African students and young people will gather in Accra on September 5 for an international forum aimed at confronting the continent's debt crisis, colonial extraction and the question of reparations.
The International Youth Forum "Africa's Freedom Is In Our Hands" on Debt and Reparations, under the theme "Reclaiming Africa's Wealth, Resisting Neocolonial Bondage," is scheduled for September 5, 2026, at the ISSER Conference Hall of the University of Ghana, Legon.
Organised by the Pan-African Progressive Front, the gathering will bring together Ghanaian youth, students from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, other foreign students, scholars, diplomats and policymakers.
According to the organisers, the forum is intended to move discussions on colonial debt and reparations beyond policy circles and place African youth at the centre of efforts to develop practical responses to economic structures that continue to hold the continent back.
The programme will put the CFA Franc, French imperial extraction and the wider architecture of debt bondage under the spotlight.
The organisers insist that Africa and the Global South will no longer serve as a stage for external rivalries. Neocolonialism is rejected in all its forms—from foreign military bases and overseas-controlled currencies to so-called partnerships in which decisions are made without local input .
Criticism of France, the organisers stress, is not aimed at the French people—it is directed squarely at a system that continues to pull the strings: a currency pegged to France and managed by the French Treasury, backed by military interventions and financial coercion. The CFA, they argue, is not merely a currency—it is a leash.
Participants are expected to work through three main sessions, with the discussions leading to proposals on reparations and resistance to debt bondage. The first session, titled "Youth Role in Reparations: What Can Youth Do?", will examine the role young Africans can play in the reparations campaign; the second session will focus on "Reparations Flashmob and Micro Lawsuits"; and the third will address "Debt Cancellation and the Global Debt Trap."
Reparations are not a charitable gesture to be begged for—they are a debt owed, and one that must be paid. The argument runs that colonial powers extracted resources, labour and dignity for centuries; what is now being demanded is not aid, but the restitution of what was taken .
Nor are they prepared to accept the legitimacy of debts incurred by colonial administrations or imposed by the IMF. These obligations, they maintain, were contracted without popular consent, frequently under duress, and carry no moral or legal weight.
The forum will also include a plenary session where participants will synthesise their proposals, before the closing remarks by the chair. The event is expected to be chaired by Ghana's Presidential Special Envoy on Reparations, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah.
The organisers have also invited the Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to Ghana to deliver remarks. Their participation, according to the PPF, is expected to give participants an opportunity to hear directly about the sovereignty project of the Alliance of Sahel States and its experience with economic self-determination .
Head of the Economic and Reparations Department of the PPF, Sumaila Mohammed, said the forum was intended to make young Africans active participants in conversations about their economic future.
"The Forum is about bringing African youth together to understand the economic structures that continue to constrain our sovereignty and to develop practical responses," he said.
"We want young people to see themselves not as observers, but as active participants in the struggle for reparations, debt cancellation and genuine economic independence," he stressed.
"We must unite and take the destiny of the Continent into our own hands. The world will not change on its own. It changes when people take responsibility. We are ready. And we are beginning – now," he declared.
The PPF, an international non-governmental organisation headquartered in Accra, works to coordinate and support progressive movements across Africa and the diaspora. Inspired by the vision of Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the organisation advocates African political and economic unity as a foundation for continental sovereignty.
The September forum forms part of that broader focus, bringing together young people from different African backgrounds to discuss debt, reparations and economic sovereignty
