Liberation and the Living Legacy

1900s–Present

Trace independence, civil rights, cultural movements, and the African diaspora today.

Tap Next to read each record, or tap Contents to go straight to one. Every fact carries a small [Source] mark: tap it to see where the fact comes from.

1900 Proven

The First Pan-African Conference

At the dawn of a new century, Africa's scattered children met in the heart of the British Empire and spoke for themselves.

Scattered across oceans, we found each other again. This is where we started to say so out loud.

Henry Sylvester Williams, a lawyer from Trinidad living in London, had founded the African Association in 1897. [Source 1]

From 23 to 25 July 1900, he gathered people of African descent at Westminster Town Hall in London, among them a representative of the government of Ethiopia. [Source 1]

They called for greater unity among people of African descent and an end to racial discrimination, and voted to create a permanent Pan-African Association. [Source 1]

W. E. B. Du Bois wrote their address "To the Nations of the World." It opened: "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line." [Source 1] [Source 2]

It named the lie it was answering, that "the darker races are today the least advanced in culture according to European standards." [Source 3]

Where: London, England

Sources

  1. 1.Reference. Pan-African Congress Convenes (EBSCO Research Starters).
  2. 2.Primary record. W. E. B. Du Bois, To the Nations of the World (Pan-African Conference, London, 1900) (Miami University, 1900), Opening sentence. “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line”
  3. 3.Primary record. W. E. B. Du Bois, To the Nations of the World (Pan-African Conference, London, 1900) (Miami University, 1900), Address. “the darker races are today the least advanced in culture according to European standards”

1925 Proven

The Harlem Renaissance

Uptown Manhattan became the meeting ground of a people newly arrived from the South, and the art they made there changed American letters.

We stopped asking to be explained. We started telling it ourselves.

After the First World War, Harlem, in New York, filled with Black writers, artists and thinkers, many of them newly arrived from the South and Midwest. Their writing and art flowered into what is called the Harlem Renaissance. [Source 1]

In 1922, Claude McKay published Harlem Shadows, which some critics call the first great achievement of the movement. In 1923 came Jean Toomer's Cane. [Source 1]

In 1925, Alain Locke gathered the new voices into one book, The New Negro: Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Rudolph Fisher, Zora Neale Hurston and Jean Toomer. [Source 1]

Locke wrote: "The Old Negro, we must remember, was a creature of moral debate and historical controversy." And: "By shedding the old chrysalis of the Negro problem we are achieving something like a spiritual emancipation." [Source 2] [Source 3]

They wrote with racial pride, in their own voice, against the old white standards. Langston Hughes set the blues and jazz into poetry. [Source 1]

Where: Harlem, New York

Sources

  1. 1.Reference. African American literature: The rise of the New Negro (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
  2. 2.Primary record. Alain Locke, Enter the New Negro (Survey Graphic, March 1925) (National Humanities Center, 1925), Enter the New Negro, 1925. “The Old Negro, we must remember, was a creature of moral debate and historical controversy.”
  3. 3.Primary record. Alain Locke, Enter the New Negro (Survey Graphic, March 1925) (National Humanities Center, 1925), Enter the New Negro, 1925. “By shedding the old chrysalis of the Negro problem we are achieving something like a spiritual emancipation.”

1935 to 1941 Proven

Ethiopia Stands Alone

An independent African nation was gassed by a European army, and the league of the world's nations let it happen.

Ethiopia was the free crown of Africa. When it was attacked, every one of us was attacked.

On 3 October 1935, Italian forces crossed into Ethiopia from Eritrea, without a declaration of war. [Source 1]

They used mustard gas, dropped from aircraft and fired from artillery, against Ethiopian soldiers, civilians, ambulances and Red Cross hospitals. Italy had signed the treaty that banned it. [Source 1]

The League of Nations named Italy the aggressor, but its sanctions left out oil and coal, the very things Italy's war machine needed most. [Source 1]

On 30 June 1936, Emperor Haile Selassie stood before the League in Geneva: "I, Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, am here today to claim that justice which is due to my people." [Source 2]

He told them how "soldiers, women, children, cattle, rivers, lakes and pastures were drenched continually with this deadly rain." He ended: "What reply shall I have to take back to my people?" [Source 3] [Source 4]

The delegates applauded politely and did nothing more. In May 1941, after Italy surrendered in East Africa, he was restored to his throne. [Source 1]

