KINGSTON, Jamaica – In observance of Africa Day on May 25 2025, the PJ Patterson Institute for Africa Caribbean Advocacy, is urging all former colonial powers to acknowledge their role in centuries of exploitation and to repair the wrongs caused by chattel enslavement and colonialism.

In a statement acknowledging Africa Day which is being celebrated under the theme ‘Year of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations’ the institute said:

“Without a doubt, the people of Africa and the African diaspora have had their land, consciousness, and bodies brutalised by these systems of oppression. We recognise that righting these historical wrongs cannot be satiated just by renunciations and self-reproachful statements without concrete actions of restitution. Reparations must be pursued through structural change and material redress.”

The institute called for policies and programmes that “heal the generational damage inflicted on African and diasporic communities.”

“As Africans and people of African descent, we know too well the consequences of this long history of dispossession on our societies’ health, economies, and our collective well-being, which are still being felt. Justice demands that the nations and institutions which perpetuated these atrocities restore what has been systematically denied,” it said.

The institute maintained that in calling for reparations it was advocating for both justice, and for a future built on mutual respect, shared purpose, and the “unbreakable bonds of African identity”.