, Dinokeng Game Reserve, and Freedom Park, will be showcased to the delegates attending the U20 meeting scheduled for later this week.. Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero meanwhile explained that four priorities are tabled that would anchor the U20 agenda—each deeply reflective of South Africa's developmental trajectory but also resonant with global urban realities. The first is economic opportunities and urban financing, which will focus on unlocking investment pipelines for cities and closing the growing infrastructure gap. Climate action and urban resilience will also come under the spotlight, recognising that cities must be proactive planners in an age of climate disruption.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store