Where: Ethiopia and Geneva

Sources

  1. 1.News report. The Emperor at the Microphone: Ethiopia, Italy and the Death of Collective Security (Explaining History, 2026).
  2. 2.Primary record. Haile Selassie I, Appeal to the League of Nations, Geneva, 30 June 1936 (EmersonKent.com, 1936), Opening, 30 June 1936. “I, Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, am here today to claim that justice which is due to my people”
  3. 3.Primary record. Haile Selassie I, Appeal to the League of Nations, Geneva, 30 June 1936 (EmersonKent.com, 1936), Appeal, 30 June 1936. “soldiers, women, children, cattle, rivers, lakes and pastures were drenched continually with this deadly rain”
  4. 4.Primary record. Haile Selassie I, Appeal to the League of Nations, Geneva, 30 June 1936 (EmersonKent.com, 1936), Closing, 30 June 1936. “What reply shall I have to take back to my people?”

1945 Proven

Manchester, 1945

In an English town hall, at the end of a world war, Africa's future leaders wrote out their demand.

The war for freedom in Europe was over. Ours was about to begin.

From 15 to 18 October 1945, the Fifth Pan-African Congress met in Manchester, England, at Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall. About 200 people came from across the world. [Source 1] [Source 2]

W. E. B. Du Bois, who had stood in London in 1900, chaired it. [Source 1] [Source 3]

Among the men who helped organize it were Kwame Nkrumah of the Gold Coast and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya. Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria was there too. [Source 1] [Source 2]

There the delegates discussed plans for mass nationalist movements to demand independence. [Source 1]

Their Challenge to the Colonial Powers began: "We are determined to be free. We want education." It promised: "We will fight in every way we can for freedom, democracy and social betterment." [Source 4] [Source 5]

Where: Manchester, England

Sources

  1. 1.Reference. Pan-African congresses (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
  2. 2.News report. The Black Curriculum, Celebrating Manchester's 5th Pan African Congress Meeting of 1945 (The Black Curriculum, 2023), Article. “We are determined to be free. We want education.”
  3. 3.Reference. Pan-African Congress Convenes (EBSCO Research Starters).
  4. 4.Primary record. Delegates of the Fifth Pan-African Congress, Challenge to the Colonial Powers: statement of the delegates to the Fifth Pan-African Congress (Manchester, October 1945) (Black Agenda Report (reprint of the 1945 text), 1945), Challenge to the Colonial Powers. “We are determined to be free. We want education.”
  5. 5.Primary record. Delegates of the Fifth Pan-African Congress, Challenge to the Colonial Powers: statement of the delegates to the Fifth Pan-African Congress (Manchester, October 1945) (Black Agenda Report (reprint of the 1945 text), 1945), Challenge to the Colonial Powers. “We will fight in every way we can for freedom, democracy and social betterment.”

1948 to 1953 Proven

Apartheid

From 1948, South Africa's rulers wrote race into every corner of its law, and named the system apartheid.

They took the land, then made us carry papers to walk on it.

In 1948, the National Party won power in South Africa. It took the segregation that already existed, made it harsher, and named it apartheid. [Source 1]

In 1950, the Population Registration Act classed every South African by race. The Group Areas Act set aside homes and businesses by race, and thousands of Black, Coloured and Indian South Africans were removed from areas declared white. [Source 1]

The Land Acts set aside more than 80 percent of South Africa's land for the white minority. Pass laws made Black South Africans carry papers to be in white areas. The Bantu Education Act of 1953 put Black children in schools meant to prepare them for manual work. [Source 1]

Where: South Africa

Sources

  1. 1.Reference. Apartheid (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

1957 Proven

Ghana Is Free

The Gold Coast broke from British rule, and its new leader declared that one free nation was not enough.

Free forever. And he said it for all of Africa, not only for Ghana.

Kwame Nkrumah had helped organize the Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945. [Source 1]

On 6 March 1957, the Gold Coast became the free nation of Ghana, and Nkrumah spoke: "At long last, the battle has ended! Ghana, your beloved country is free forever!" [Source 2]

He made it plain that Ghana's freedom was not the end of the work: "Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa." [Source 2]

Where: Accra, Ghana

Sources

  1. 1.Reference. Pan-African congresses (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
  2. 2.Primary record. Full text: First independence speech by Kwame Nkrumah (MyJoyOnline).

1960 Proven

Sharpeville

A peaceful refusal to carry the hated passbooks ended in a volley of police gunfire.

They left their passes at home. The police answered with bullets.

