Postponed Workshop: Towards a Pan-African Reparations Agenda: Contestations, Disputations and Prospects
The Research workshop "Towards a Pan-African Reparations Agenda: Contestations, Disputations and Prospects" has been postponed until further notice.
Please stay tuned for further information.
- Until a new date has been confirmed you can expect the research workshop to cover some exciting areas of research:
The global resurgence of calls for reparative justice animated by the Pan-African and Global African reparations movement, the campaigns for restitution of African knowledge and cultural artefacts, the Black Lives Matter movement and the growing momentum for the decolonisation of knowledge, has reignited debates on reparations for historical injustices, particularly those rooted in slavery, colonialism, apartheid and systemic racial oppression. Across the African continent and its Global Diaspora, notably in the America’s and the Caribbean, the demand for reparations has evolved from moral appeals to structured political, legal, and economic claims.
This Research Workshop provides an academic platform to interrogate the contestations, disputations as well as the prospects for a Pan-African and Global African reparations agenda.
In Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas and Europe the reparations discourse is increasingly framed within continuing struggles to redress historical injustices as well as to decolonize the Pan-African body politic and assert continental political and economic sovereignty through redistributive socio-economic justice. Yet, the agenda remains fragmented, contested, and often co-opted by competing interests. While some African and Caribbean governments, for example the CARICOM Community, and civil society actors have advanced bold claims, others remain hesitant or divided on the modalities, beneficiaries, and political implications of reparations. The African Union’s designation of 2026-2036 as the Decade of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent and the growing influence of Pan-African and Global African advocacy networks signal a critical moment to consolidate scholarly research, as well as policy, and activist perspectives.
This workshop, convened by the University of Cape Town’s Centre for African Studies, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR), and UCT Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa, seeks to interrogate the evolving contours of the Pan-African reparations agenda. It aims to provide a platform for rigorous academic engagement and strategic reflection on the prospects and pitfalls of reparative justice in Africa and its global diasporas.
- With the objectives of the workshop being:
To critically examine the historical, legal, political, and moral foundations of reparations claims across Africa and the Global African diaspora;
- To map the current landscape of reparations activism, policy initiatives, and transnational advocacy networks;
- To explore the tensions, contradictions, contestations and disputations emerging from within the continent as well as across the Diaspora, including within and between African, Caribbean, European and North and Latin American states, civil society, and global institutions regarding reparative justice;
- To foster interdisciplinary dialogue between scholars, policymakers, activists, artists, and community leaders on the future of the Pan-African reparations agenda;
- To generate actionable recommendations for advancing a coherent, inclusive, and transformative reparations research agenda and policy frameworks at national, regional, and global levels.
- With the expected outcomes of:
A consolidated body of interdisciplinary research scholarship on reparations in Africa and the Global African Diaspora;
A policy briefs outlining key recommendations for African governments, regional bodies, and international partners;
Strengthened research networks among scholars, activists, and institutions engaged in reparative justice;
Enhanced public awareness and engagement through media coverage and cultural programmes;
A roadmap for future collaborative research, advocacy, and policy engagement on reparations.