What You Need to Know:
Diasporas, Afro-descendants, and Development are the themes of the Pan-African Congress’s first preparatory conference to be held in Bamako, Mali over the 14th and 15th of May. The Mali conference is the first of six preparatory meetings to be held in different regions of Africa before the 9th Congress begins on October 29th in Lomé, Togo.
The Congress’s theme, “renewal of Pan-Africanism and Africa’s role in the reform of multilateral institutions: mobilizing resources and reinventing itself to act” seeks to create conversations regarding Africa’s future role in geopolitics in an increasingly unstable world, pan-Africanism in multilateral institutions, and how pan-Africanism can aid the continents development. The 9th congress seeks to develop a declaration on the future of ‘the African’ in a changing world, as well as develop strategies for mobilizing resources for Africa.
According to the Congress’s website, pan-Africanism is: “a vision of unity and political, economic and cultural sovereignty of Africa and its peoples, is a movement that adapts to the demands of the times. It is relevant today as it was yesterday. It is a paradigm of survival in the face of systems of oppression and exploitation, such as racism, slavery, colonialism, apartheid, police brutality, neocolonialism and neoliberalism.”
The role of the African diaspora is to be heavily stressed during the Mali conference, particularly in a world where migration, both legal and illegal, is on the forefront of many governments agendas.
The Details:
the Lomé Congress was authorized by the African Union (AU) during its 36th ordinary session in February 2023. The AU’s 34th ordinary session declared the ‘decade of African roots and the African Diaspora’ which has enabled the Lomé Congress to become a platform where a high level committee is able to discuss the implementation of the agenda connected to the ‘decade of African roots and the African Diaspora.’
According to the Congress’s website, “the Decade of African Roots and the African Diaspora is a platform that seeks to help consolidate ties and strengthen the multiple contributions of Afro-descendants to the continent’s sustainable development, as set out in Agenda 2063. It also seeks to prepare, promote and support projects, initiatives and events of people of African ancestry. While it harnesses the talents and contributions of Africans and peoples of African descent in the service of development, it aims at contributing to boost a reinvented Pan-Africanism in a polycentric world of transitions and crises.”
Agenda 2063 refers to a set of initiatives set out by the African Union in 2015 to achieve ‘sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development over a 50-year period.’