Under apartheid, Black South Africans had to carry passes to be in white areas. [Source 1]

On 19 March 1960, Robert Sobukwe, president of the Pan Africanist Congress, called on Africans to leave their passes at home. [Source 2]

On 21 March 1960, at Sharpeville, Africans gathered to protest against the pass laws. South African police killed 69 of them. [Source 3]

The official inquest counted 180 seriously wounded. A "large number of people were shot in the back as they were fleeing the scene." [Source 2]

Where: Sharpeville, South Africa

Sources

  1. 1.Reference. Apartheid (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
  2. 2.Scholarly. South African History Online, Sharpeville Massacre, 21 March 1960 (South African History Online, 2011), Topic page. “large number of people were shot in the back as they were fleeing the scene”
  3. 3.Primary record. International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN News, 2012).

1960 Proven

The Year of Africa

In one twelve-month span, flag after flag came down across the continent, from the Atlantic coast to the Horn of Africa.

One year. Seventeen nations. The empires could not hold us.

In the single year 1960, seventeen African countries won their independence. [Source 1]

They were Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, Senegal, Somalia and Togo. [Source 1]

Most had been ruled by France. Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, became independent on 1 October 1960. [Source 1]

On 14 December 1960, the United Nations General Assembly declared that "the subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights." [Source 2]

It added that "inadequacy of political, economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying independence." [Source 3]

Where: Africa

Sources

  1. 1.Reference. Africa's Year of Independence (EBSCO Research Starters).
  2. 2.Primary record. United Nations General Assembly, Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) (United Nations, 1960), Paragraph 1. “The subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights”
  3. 3.Primary record. United Nations General Assembly, Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) (United Nations, 1960), Paragraph 3. “Inadequacy of political, economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying independence”

1961 Proven

Patrice Lumumba

The Congo's first elected leader told the old rulers the truth to their faces on independence day. Within seven months he was dead, and his body was destroyed.

He spoke for every one of us that day, and he paid for it with his life.

When the Congo won its independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960, Patrice Lumumba was elected its first prime minister. [Source 1] [Source 2]

That day he spoke of colonial rule: "Morning, noon and night we were subjected to jeers, insults and blows because we were 'Negroes'." Independence was "putting an end to the humiliating bondage forced upon us." [Source 3] [Source 4]

About three months later, a coup backed by the West removed him. The United States had run a secret program to remove him from power. [Source 2]

In January 1961, at 35, he was taken, tortured and executed by Congolese separatists backed by Belgium. Belgian officers dug up his body, cut it apart and dissolved it in acid. [Source 2]

Where: The Congo

Sources

  1. 1.Reference. Africa's Year of Independence (EBSCO Research Starters).
  2. 2.News report. Slain Congolese icon's tooth returned to family decades after killing (NBC News, 2022).
  3. 3.Primary record. Patrice Lumumba, Speech at the Ceremony of the Proclamation of the Congo's Independence, 30 June 1960 (Marxists Internet Archive, 1960), Speech, 30 June 1960. “Morning, noon and night we were subjected to jeers, insults and blows because we were "Negroes".”
  4. 4.Primary record. Patrice Lumumba, Speech at the Ceremony of the Proclamation of the Congo's Independence, 30 June 1960 (Marxists Internet Archive, 1960), Speech, 30 June 1960. “putting an end to the humiliating bondage forced upon us”

1963 Proven

African Unity

In Ethiopia's capital, the continent's free nations bound themselves together and swore to end colonial rule everywhere in Africa.

One by one we had won our flags. In 1963 we stood together.

Six years after Ghana won its freedom, Africa had 32 independent nations. [Source 1] [Source 2]

On 25 May 1963, the leaders of 30 of them met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and signed the founding charter of the Organisation of African Unity. [Source 1] [Source 3]

It opened: "Convinced that it is the inalienable right of all people to control their own destiny." [Source 3]

Among its purposes: "To eradicate all forms of colonialism from Africa." [Source 4]

25 May is kept as Africa Day. [Source 1]

Where: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Africa Day: the OAU and the African Union (University of Cape Town News, 2012).
  2. 2.Primary record. Full text: First independence speech by Kwame Nkrumah (MyJoyOnline).
  3. 3.Primary record. Organisation of African Unity, Charter of the Organisation of African Unity (African Union, 1963), Preamble. “Convinced that it is the inalienable right of all people to control their own destiny”
  4. 4.Primary record. Organisation of African Unity, Charter of the Organisation of African Unity (African Union, 1963), Article II(1)(d). “To eradicate all forms of colonialism from Africa”

1964 Proven

"Prepared to Die"

Facing a possible death sentence, the ANC leader turned his defence into an indictment of apartheid itself.

He did not beg for his life. He told them what he would die for.

