Move beyond reparation rhetorics - Prof. Soyinka urges African leaders

Nobel laureate and playwright Wole Soyinka has called on African leaders to implement concrete actions for reparatory justice, moving beyond mere discussions and rhetoric. Speaking at a conference in Accra, Soyinka stressed the importance of actively engaging with the continent's history of the slave trade.

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Let us move mentally and practically towards dynamising the commemoratives which exist. We have to move now beyond the performances, the discussions, the rhetoric, even the economic aspects of a retrieval of an egalitarian relationship between us and them.

"We have to move now beyond the performances, the discussions, the rhetoric, even the economic aspects of a retrieval of an egalitarian relationship between us and them," Soyinka stated. He highlighted the need to "dynamise" existing commemorations and recognized that the mental state of people in the diaspora is crucial. The 90-year-old laureate also cautioned an unnamed country's visa policy, which he said could lead to self-isolation for nations supporting reparatory justice.

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Mr President (John Dramani Mahama), Sir, I hope you realise that you placed both yourself and your citizens in potential quarantine. But you’ve been good about me, because now I see before me all international community out of the quarantine.

Soyinka connected contemporary issues like modern slavery and irregular migration to "inorganic development" and leadership shortcomings on the continent. He condemned leadership that treats citizens as slaves and pointed to African migrants drowning in the Mediterranean as a "commemorative also in a negative mode." He asserted that any measure enabling Africa to collectively recover its "rehumanisation" is essential for the development of traumatized populations.

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We all live within a commemorative environment, negative and positive. We commemorate all the time.

The laureate also addressed the ongoing issue of modern slavery, including kidnapping and the desire of African youth to seek better economic opportunities abroad. "I refer to the extant slave markets which still exist on this continent. I refer to the kidnapping of schoolchildren who were sent to these institutions of learning, who end up being kidnapped because there are ready markets for them," he said, referencing Nigeria's Department of the Diaspora.

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I refer to the extant slave markets which still exist on this continent. I refer to the kidnapping of schoolchildren who were sent to these institutions of learning, who end up being kidnapped because there are ready markets for them.