African youth from across the continent have issued the Legon Declaration, demanding debt cancellation, reparations for colonial-era injustices and an end to neo-colonial exploitation at the end of an International Youth Forum in Accra.
The Legon Declaration, adopted by acclamation of over 200 delegates from Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and other African countries, commits participants to pursuing a micro-lawsuits mechanism, opposing the CFA Franc, expressing solidarity with the Sahel states and building a united youth movement against neo-colonial exploitation. It also demands a full audit of Africa's sovereign debt and the cancellation of debts linked to colonial-era exploitation.
The forum was organised by the Pan-African Progressive Front (PPF) at the ISSER Conference Hall of the University of Ghana on September 5 under the theme, "Reclaiming Africa's Wealth, Resisting Neo-colonial Bondage."
In solidarity with the Sahel states, many young people are rallying into a movement against French imperialism. They intend to complete their university education and then return to their home countries, where they will carry on the fight. This, however, is merely the first step.
As part of the campaign, a micro-lawsuit mechanism has been introduced, as well as a firm stance against the CFA franc, coupled with an anti-French discourse.
Veteran Pan-Africanist and journalist Kwesi Pratt Jnr, who addressed the expectant gathering, alongside other speakers, argued that the reparations agenda must not be reduced to financial compensation or symbolic gestures such as the return of artefacts. He said the ultimate objective should be to "reset" the global system and create an international order in which all people are treated equally, regardless of race or geographical location.
"What we demand is not compensation. What we demand is equal rights," Pratt said.
He urged African countries to take greater control of their natural resources, warning that the continent's gold, bauxite, diamonds and lithium were finite and could not be recovered once extracted.
He also rejected attempts to frame social struggles primarily as conflicts between generations, arguing that disadvantaged youth have common interests with exploited workers and older people facing poverty.
"The struggle is not about age. The struggle is about ending exploitation and oppression," he said.
The renowned reparations advocate stated that the agenda for reparations is an agenda to reset the world entirely.
"The agenda for reparation is an agenda to change the United Nations. The agenda for reparation is an agenda to ensure that we own our resources and exploit these resources for our own benefits and we will succeed in the pursuit of this agenda," he assured.
"We have gathered here today not to complain. We have gathered here today not to beg, not to plead. We have gathered here today to fight, to struggle for what belongs to us. And we owe nobody an apology. We are here to fight and we will win the struggle because it's just a struggle.
According to him, Africa had already achieved a few things, including the UN General Assembly Resolution, which recognized the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism and neo-colonialism as a crime against humanity.
"Only yesterday, we scored another victory. Only yesterday, the world agreed that the map of the world we have been using throughout, which we use in our geography lessons and so on, is not the correct map and that we should begin to use the correct map, which truly reflects the dimensions of Africa and the world. This is a victory.
"This is a victory in many respects. Throughout, we have believed that Africa is a very small continent. That indeed, Greenland is bigger than Africa, when the reality is that Greenland will fit into Africa four times; when the reality is that Africa is much bigger than the United States of America; That Africa is much bigger than Europe and so on.
"We were made to think that we are a small continent. You may think that the size of a continent really does not matter. It does matter. It has a psychological impact. And yesterday, we won that struggle. That struggle which says that Africa is not a small continent, but is a continent of 1.4 billion people inhabiting the richest part of the world," he emphasised.
Pratt, however, took a swipe at African leaders for taking decisions that undermined the achievement chalked at the UN General Assembly earlier in the year.
"A few weeks after that achievement, two weeks after that, three weeks after that, four weeks after that, our governments, the governments which claim to be leading us to victory in that struggle to reset the world, were signing defence cooperation agreements with the European Union. "They were signing defence cooperation agreements with the United States of America. And some of them even went to the extent of signing intelligence cooperation agreements with Ukraine. That is the problem. Our leaders, their lack of focus and sometimes their extreme stupidity, is the problem," he fired bluntly.
PPF Convener, Humphrey Quaye, told the forum that Africa's debt crisis should be understood as a continuation of historical exploitation.
He argued that the wealth extracted from Africa during slavery and colonialism had created a situation in which Africans were now borrowing what he described as their own stolen wealth.
"Now they lend us our own stolen wealth and interest and call us debtors. We cannot discuss debt without discussing resetting, repair, and restitution. And we cannot discuss repair without demanding justice," he said.
Quaye called on young Africans to organise across universities, communities and digital platforms to support campaigns for national and regional reparations mechanisms.
"Today, the youth of Africa here must tell their grandparents and the former colonisers, we are here to collect, and collect we shall," he said.
The forum, chaired by Kakulasewura Sakra Kankan Maji I, formerly known as Abu Sakara Foster, a Ghanaian agriculturalist and politician, formed part of the PPF's broader campaign on Pan-African unity, reparations and economic sovereignty, building on the Accra Declaration adopted at a landmark conference in November 2025 that brought together over 300 delegates from 57 countries.