In October 1963, Nelson Mandela was put on trial in Pretoria with seven other leaders of the struggle against apartheid, among them Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki. It was called the Rivonia Trial. [Source 1]

On 20 April 1964, he spoke from the dock: "During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people." [Source 2]

He ended: "It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But, my Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." [Source 1] [Source 2]

On 12 June 1964, the judge spared them death and sentenced them to life in prison. Mandela was sent to Robben Island. [Source 1]

Where: Pretoria and Robben Island, South Africa

Sources

  1. 1.News report. "I am prepared to die": Mandela's speech which shook apartheid (Al Jazeera, 2024).
  2. 2.Primary record. Nelson Mandela, I am prepared to die (Nelson Mandela Foundation, 1964), Statement from the dock. “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people.”

1973 Proven

Apartheid Named a Crime

In 1973, the nations of the world declared apartheid a crime against humanity.

The world gave the system its true name.

From 1970, Black South Africans were made citizens of "homelands" and stripped of South African citizenship. No foreign government ever recognized those homelands. [Source 1]

On 30 November 1973, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a convention declaring apartheid a crime against humanity, by 91 votes to 4. It made "inhuman acts resulting from the policies and practices of apartheid" international crimes. [Source 2]

Where: South Africa and the United Nations

Sources

  1. 1.Reference. Apartheid (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
  2. 2.Primary record. United Nations General Assembly, International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, 1973 (United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law, 1973), Introductory note, Article I. “inhuman acts resulting from the policies and practices of apartheid”

1976 Proven

Soweto

When Black students marched against being taught in the language of their oppressors, the state opened fire on children. It could not stop what followed.

They were children with schoolbooks. The state met them with guns.

Apartheid's schools were built to train Black children for manual work. [Source 1] In 1976, students in Soweto rose up against being forced to learn in Afrikaans. [Source 2]

On 16 June 1976, police fired on them. Hector Pieterson, twelve years old, was shot dead. Police claimed a bullet had ricocheted. The postmortem found he was shot directly. [Source 2]

The photographer Sam Nzima: "I saw a child fall down. Under a shower of bullets, I rushed forward and went for the picture." His photograph of the dying boy, carried by another student, went around the world. [Source 2]

The protests spread. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission later wrote: "Official figures estimate the number of people who died during the course of the protests at more than 500." Other counts put the schoolchildren killed at about 566. [Source 3] [Source 2]

Where: Soweto, South Africa

Sources

  1. 1.Reference. Apartheid (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
  2. 2.Scholarly. Hector Pieterson (South African History Online).
  3. 3.Primary record. Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report, Volume 3, Chapter 6: Overview of violations, 1976-82 (South African History Archive, 1998), Volume 3, chapter 6, paragraphs 114 and 118. “Official figures estimate the number of people who died during the course of the protests at more than 500.”

1977 Proven

Steve Biko

The voice of Black Consciousness died in police hands in 1977. Twenty years later, the men responsible asked for amnesty without telling the truth.

They could jail his body. They could not jail what he taught us to think of ourselves.

Steve Biko led South Africa's Black Consciousness movement. [Source 1]

In police custody in Port Elizabeth, he was injured. The officers said he had attacked them and struck his head on a wall. [Source 1]

Stripped and wounded, he was driven about 750 miles in a police van to a prison in Pretoria. He died there of brain injuries on 12 September 1977. [Source 1]

Years later, the officers asked South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission for amnesty. Amnesty went only to those who told the whole truth. [Source 1]

The Amnesty Committee found their story "so improbable and contrary that it has to be rejected as false," and that "the killing of Biko is not an act associated with a political objective." Amnesty was denied. [Source 2] [Source 3]

Where: Port Elizabeth and Pretoria, South Africa

Sources

  1. 1.News report. S. African officer denied amnesty in Biko's death (Associated Press, via Deseret News, 1999).
  2. 2.Primary record. Amnesty Committee, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Amnesty decision: Snyman, Siebert, Beneke and Marx (death of Stephen Bantu Biko) (Department of Justice, South Africa, 1999), Amnesty decision. “is so improbable and contrary that it has to be rejected as false”
  3. 3.Primary record. Amnesty Committee, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Amnesty decision: Snyman, Siebert, Beneke and Marx (death of Stephen Bantu Biko) (Department of Justice, South Africa, 1999), Amnesty decision. “the killing of Biko is not an act associated with a political objective”

1980 Proven

Zimbabwe

White minority rule in Rhodesia ended in 1980 after a long bush war, and a free people raised a new flag.

They named the new nation for the great stone city our ancestors built.

