African leaders are intensifying their push for the international community to officially recognize, criminalize, and provide reparations for colonial-era crimes. At a conference in Algiers, diplomats and leaders convened to advance an African Union resolution that calls for justice and reparations for victims of colonialism, and to formally define colonization as a crime against humanity.
The Algerian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Attaf, emphasized that African countries continue to “pay a heavy price in terms of exclusion, marginalization and backwardness” for the colonial era. He stressed the need for a legal framework to ensure restitution is viewed as a right, “neither a gift nor a favor.” The conference highlighted the staggering economic cost of colonialism, which some estimates place in the trillions, resulting from the brutal extraction of natural resources by European powers.
African nations have also been making increasing demands for the return of looted cultural artifacts currently held in European museums. Algeria’s experience under French rule was cited as a core example, noting the bloody war for independence and the widespread use of torture and disappearances by French forces. The discussion also extended to the issue of Western Sahara, which Algeria frames as a case of unfinished decolonization.
The movement for reparative justice is also gaining momentum in other regions, with Caribbean governments also advocating for a formal apology and financial reparations from former colonizers for the lasting legacy of colonialism and enslavement. The Queer God Squad wonders if such important discussions and calls for repairing the damages of colonization will include confronting sexist and homophobic religions that Europe forced upon colonized nations. Will restorative justice include seeing LGBTQ+ people as fully human and deserving of human rights?
