African leaders push for recognition of colonial crimes and reparations | Colonialism

African leaders are pushing for colonial-era crimes to be recognized, criminalized and addressed through reparations.

At a conference in the Algerian capital, Algiers, diplomats and leaders gathered to advance an African Union resolution adopted at a meeting earlier this year calling for justice and compensation for victims of colonialism.

Algerian foreign minister Ahmed Attaf said Algeria’s experience under French rule had revealed the need to seek compensation and recover stolen goods.

A legal framework would ensure that compensation is seen as “neither a gift nor a favour”, he added.

“Africa has the right to demand official and open recognition of the crimes committed against its people during the colonial period, which is an indispensable first step towards addressing the consequences of this period in which African countries and their people continue to pay a heavy price in terms of exclusion, marginalization and underdevelopment,” Attaf said.

International conventions and regulations accepted by the majority of countries; It prohibited practices such as slavery, torture and apartheid. The United Nations Charter prohibits the forcible seizure of territory but makes no explicit reference to colonialism.

That absence was central to the African Union’s summit in February, where leaders discussed a proposal to develop a common position on reparations and formally define colonization as a crime against humanity.

The economic cost of colonialism in Africa is believed to be staggering, with some estimates running into the trillions. European powers extracted natural resources through often brutal methods, making huge profits from gold, rubber, diamonds, and other minerals, while leaving local populations impoverished.

In recent years, African states have intensified their demands for the return of looted artifacts still stored in European museums.

Attaf said it was not a mistake to hold the conference in Algeria, a country that suffered some of the most brutal forms of French colonial rule and fought a bloody war between 1954 and 1962 to gain independence.

His influence was far-reaching: although Algeria was legally part of France and its men had been conscripted during World War II, nearly a million European settlers enjoyed greater political, economic and social privileges.

Hundreds of thousands of people died in the country’s revolution, in which French forces tortured detainees, eliminated suspects and devastated villages as part of a counterinsurgency strategy to maintain their grip on power.

Attaf said, “Our continent continues the example of Algeria’s bitter ordeal as a rare model that is almost unique in history with its nature, logic and practices.”

Algeria’s experience has long shaped its position on disputed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony claimed by neighboring Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front.

Attaf on Sunday framed this as a case of incomplete decolonization, echoing the African Union’s official stance even as a growing number of member states move to support Morocco’s claim to the region.

He called it “the last colony of Africa” ​​and praised the struggle of indigenous Sahrawis “to defend their legitimate and legal right to self-determination, as confirmed and constantly reaffirmed by international legality and the UN doctrine of decolonization.”

Algeria has been pushing for decades to combat colonialism through international law, while its leaders have been careful to avoid escalating tensions with France, where the war’s legacy remains politically sensitive.

French president Emmanuel Macron in 2017 described elements of history as crimes against humanity but refrained from issuing a formal apology and implored Algerians not to dwell on past injustices.

Mohamed Arezki Ferrad, a member of the Algerian parliament, told The Associated Press that compensation should be more than symbolic, noting that Algerian artifacts looted by France have not yet been returned. This includes Baba Merzoug, a 16th-century cannon that remained in Brest.

Earlier in November, the Guardian reported that similar calls were being made in the Caribbean; A delegation from the organization leading the slavery reparations movement in the region was preparing to visit the United Kingdom to advocate on the issue.

Caribbean governments are also calling for recognition of the enduring legacies of colonialism and enslavement and for restorative justice, including the forms of a full formal apology and financial compensation to former colonizers.