For years, Zimbabwe's liberation fighters waged war against white colonial rule, and won. [Source 1]

On the eve of independence, 17 April 1980, Robert Mugabe spoke to the nation: "If yesterday I fought as an enemy, today you have become a friend and ally with the same national interest." [Source 2]

He warned: "An evil remains an evil whether practiced by white against black or by black against white." [Source 3]

On 18 April 1980, the new nation celebrated its independence at Rufaro Stadium, in the capital then called Salisbury, now Harare. Mugabe became its prime minister. [Source 1]

Bob Marley had written the song "Zimbabwe" for the freedom fighters. Against his managers' wishes, he paid his own way, hired his own sound system in London, and sang it at the celebration. [Source 1]

Where: Harare, Zimbabwe

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Bob Marley paid his way to play Zimbabwe's independence concert (Quartz, 2020).
  2. 2.Primary record. Robert Mugabe, Address to the Nation on the Eve of Independence, 17 April 1980 (Marxists Internet Archive, 1980), Address, 17 April 1980. “If yesterday I fought as an enemy, today you have become a friend and ally with the same national interest”
  3. 3.Primary record. Robert Mugabe, Address to the Nation on the Eve of Independence, 17 April 1980 (Marxists Internet Archive, 1980), Address, 17 April 1980. “An evil remains an evil whether practiced by white against black or by black against white.”

1994 Proven

South Africa Votes

A man the old state had locked away for life was sworn in as head of the new one.

One person, one vote. It took until 1994.

On 27 April 1994, for the first time, all races in South Africa went to the polls to choose a government. [Source 1]

About 22 million people voted, and 19 parties took part. [Source 1]

The African National Congress won 62.65 percent of the vote. Nelson Mandela, sentenced to life in 1964, became South Africa's first Black president. He had walked out of prison on 11 February 1990. [Source 1] [Source 2]

At his inauguration on 10 May 1994, he said: "Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another." He closed: "Let freedom reign." [Source 3] [Source 4]

South Africa keeps 27 April as Freedom Day. [Source 1]

Where: South Africa

Sources

  1. 1.Scholarly. South Africa's first democratic elections (South African History Online).
  2. 2.News report. "I am prepared to die": Mandela's speech which shook apartheid (Al Jazeera, 2024).
  3. 3.Primary record. Nelson Mandela, Statement of the President of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela, at his Inauguration as President, 10 May 1994 (South African Government, 1994), Inaugural address. “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another”
  4. 4.Primary record. Nelson Mandela, Statement of the President of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela, at his Inauguration as President, 10 May 1994 (South African Government, 1994), Inaugural address. “Let freedom reign.”

1995 to 1998 Proven

Truth and Reconciliation

The new democracy chose to hear its victims and trade amnesty for confession, rather than put apartheid itself on trial.

Truth first. They could not heal what they would not name.

In 1995, the new government of South Africa set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. President Mandela appointed Archbishop Desmond Tutu to chair it. [Source 1]

The law that made it charged it with "establishing as complete a picture as possible of the causes, nature and extent of the gross violations of human rights." It sought the truth, not prosecutions. [Source 2] [Source 1]

Amnesty came only with "full disclosure of all the relevant facts relating to acts associated with a political objective." [Source 3]

More than 22,000 victims gave statements. More than 7,000 people applied for amnesty, and 1,500 were granted it. The officers who killed Steve Biko told no full truth, and were refused. [Source 1] [Source 4]

The first five volumes of its report were released on 29 October 1998. [Source 1]

Where: South Africa

Sources

  1. 1.Reference. Truth and Reconciliation Commission, South Africa (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
  2. 2.Primary record. Parliament of South Africa, Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act 34 of 1995 (SAFLII, 1995), Section 3(1)(a). “establishing as complete a picture as possible of the causes, nature and extent of the gross violations of human rights”
  3. 3.Primary record. Parliament of South Africa, Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act 34 of 1995 (SAFLII, 1995), Section 3(1)(b). “full disclosure of all the relevant facts relating to acts associated with a political objective”
  4. 4.Primary record. Amnesty Committee, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Amnesty decision: Snyman, Siebert, Beneke and Marx (death of Stephen Bantu Biko) (Department of Justice, South Africa, 1999), Amnesty decision. “is so improbable and contrary that it has to be rejected as false”

2001 Proven

Durban: A Crime Against Humanity

The nations of the world met in South Africa in 2001 and wrote down what our ancestors always knew. Then the old slaving powers made sure the words carried no bill.

The world finally said the words. Then it refused to sign the check.

