Youth Forum “Africa’s Freedom Is In Our Hands” in Accra to examine debt, colonial extraction and Africa’s future

Africa’s youth are drawing a line in the sand. When young delegates from Ghana and the Alliance of Sahel States gather in Accra next month, they will not simply discuss the continent’s debt crisis — they will lay out a plan to break free from it.

The Pan-African Progressive Front (PPF) will host a Youth Forum on Debt and Reparations, “Africa’s Freedom Is In Our Hands”, on September 5 at the ISSER Conference Hall of the University of Ghana, Legon. An estimated 200 participants are expected to attend, and the organisers are clear about their ambition: this is not a talking shop — it is a launchpad.

The forum, themed “Reclaiming Africa’s Wealth, Resisting Neocolonial Bondage”, is designed to expose the raw nerve connecting Africa’s colonial past, its present economic stranglehold and the burning question of reparations.

At the heart of the discussions lies a single, unflinching question: who controls Africa’s wealth? The organisers insist that the answer is still shaped by colonial-era structures, and they are determined to change that.

The CFA Franc, French imperial extraction and the wider architecture of debt bondage will all come under scrutiny. Criticism of France, the organisers stress, is not aimed at the French people — it is directed squarely at a system that continues to pull the strings: a currency pegged to France and managed by the French Treasury, backed by military interventions and financial coercion. The CFA, they argue, is not merely a currency — it is a leash. And they are determined not just to loosen it, but to shatter it completely.

Reparations, the organisers insist, are not a charitable gesture to be begged for — they are a debt owed, and one that must be paid. Colonial powers, they argue, extracted resources, labour and dignity for centuries. What is now being demanded is not aid, but restitution. This is not a fixation on past wrongs, they say — it is the essential foundation for a fairer future.

Nor are they prepared to accept the legitimacy of debts incurred by colonial administrations or imposed by the IMF. These obligations, they maintain, were contracted without popular consent, often under duress, and carry no moral or legal weight. To cancel these debts is not an act of radicalism — it is an act of elementary justice. To refuse would be the true indecency.

Rather than leaving these issues to governments and international institutions, the organisers are placing young Africans at the centre of the conversation. The first session, “Youth Role in Reparations: What Can Youth Do?”, will move beyond theory — it will explore practical, concrete actions young people can take to advance the reparations campaign. Other sessions will tackle “Reparations Flashmob and Micro Lawsuits” and “Debt Cancellation and the Global Debt Trap.” The programme will culminate in an open-floor synthesis, where participants will shape their own proposals.

Young Africans are not waiting for permission to speak. As the demographic majority and the engine of both street protest and business innovation, they are claiming their seat at the table — and they are not prepared to be ignored.

The presence of young delegates from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger adds a sharp regional edge to the discussions. The three countries, which form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), have invited their ambassadors to Ghana to address the forum. Their participation, the PPF says, will ground the debate in the lived reality of the AES sovereignty project — a real-world experiment in economic self-determination that offers lessons far beyond the Sahel.

The forum will be chaired by Ghana’s Presidential Special Envoy on Reparations, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah — a signal that the conversation has moved from the margins to the mainstream.

For Sumaila Mohammed, Head of the PPF’s Economic and Reparations Department, the stakes could not be higher.

“The Forum is about bringing African youth together to understand the economic structures that continue to constrain our sovereignty — and to develop practical responses,” he said.

He made it clear that the organisation is not interested in passive observation. Young people, he insisted, must become architects of their own future.

“We want young people to see themselves not as observers, but as active participants in the struggle for reparations, debt cancellation and genuine economic independence,” he added.

The forum is rooted in a wider Pan-African vision. The PPF (pp-front.com), headquartered in Accra, works to coordinate and support progressive movements across Africa and the diaspora. Its philosophy draws directly from the Pan-Africanist legacy of Dr Kwame Nkrumah — above all, the conviction that Africa’s political and economic unity is not optional, but essential to its sovereignty.

That question of sovereignty has never been more urgent. Across the continent, debates over natural resources, economic policy and development priorities are intensifying. The organisers are betting that the generation now coming of age will not wait for permission to join those debates — they will shape them.

Accra is the ignition point, not the final destination. Every delegate will leave with a charge: to return home, replicate the dialogue and build networks that cannot be ignored. The goal is not consolidation — it is contagion. Ideas, once sparked, spread.

The September 5 forum is designed to connect the historical demand for reparations with the immediate urgency of debt cancellation and economic independence. But above all, it is designed to give young Africans a platform — and a voice — to put forward their own proposals.

Whether the forum translates into lasting action remains to be seen. But for the young Africans gathering in Accra, the message is unmistakable: the era of silent acceptance is over. The time for demands has come.