ACCRA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) — The maiden Diaspora Summit opened in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, on Friday, seeking to reunite people of African descent around the globe with the continent for development.
At the opening, Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama said that the time is right for Africa to unite, initiate the reclamation process, and demand reparations for the wrongs of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, colonialism and the theft of artifacts from the continent. With the unification of the African diaspora against long-standing colonial mindsets, Mahama said nothing could stop them from achieving the goal of reclamation. He urged Africans around the globe to “flip the vile narrative of those who oppressed us. In fact, let’s take their entire modus operandi, flip it, and reverse it.” “The reason I believe it is important for us to consciously carry the story of the diaspora as an integral part of Ghana’s narrative is that what divides us ultimately denies our ability to feel at home,” the president said.
Mahama condemned the artificial boundaries imposed on Africa during the colonial era and the way they split ethnic and cultural communities across borders and forced them to live perpetually under different colonial cultures. “Let me reiterate that the future belongs to Africans. We hold the power to change the circumstances of our past. We must be more intentional about our unity than those who oppressed us were about our division,” Mahama stressed. The two-day summit is under the theme “Resetting Ghana: The Diaspora as the 17th Region.”
President of the Council of Ministers of Togo Faure Gnassingbe said that none of Africa’s financial, cultural or digital sovereignty strategies can succeed without mobilizing the diaspora. Gnassingbe urged Africans to take hold of the narrative about the continent, rewrite history from an African perspective, and teach future generations about Africa’s long tradition of resilience, resistance and rebirth. African Union (AU) High Representative for Silencing the Guns Mohamed Ibn Chambas, on behalf of the AU, lauded the government of Ghana for convening the summit at “this historic moment for Africa and its global diaspora.”
Chambas said the Accra Diaspora Summit is a critical building block in a broader continental and global process. The focus of the summit on historical truth, healing, economic justice, youth, innovation, and the digital economy is in line with the AU’s vision of transformative, rather than transactional, reparations.