In 2001, the United Nations held its World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa. It closed on 8 September. [Source 1]

The conference acknowledged that "slavery and the slave trade are a crime against humanity," and that they should always have been so. [Source 1]

It "strongly reaffirms as a pressing requirement of justice" that victims should be able to seek reparation for the damage done to them. [Source 1]

But on paying for slavery itself, it spoke only of development programs and debt relief. The European Union declared that the words were political, not legal, and made no one liable. [Source 1]

Where: Durban, South Africa

2013 Proven

Mau Mau

Sixty years after the uprising, London stood up in Parliament, admitted the abuse in its Kenyan camps, and paid those still living.

They called it an emergency. It was a war on a people who wanted their country back.

In the 1950s, Kenyans rose up against British rule in the Mau Mau uprising. British forces rounded up Kenyans for interrogation and held them in detention camps. [Source 1]

Survivors testified to what was done to them there. Paulo Muoka Nzili said he was castrated after his arrest. Jane Muthoni Mara said she was beaten and sexually assaulted, after she gave food to Mau Mau fighters. [Source 1]

On 6 June 2013, Britain's Foreign Secretary told Parliament: "The British Government recognises that Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of ill treatment," and "sincerely regrets that these abuses took place." [Source 2]

Britain paid £19.9 million to 5,228 Kenyans who had survived, about $6,000 each, and agreed to support a memorial in Nairobi to the victims of torture. [Source 2] [Source 1]

Where: Kenya

Sources

  1. 1.News report. 50 years on, UK agrees to compensate Kenyans tortured during colonial rule (NBC News, 2013).
  2. 2.Primary record. William Hague, Foreign Secretary, Statement to Parliament on settlement of Mau Mau claims (GOV.UK, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2013).

2014 Proven

The Caribbean's Ten Points

The islands where the slave ships landed drew up a bill of particulars for repair, and addressed it to the capitals of Europe.

The Caribbean did not ask for charity. It sent Europe an invoice.

The nations of the Caribbean, joined in CARICOM, set up a commission on reparations. [Source 1]

Its case is plain. The European governments "were owners and traders of enslaved Africans," and built the laws that held them. [Source 2] [Source 1]

In March 2014, meeting in St. Vincent, the region's governments unanimously approved its plan. [Source 1]

The ten points: a full formal apology; a program for descendants of the enslaved who wish to return to Africa; development for the Caribbean's Indigenous peoples; museums and research centres; action on the region's chronic disease; an end to illiteracy; reconnecting with African heritage; healing for the psychological damage done; the sharing of science and technology; and the cancelling of debt. [Source 1]

The first point asks for "a sincere formal apology by the governments of Europe" as the precondition of healing. [Source 3]

The last explains the debt: "Caribbean governments that emerged from slavery and colonialism have inherited the massive crisis of community poverty and institutional unpreparedness for development." [Source 4]

Where: The Caribbean

Sources

  1. 1.News report. CARICOM nations unanimously approve 10 point plan for slavery reparations (Leigh Day, 2014).
  2. 2.Primary record. CARICOM Reparations Commission, CARICOM's 10-Point Reparation Plan (CARICOM Reparations Commission, 2014), The CRC asserts. “Were owners and traders of enslaved Africans”
  3. 3.Primary record. CARICOM Reparations Commission, CARICOM's 10-Point Reparation Plan (CARICOM Reparations Commission, 2014), Point 1, Full Formal Apology. “as a precondition the offer of a sincere formal apology by the governments of Europe”
  4. 4.Primary record. CARICOM Reparations Commission, CARICOM's 10-Point Reparation Plan (CARICOM Reparations Commission, 2014), Point 10, Debt Cancellation. “Caribbean governments that emerged from slavery and colonialism have inherited the massive crisis of community poverty and institutional unpreparedness for development”

2015 Proven

Britain Finishes Paying

A debt taken on in 1835 to compensate slave owners was finally cleared in 2015, while those they had enslaved got nothing.

Britain paid the slaveholders on credit. The last of that debt was cleared in our own lifetime.

To pay the slaveholders after 1833, the British government borrowed. The Treasury says it "used £20 million to fund the Slavery Abolition Act 1833." [Source 1]

On 1 February 2015, the last of that borrowing, the 4% Consolidated Loan, was paid off. In the Treasury's own words: "Money borrowed to fund the Slavery Abolition Act (1835) was therefore fully repaid in 2015." [Source 2]

Generations of British taxpayers paid that bill to the slaveholders. The people who had been enslaved received nothing. [Source 3]

Where: London

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. HM Treasury, Freedom of Information reply FOI2018/00186: Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (31 January 2018) (GOV.UK, 2018), FOI reply. “The Government used £20 million to fund the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.”
  2. 2.Primary record. HM Treasury, Freedom of Information reply FOI2018/00186: Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (31 January 2018) (GOV.UK, 2018), FOI reply. “Money borrowed to fund the Slavery Abolition Act (1835) was therefore fully repaid in 2015.”
  3. 3.News report. Claire Milne, This is what we know about the government loan to pay slave owners compensation after slavery was abolished in 1833 (Full Fact, 2020), Full Fact.

