Coordinator of the Pan-African Progressive Front (PPF), Humphrey Abbey Quaye, has urged African youth to intensify the campaign for debt cancellation and reparations, arguing that the continent’s current debt burden is rooted in centuries of slavery, colonial exploitation and continuing neocolonial control.

Mr Quaye, made the call at the Youth Forum on Debt and Reparations at the ISSER Conference Hall, University of Ghana, Legon, on Saturday, September 5.

The forum was held under the theme “Reclaiming Africa’s Wealth, Resisting Neocolonial Bondage.”

He said the choice of Accra as the venue was significant because of the city’s historical role in the Pan-African struggle, recalling Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who declared that Ghana’s independence would be meaningless unless it was linked to the total liberation of Africa.

Mr Quaye said the question of debt and reparations was one of the most urgent issues confronting the current generation and challenged Africans to approach it as a matter of justice rather than charity.

Mr Quaye argued that Africa’s debt crisis did not emerge in isolation or simply because of poor economic management.

“The so-called debt crisis of Africa is not an accident, neither is it an African creation,” he said, describing it as a continuation of the exploitation associated with slavery, colonialism, neocolonialism and imperialism.

According to him, African labour, knowledge, land and mineral resources had been extracted over centuries with little or no compensation, while the continent was now borrowing money and paying interest on wealth that he believes had historically been taken from it.

He said this made it impossible to discuss Africa’s debt without also addressing “resetting, repair and restitution”, insisting that any genuine reparations process must ultimately be based on justice.

Mr Quaye said reparative justice was at the heart of the PPF’s existence, describing the organisation as a united front bringing together progressive political parties, trade unions, youth and women’s movements, peasant organisations, socialist formations and other mass groups across Africa, the Caribbean and the Black Diaspora.

He said the organisation had made significant progress over the previous 18 months, including the establishment of its international headquarters in Accra on June 30, 2025.

He said the organisation had also convened a virtual conference involving more than 60 Pan-African formations from 32 countries, which, according to him, helped build a common platform around trade union struggles, women's emancipation and youth participation.

Mr Quaye also highlighted the PPF’s international conference held at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra on November 18 and 19, 2025, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Fifth Pan-African Congress held in Manchester in 1945.

He described the Accra event as “Manchester 2.0”, saying the historic 1945 congress helped galvanise the struggle for political independence, while the contemporary movement must now secure economic independence.

He said the conference, held under the motto “From Historical Memory to Economic and Political Justice,” attracted more than 200 delegates from 57 countries and brought together political leaders, trade unionists and Pan-African activists.

Among those he cited were Irvin Jim of NUMSA, Congolese political figure Martin Fayulu, Zambian politician Fred M’membe, veteran Pan-Africanist Kwesi Pratt Jnr and Professor Akua Britwum.

Mr Quaye said the gathering demonstrated that reparations had become an issue that could no longer be ignored internationally.

He said the conference produced concrete proposals, including the Accra Declaration, which he said provides a programme for Africa’s liberation through resource sovereignty, industrialisation, agricultural transformation and financial independence.

A Special Accra Declaration on Reparations was also adopted, declaring reparations an inalienable right of Africans and people of African descent.

Mr Quaye outlined three key mechanisms contained in the declaration.

The first is a proposed Joint Institute for the Assessment of Damage and Documentation of the Colonial Legacy, which would compile scientific, legal and archival evidence to support African reparations claims before international courts and the United Nations.

The second is the proposed Pan-African Reparations Justice Fund, which would manage and distribute reparatory resources according to principles of transparency and accountability.

The third is the continued demand for the return of stolen African cultural artefacts held in museums and institutions outside the continent.

Mr Quaye told young Africans that they were inheritors of the Pan-African struggle pioneered by a previous generation of young activists.

He cited Nkrumah, George Padmore, W.E.B. Du Bois, Jomo Kenyatta and Hastings Banda as among the figures associated with the 1945 congress, saying they were young when they helped articulate the demand for African freedom.

He urged contemporary African youth to apply the same determination to the economic challenges confronting them.

Mr Quaye linked the reparations debate directly to problems such as student loans, graduate unemployment and the influence of the IMF over national budgets, describing these as manifestations of what he termed Africa’s debt trap.

“Your student loans, your inability to find work after graduation, the IMF dictating your national budgets — that is the debt trap,” he said.

He subsequently called for the cancellation of what he described as “odious debt” and the payment of Africa’s “reparatory debt.”

Mr Quaye charged the forum with three main responsibilities.

He called for the formulation of a Youth Chapter of the Accra Declaration to examine reparations in relation to contemporary issues including climate justice, technological sovereignty and the future of young Africans.

He also urged young people to organise across campuses, communities and digital spaces to build sustained support for the reparations campaign.

Finally, he called on them to join a continental campaign for the establishment of national and regional reparations bodies.

He said such structures would help transform the reparations campaign from a political demand into a coordinated institutional process.

Mr Quaye challenged African youth to adopt the determination of the Pan-African activists who pushed for political independence in the 20th century.

He said the message of the present generation should be directed at both international creditors and former colonial powers.

“Today, you the youth of Africa must tell the creditors and the former colonisers: We are here to collect and collect we shall!” he declared.

For Mr Quaye, the ultimate objective of the reparations campaign is not merely financial compensation but debt justice, economic sovereignty, control over Africa’s resources and freedom from neocolonial influence.

He therefore urged young Africans to organise around the demand for a more economically independent and united continent, ending with the rallying call: “Forward ever! Reparations now!”