❓WHAT HAPPENED: The African Union has joined a Caribbean campaign to demand reparations from Britain for slavery and colonialism.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The African Union, Caribbean leaders, and former colonial powers such as Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Germany, and Belgium.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The call was made during a summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in September 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: African Union Commission Chairman Mahamoud Ali Youssouf stated that Africa and the Caribbean would work together to “honour our ancestors, to uplift our descendants and reclaim our shared destiny in freedom, justice and unity.”
🎯IMPACT: The African Union plans to formulate its own reparations demands, following the Caribbean’s call for trillions in compensation.
The African Union (AU) has formally joined forces with Caribbean nations in a renewed demand for reparations from former colonial powers, including Britain. The call was made during a high-level summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, Chairman of the African Union Commission, claimed that the legacy of colonialism continues to impact development, economic inequality, and political sovereignty across the so-called Global South, despite hundreds of billions in foreign aid from the West. Youssouf stated that Africa and the Caribbean would work together to “honour our ancestors, to uplift our descendants and reclaim our shared destiny in freedom, justice and unity.”
There appears to be no parallel effort to extract reparations from the Arab nations and Turkey, despite centuries of Islamic slavery, imperialism, and exploitation in North Africa and East Africa, stamped out largely throught the efforts of Britain and other Western countries.
The African Union is building on efforts by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which for over a decade has campaigned for reparations through its “10-point plan.” The plan includes calls for financial compensation, formal apologies, debt cancellation, investment in education and health, and the return of certain cultural artifacts. However, some are questioning the alliance between the African Union and CARICOM against Europe, considering many African nations profited immensely from selling people into slavery in the Caribbean and North and South America themselves.
In the United States, Democrat lawmakers also recently reintroduced a resolution calling for reparations for black Americans. The proposal calls for trillions of dollars in federal compensation to address racial disparities in wealth, education, health, and housing.
Meanwhile, Haiti has renewed its call for reparations from France, specifically for the 1825 indemnity it was forced to pay in exchange for its independence, following a violent revolution that saw most of the island’s white population slaughtered. Haitian leaders argue that symbolic and financial redress is still necessary to correct historical wrongs, despite having already received extensive assistance over many years.
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