2020 Proven

Windrush

Caribbean people came to Britain as citizens and built their lives there. Two generations later, its own government treated them as intruders.

They were called to the mother country. Then the mother country forgot them.

Britain's Nationality Act of 1948 made people born in its colonies British citizens, with the right to come, work, vote and settle. [Source 1]

On 22 June 1948, the Empire Windrush landed at Tilbury, in Essex, carrying almost 500 people from Jamaica. Many of the children were never recorded, because they travelled on their parents' passports. [Source 1]

In 2012, the Home Office began a "hostile environment": employers, landlords and doctors had to check people's papers. Many who had come as British citizens were caught by it. Many lost their jobs, their homes and their health care. Some were detained, and at least 83 were deported. An estimated 50,000 were affected. [Source 1]

In April 2018, the Prime Minister apologized to the leaders of twelve Caribbean nations. A compensation scheme began in 2019. [Source 1]

In March 2020, the government's own independent review found that what happened "was foreseeable and avoidable," and showed "an institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race." [Source 2] [Source 3]

Where: Tilbury, England

Sources

  1. 1.Reference. Windrush scandal (EBSCO Research Starters).
  2. 2.Primary record. Wendy Williams, Windrush Lessons Learned Review (Home Office, UK Government, 2020), Executive summary. “what happened to those affected by the Windrush scandal was foreseeable and avoidable”
  3. 3.Primary record. Wendy Williams, Windrush Lessons Learned Review (Home Office, UK Government, 2020), Executive summary. “an institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race”

2021 Proven

The Herero and Nama

A colonial war in southern Africa set out to destroy two peoples. More than a century later Germany used the right word, but not the word reparations.

They killed our people by the tens of thousands. It took Germany 117 years to say the word.

Between 1904 and 1908, in its colony in what is now Namibia, Germany killed at least 60,000 Herero people and around 10,000 Nama. [Source 1]

On 28 May 2021, Germany's Foreign Office stated: "We will now officially call these events what they are from today's perspective: a genocide." [Source 2]

It said that "we will ask Namibia and the descendants of the victims for forgiveness." [Source 3]

Germany offered "a substantial programme to the tune of 1.1 billion euro for reconstruction and development," paid over 30 years. But it would not use the word reparations, and said the money opened no "legal request for compensation." [Source 4] [Source 1]

The Herero's traditional leaders said they "will not accept" it. Namibia's government called the recognition only a "first step." [Source 1]

Where: Namibia

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Germany acknowledges colonial-era killings in Namibia as genocide (Agence France-Presse, via The Times of Israel, 2021).
  2. 2.Primary record. Federal Foreign Office, Foreign Minister Maas on the conclusion of negotiations with Namibia (Federal Foreign Office of Germany, 2021), Statement, 28 May 2021. “We will now officially call these events what they are from today's perspective: a genocide.”
  3. 3.Primary record. Federal Foreign Office, Foreign Minister Maas on the conclusion of negotiations with Namibia (Federal Foreign Office of Germany, 2021), Statement, 28 May 2021. “we will ask Namibia and the descendants of the victims for forgiveness”
  4. 4.Primary record. Federal Foreign Office, Foreign Minister Maas on the conclusion of negotiations with Namibia (Federal Foreign Office of Germany, 2021), Statement, 28 May 2021. “a substantial programme to the tune of 1.1 billion euro for reconstruction and development”

2022 Proven

The Benin Bronzes Come Home

Royal art carried off by a colonial army sat in European museums for a century and more. In 2022 one of those nations signed them back to Africa.

They took our kings' history and put it behind glass. Now it is coming home.

