By Michael Oche
As the continent marks Africa Day 2025, the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) has issued a powerful call for concrete reparations to address the enduring impacts of colonialism, the transatlantic slave trade, apartheid, and systemic exploitation.
In a statement signed by its General Secretary, Akhator Joel Odigie, ITUC-Africa emphasized that this year’s Africa Day themed “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations” speaks directly to the ongoing struggle to redress the enduring impacts of the “historical crimes” committed against Africa.
Africa Day, celebrated annually on May 25, commemorates the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union) in 1963 and serves as a moment of reflection on the continent’s progress toward unity, development, and self-determination.
Odigie said on this year’s Africa Day, ITUC-Africa joins the African Union and calls for concrete and transformative action that address structural inequalities and advance justice, dignity, and development for all African people and their descendants worldwide.
The ITUC-Africa General Secretary said reparations must not be reduced to mere symbolic gestures or abstract debates, explaining that they must encompass concrete commitments to transform the structures that continue to disadvantage African people and their descendants across the globe.
“These historical crimes were not merely acis of violence against individuais—they were assaults against entire peoples, economies, and civilisations,” Odigie said.
He stated that, for African workers, the call for reparative justice resonates deeply, adding that “We see, know, and feel the consequences of historical injustice in underdeveloped labour markets, weakened institutions, exploitative trade arrangements, modern slavery, and neo-colonial relations.”
ITUC-Africa called for reparations to take the form of tangible socio-economic reforms, including fair wages, universal social protection, quality education, and access to decent work.
The organization also demanded a shift in international trade and financial systems that continue to undermine African sovereignty.
“African nations must reclaim control over their resources and economies,” Odigie stressed, noting that reparations must “transform systems, not maintain them.”
He added that African workers are resolute and committed to waging the struggle for justice, dissolving artificial boundaries and transforming the entire continent into a common market through regional cooperation and integration are key areas for Africa s future development.
The trade union body also outlined several priority areas of demands, including, debt cancellation and fair trade regimes as pillars of reparative economic justice; Stronger labour protections to end informalisation and uphold workers’ rights; Support for Africa’s Just Transition strategies, highlighting the continent’s disproportionate vulnerability to climate change.
It also demanded for Continental integration to dismantle artificial colonial borders and promote intra-African cooperation, Restitution of looted cultural artefacts and recognition of African diasporic struggles as part of the global reparations agenda.
Rejecting the notion of reparations as a symbolic gesture, ITUC-Africa insisted that the fight for justice is ongoing and must be grounded in unity, solidarity, and action. “We know that reparation is a struggle and not a tea party,” Odigie stated
