African leaders are pushing to address colonial-era crimes through recognition, decriminalization and reparations.
At a conference in the Algerian capital Algiers, diplomats and leaders called for justice and compensation for victims of colonialism to build on an African Union resolution passed at a meeting earlier this year.
Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said that Algeria’s experience under French rule highlighted the need to demand compensation and reclaim stolen property.
A legal framework would ensure that reparations are viewed as “neither a gift nor a favor”, he said.
Ataf said, “Africa is entitled to demand official and unambiguous recognition of the crimes committed against its people during the colonial period, which is an essential first step towards addressing the consequences of that era for which African countries and peoples are paying a heavy price in terms of exclusion, marginalization and backwardness.”
International conventions and laws accepted by most countries have outlawed practices including slavery, torture and apartheid. The UN Charter prohibits the seizure of territory by force but does not explicitly reference colonialism.
That absence was at the center of the African Union’s February summit, where leaders discussed developing a unified position on reparations and a proposal to formally define colonization as a crime against humanity.
It is believed that the economic costs of colonialism in Africa have been staggering, with some estimates running into the trillions. European powers often exploited natural resources in brutal ways, making huge profits from gold, rubber, diamonds and other minerals while impoverishing the local population.
African states have in recent years stepped up demands for the return of looted artefacts still held in European museums.
Attaf said it was no mistake that the conference was held 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 regain its independence.
Its impact was far-reaching: approximately one million European residents had greater political, economic and social privileges, even though Algeria was legally part of France and its people were conscripted during the Second World War.
Hundreds of thousands of people died in the country’s revolution, during which French forces tortured detainees, disappeared suspects and destroyed villages as part of a counter-insurgency strategy to maintain their hold on power.
Attaf said, “Our continent preserves the example of Algeria’s bitter test as a rare model, which has almost no comparison in its history, its nature, its logic and its practices.”
Algeria’s experience has informed its position on long-disputed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that is claimed by neighboring Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front.
Ataf on Sunday framed it as a case of incomplete colonialism, echoing the African Union’s formal stance, even as a growing number of member states have moved to support Morocco’s claim to the territory.
He called it “Africa’s last colony” and praised “the fight of the indigenous Saharawis to assert their legitimate and legal right to self-determination, as confirmed – and continually reaffirmed – by international legitimacy and the United Nations Principles on Decolonization”.
Algeria has pressed for decades to deal with colonialism through international law, even as its leaders are moving cautiously to avoid escalating tensions with France, where the war’s legacy remains politically sensitive.
French President Emmanuel Macron in 2017 described elements of the history as crimes against humanity, but refused to issue an official apology and urged Algerians not to dwell on past injustices.
Mohamed Arezky Ferad, a member of Algeria’s parliament, told The Associated Press that compensation should be more than symbolic, noting that Algerian artifacts looted by France have yet to be returned. This also includes the 16th century cannon Baba Merzoug which remains in Brest.
Earlier in November, the Guardian reported on a similar call in the Caribbean, where a delegation from the body leading that region’s slavery reparations movement was preparing to travel to the UK to advocate on the issue.
Caribbean governments are also demanding recognition of the enduring legacy of colonialism and slavery and reparative justice, including a full formal apology and forms of financial compensation to former colonizers.
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