In 1897, a British colonial expedition looted the treasures of the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now southwestern Nigeria. [Source 1]

More than a thousand pieces from the Kingdom of Benin ended up in German museums. Berlin's Ethnological Museum alone held about 530 items, among them 440 bronzes. [Source 1]

On 1 July 2022, in Berlin, Germany and Nigeria signed a joint declaration. Germany agreed to "ensure the transfer of ownership to Nigeria of all Benin Bronzes held in public museums and institutions in Germany." [Source 2]

The first two pieces were handed over that day: a commemorative head of a king, and a plaque of a king with four attendants. [Source 1]

Germany's Foreign Minister said: "It was wrong to take the bronzes; it was wrong to keep them for 120 years." [Source 1]

Where: Nigeria and Berlin

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Germany, Nigeria sign accord for return of looted Benin Bronzes (Al Jazeera, 2022).
  2. 2.Primary record. Governments of Germany and Nigeria, Joint Declaration on the Return of Benin Bronzes and Bilateral Museum Cooperation (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, 2022), Joint Declaration, recital and point 2. “ensure the transfer of ownership to Nigeria of all Benin Bronzes held in public museums and institutions in Germany”

2024 Proven

A Decade for People of African Descent

The United Nations gave Africa's descendants ten years of their own.

The world set aside ten years for us. It was not enough to undo four hundred.

The United Nations named the years 2015 to 2024 the International Decade for People of African Descent. [Source 1]

Its theme was three words: recognition, justice and development. [Source 1]

Where: Worldwide

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Second International Decade for People of African Descent (New York Amsterdam News, 2025).

2025 to 2026 Proven

Africa Demands Repair

Africa's union made repair its cause in 2025. In March 2026 the nations of the world, by a wide margin, gave the crime its true name.

From London in 1900 to the United Nations in 2026, we never stopped asking. Now the world has answered with our words.

In 1963, Africa's free nations met in Addis Ababa to found their union. [Source 1]

On 17 December 2024, the United Nations proclaimed a second International Decade for People of African Descent, from 2025 to 2034: "People of African descent: recognition, justice and development." [Source 2]

In February 2025, their heads of state met there again, at the 38th summit of the African Union, and endorsed the theme of the year: "Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations." [Source 3]

The Union said the theme asserts "the right of Africa and its diaspora to truth, justice, and restoration." [Source 4]

On 14 and 15 February 2026, the Union's leaders extended it into "a 2026-2035 Decade of Justice for Africans," with Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama to lead the cause. [Source 5]

They decided to name "slavery, deportation and colonization as crimes against humanity and genocide against the peoples of Africa." [Source 6]

On 25 March 2026, Ghana, for the African Group, brought a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly: "Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and the Racialised Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity." [Source 7] [Source 8]

It passed, 123 to 3, with 52 abstaining. Argentina, Israel and the United States voted against. The United Kingdom and the countries of the European Union abstained. [Source 9] [Source 8]

It holds that "claims for reparations represent a concrete step towards remedy." Mahama said: "The adoption of this resolution serves as a safeguard against forgetting." [Source 9] [Source 8]

Where: Addis Ababa and New York

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Africa Day: the OAU and the African Union (University of Cape Town News, 2012).
  2. 2.Primary record. United Nations General Assembly, Proclamation of the Second International Decade for People of African Descent, resolution 79/193 (United Nations, 2024), Resolution 79/193, paragraph 1. “People of African descent: recognition, justice and development”
  3. 3.News report. African Leaders Conclude their Summit in Addis Ababa with Strong Demand for Reparation (Ethiopian News Agency, 2025).
  4. 4.Primary record. African Union Commission, AU marks Africa Day 2025 with a call for justice, unity and forward momentum (African Union, 2025), Press release, 24 May 2025. “the right of Africa and its diaspora to truth, justice, and restoration”
  5. 5.Primary record. Assembly of the African Union, Decisions of the 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union, 14-15 February 2026 (African Union, 2026), Assembly/AU/Dec.942(XXXIX), paragraphs 5 and 18. “ENDORSES the extension of the Theme of the Year to a 2026-2035 Decade of Justice for Africans”
  6. 6.Primary record. Assembly of the African Union, Decisions of the 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union, 14-15 February 2026 (African Union, 2026), Assembly/AU/Dec.953(XXXIX), paragraph 6. “slavery, deportation and colonization as crimes against humanity and genocide against the peoples of Africa”
  7. 7.Primary record. UN News, UN resolution urges reparations for slavery's 'historical wrongs' (United Nations, 2026), UN News, March 2026. “Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and the Racialised Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity”
  8. 8.News report. Al Jazeera, UN passes resolution naming slave trade 'gravest crime against humanity' (Al Jazeera, 2026), Report, 25 March 2026. “The adoption of this resolution serves as a safeguard against forgetting.”
  9. 9.Primary record. UN News, UN resolution urges reparations for slavery's 'historical wrongs' (United Nations, 2026), UN News, March 2026. “claims for reparations represent a concrete step towards remedy”