You do not remain silent to redeem yourself from any form of injustice. You must talk, and that is exactly, what the Togolese President of the Council of Ministers, Faure Gnassingbe, is doing with the poor treatment of Africa at the United Nations (UN).
President Gnassingbe has pointed out that the abnormality that has existed within the UN which has denied the continent a permanent seat on the Security Council, is an “aberration,” because the continent cannot be absent from where international global issues are discussed that will eventually affect it anyway.
Addressing the opening of the 9th Pan-African Congress in the Togolese capital, Lome, he said, it is sad that the continent of about 1.4 billion people, representing 28 percent of the UN member states, still does not have a permanent seat on the Security Council, and stated that, “this is not an abnormally; it is an aberration. Our continent cannot remain absent from the places where peace, trade, or global finance are decided.”
President Gnassingbe said for centuries, “the people of Africa have been dispersed, silenced, orphaned of their own voice, in the concert of nations. Yet our peoples have resisted, they have shouted, they have rebuilt the world, carrying Africa in their memory, in their struggle, in their arts.”
He said, many years after the first Pan-African Congress, Africa and its diaspora have found themselves together once again in the Togolese capital, standing, united, aware of their strength and their unity, noting that, “this ninth congress comes at a time when Africa is no longer peripheral, it is no longer silent, it is young, it is strong, it is open to the world and determined not to be shaped by others anymore.
“This ninth congress is therefore not a commemoration, it is a reaffirmation, it is a reconquest, it is a turning point, because never, never since independence has our collective destiny been so much in our hands, never has our voice been so awaited, never have our choices had so much resonance in the world,” President Gnassingbe said.
He said further: “The Pan-Africanism we are calling for here is not one of slogans. It is a pragmatic and demanding Pan-Africanism. A Pan-Africanism that unites our peoples, our cultures, our markets, our knowledge. Pan-Africanism capable of acting in a world that will not wait for us.”
President Gnassingbe said what needed to be affirmed was a simple conviction that Africa can no longer be content with being a spectator on the world stage and reminded participants that a divided Africa will remain vulnerable, but a “united continent, will be strong.”
The continent, he said, must move beyond its quest to become part of the global system and call for reforms within the international institutions in order to correct the governance imbalance, adding that, “this reform of multilateralism is not only an African demand, but also a condition for stability for the entire world.”
President Gnassingbe said, “Africa’s development will not come from solutions from elsewhere. It will first come from within, from the continent’s natural resources, from Africa’s young talents, and businesses, as well as the diasporas, local knowledge, and cultures,” pointing out that, “this is what modern sovereignty is. Funding our own priorities ourselves. Preserving our raw materials ourselves.”
He said the congress must reaffirm the unity of the great African family, based on collective history, political and cultural in order to build the foundation of the sovereignty that will allow Black people to reclaim their narrative and identity, adding that, “no power has ever asserted itself by letting others tell its story.”
“For centuries, the image of our continent has been created outside of Africa. It has been distorted, stereotyped, used as a tool. We must no longer, we cannot continue to accept that our achievements remain invisible, that our talents are ignored, that our cultures are reduced to clichés. Reclaiming our narrative means restoring the truth of our history,” President Gnassingbe said.
He said Africans do not need to be saved as a people, but must be heard, because “united, we matter. A united Africa inspires. A united Africa builds. Our common horizon is that of a connected, inclusive, and confident Africa. We can write a new page of our history together. A page of dignity. A page of sovereignty. A page of rebirth.”
The African Union representative at the congress, Amr Aljowaily, re-echoed President Gnassingbe’s demands for reforms within the multilateral institution, which he said had created “power imbalances” and this “is starkly evident in institutions such as the United Nations Security Council, where Africa remains underrepresented despite bearing the fruits of many decisions.”
Aljowaily said the Congress provided “a timely opportunity to reiterate that genuine reparatory justice, must encompass the implementation of the common African position, for at least two permanent seats with all the prerogatives on privileges, including the veto if it still exists,” adding that, “This is not a plea for favour.”
“An unequal global order, structural vulnerabilities, climate injustice, external dependencies and threats to international peace and security and the constitutional order. But this moment is also filled with unprecedented promise for Africa as the youngest continent in the world,” he said.
Aljowaily said, Pan-Africanism has evolved from resistance to liberation, to integration to transformation, pointing out that, “the Atlantic Ocean may be a geographical reality, but historically it is only a river that binds the culture and the history of Africa and the people of African descent. So we are committed to deepening the joint African-Caribbean diaspora advocacy platform for cooperation.”
Against this background, he said plans are underway to host, for the first time, the annual session of the United Nations Permanent Forum for People of African Descent at the premises of the Union in Addis Ababa.
“Africa has suffered in its post-colonial unjust rule of systematic looting and destruction of African cultural, intellectual and spiritual heritage, as well as deliberate erasure and distortion of African histories,” Aljowaily said, pointing out that the convening of the congress was yet another confirmation of an unconditional right of African people to the restitution of artefacts, manuscripts, sacred objects, archives, and ancestral remains.
Touching on the issue of Reparations, which he said do have a structural dimension in global governance, he said, “it is a demand for historically grounded equity and for a multilateralism that reflects today’s realities.”
Aljowaily said education and knowledge production are central to decolonisation, adding that, thematic sessions at the Congress on ‘Mind Decolonisation’ and ‘Self-Prevention’, were designed to give an opportunity to highlight the imperative to reform curricula, support African scholarship and invest in archives, documentaries and artistic works that tell African stories with accuracy.
The Togolese foreign minister, Robert Dussey said “Pan-Africanism is a movement that has become deeply pluralistic in its historical journey and in its current expression, which is indicative of its vitality, its reality, its ambitions, and its fundamental causes, which it bears the name of. Freedom for all, universal equal dignity for all, justice and liberation for the neocolonial region, an end to racism in all states.”
He cautioned that Pan-Africanism should not be confused with nationalism, explaining that “nationalism is completely different from Pan-Africanism because it is driven by nations and African countries,” pointing out that, “the advantage we have for Pan-Africanism is that the idea was born from Afro-descendants, not Africans.”
“By fighting for 125 years for human dignity, Pan-Africanism fights for dignity and humanity. By fighting for 125 years for justice, Pan-Africanism fights for a fairer world. By fighting for 125 years for justice, Pan-Africanism fights for the healing of humanity’s deep wounds and for a humanity reconciled with itself, Dussey added.
He said in this moment of transformation, one reality is clear: no African nation can face the magnitude of contemporary challenges alone — climate justice, health crises, technological divides, or global economic competition. Pan-Africanism is therefore no longer just an idea; it is an imperative, it is a strategy for sovereignty.
The Congress will end, but what Africans will expect is that these words should not end with the closing ceremony in Lome. African voices should push till the world listens to the continent’s demand for equity.
