The idea of moving towards a 9th Pan-African Congress in Lomé, Togo, was imposed on Africa for a number of reasons. This includes the need put an end to the paradox between the desire clearly expressed at institutional and national levels by the African Union to involve the diasporas more deeply in the work of continental development and the feeling of abandonment by Africa among several Afro-descendants.
Some Afro-descendants feel resentful towards Africa because of the continent’s lack of commitment to them. They claim to be African and often expect the continent to take an interest in their fate, wherever they are in the world. Africa’s discretion on issues such as the memory of slavery, anti-Afro-descendant racism, discrimination, and reparation is shocking to some people of African descent. It was therefore necessary to overcome this state of cold relations between Africa and these Afro-descendants, And also at the same time to find a framework for reflecting together on the requests from other Afro-descendants to return to Africa.
The Pan-African Congress, as a periodic forum for the African world to come together and reunite, was the ideal setting, hence the decision to organise a 9th Pan-African Congress. One of the main focuses of the 9th Pan-African Congress in Lomé is to provide an opportunity to reaffirm the solidarity between Africa and its Diaspora, which our continental organisation defines as “populations of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality, and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union”. The value of the AU’s definition of the African Diaspora is that it allows for the inclusion of nationals of African countries living outside the continent and Afro-descendants wherever they may be or reside in the world.
For a long time, the African diaspora in its two-faceted capacity was neglected and marginalised in the continent’s development issues. The reality for some time has been that there has been a shift in awareness of the positive role that the African diasporas and Afro-descendants can play in an Africa in search of a renaissance. There is virtually no African country today that does not have a proven interest in the diasporas. In Togo, for example, there is a policy devoted to the diaspora.
The AU has made the African diaspora the sixth region of Africa. African States have undoubtedly understood the importance of revitalising relations with the diasporas and people of African descent, and this led the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government to declare, at its 34th ordinary session of 6 and 7 February 2021 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the decade 2021-2031 the “Decade of African Roots and the African Diaspora”.
There is therefore a pressing need to reinvigorate relations between African communities. The 9th Pan-African Congress is intended to respond to this need and reinvigorate relations between the African continent and Africans in the diaspora, as defined in the two-dimensional sense of the term.
This issue of revitalising the relationship with the diaspora and Afro-descendants was at the heart of the regional conference held in Brazil from 29 to 31 August 2024, following the regional pre-conferences of Pretoria (South Africa), Bamako (Mali), Rabat (Morocco), Brazzaville (Congo) and Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania). Pan-Africanism originated in Afro-descendant American circles, so we cannot carry the movement forward in the 21st century without Afro-descendants.
Fundamentally, the mainspring of pan-Africanism is the solidarity between the different components of the African family throughout the world. In the context of pan-Africanism, “Africa, Africans and the descendants of Africans abroad[1] ” are considered “as a single whole which aims to regenerate and unify Africa as well as to foster a spirit of solidarity between the populations of the African world[2] “.
In other words, the dispersal of people of African descent around the world following the transatlantic slave trade imposed on the African community a duty of global unity, a duty whose roots go back to the end of the 19th century, and which materialised through the holding of the first Pan-African Conference in 1900 in London, on the initiative of the Afro-Trinidadian Henry Sylvester-Williams, and also through the holding of various successive congresses.
Relations between Africa and Afro-descendants have cooled off as a result of distance and the lack of joint memory work. The Lomé Congress will provide an opportunity for Africans and people of African descent to work together to rebuild our relations, and this reconstruction effort will make it easier for Afro-descendants interested in the “Back to Africa” movement to rediscover the countries and families of origin of their parents.
The difficult path of return for Afro-descendants involves a work of reconstitution and reconstruction, and one of the strong resolutions of the Pan-African Congress in Lomé will be the decision at the continental level to facilitate the return to Africa for Afro-descendants who wish to do so as part of the promotion of African citizenship.
The 9th Pan-African Congress will not only be an occasion for intra-African solidarity seen in a historical perspective. It will also be an opportunity to look to the future together, a future that we must build together within the framework of a renewed pan-Africanism, and a future whose leitmotiv is to position Africa as one of the key players in the world in this 21st century. It is by reaffirming their unity and solidarity that Africa and its diaspora will be able to meet the challenges of the future.
As a meeting of fraternity and solidarity, the 9th Pan-African Congress will mobilise several categories of players from the African world, including representatives of African States, the AU Commission, regional economic communities, Latin American and the Caribbean States, African diaspora organisations, organisations of Afro-descendants, target groups from Africa, the diaspora and communities of African descent (intellectuals, scientists, artistic, sporting, cultural and media players, young people, women, opinion leaders, etc.), professional organisations, priests and priestesses of the Voodoo religion, and businesspeople from across the continent.
All these categories of players expected in Lomé will closely examine the key issues on the congress agenda. Some of the key issues that will be at the heart of the Lomé Congress are the work of remembrance, reparation, and the reform of multilateral institutions.
Prof. Robert Dussey
