Africa Day: reparations need capital for economic justice

AS WE mark 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.

- DR PAUL TERNA GBAHABO

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 AU’s proposal to establish a Global Reparations Fund is a visionary step toward shifting the conversation from grievance to economic strategy.

However, 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.