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Story by, Paul Mensah Nsor
Continental coalition mobilizes for August 29, 2025 demonstration as Africa's debt crisis reaches breaking point
ACCRA, Ghana - In what promises to be one of the most significant demonstrations of African unity in recent years, trade unions, civil society organizations, faith leaders, and grassroots movements from across the continent will converge in Ghana's capital on August 29, 2025, for a historic Pan-African Rally for Debt Cancellation and Trade Justice.
The rally, spearheaded by the International Trade Union Confederation Africa (ITUC-Africa) and the Trade Union Congress Ghana, represents a continental outcry against what organizers describe as "neocolonial and neoliberal shackles" that continue to undermine Africa's socio-economic progress and development.
The numbers paint a stark picture of Africa's debt predicament. The continent's sovereign debt has ballooned to $2.14 trillion USD as of 2024, with 22 African countries classified as being at high risk of debt distress. Four nations - Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zambia - have already defaulted on their obligations, highlighting the severity of the crisis.
Perhaps most troubling is how debt servicing has begun to crowd out essential public spending. Seven African countries now spend more on servicing debt interest than on education, while 25 countries allocate more resources to debt payments than to healthcare. This misallocation of resources has created what campaigners call an "impossible choice between servicing debt or serving their people."
Joshua Ansah General Secretary of TUC emphasized the urgency of the situation, stating that "debt is a stumbling block to Africa's development possibilities." His words echo the sentiment expressed in the May 2025 AU Debt Summit's Lome Declaration, which formally called for the cancellation of African debt.
Central to the rally's message is the concept of "stopping the bleeding" - a reference to the massive financial hemorrhaging that Africa experiences annually. According to organizers, while Africa received $162 billion USD in loans, aid, and remittances in a single year, the continent simultaneously lost over $203 trillion USD through illicit financial flows and profit repatriation, resulting in a net annual loss of $41 billion USD.
This stark imbalance has led campaigners to declare that "Africa will no longer accept a system of modern-day neocolonial exploitation, in which our resources serve creditors instead of our people."
In a significant demonstration of political will, His Excellency Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, Vice President of Ghana, will join the rally, marching alongside African workers and citizens. This high-level participation signals both national leadership and continental resolve to confront the debt crisis head-on.
The Vice President's participation is particularly symbolic, given Ghana's own recent experience with debt distress and default, making the country's leadership acutely aware of the human cost of unsustainable debt burdens.
While debt cancellation remains the primary focus, the rally also addresses broader issues of trade injustice. Organizers have raised concerns about the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), warning that without enforceable labor and social protections, the agreement risks repeating "patterns of jobless growth and deepening inequality."
Trade unions are demanding formal inclusion in AfCFTA governance structures and the incorporation of labor and social clauses into trade protocols. "Trade must deliver decent jobs, not just GDP growth," declared ITUC-Africa, rejecting what they term "a race to the bottom where workers pay the price for Africa's trade liberalization."
The rally represents an unprecedented coalition of African organizations, including ITUC-Africa, Ghana TUC, APRODEV, FEMNET, Pan African Lawyers Union, Tax Justice Network Africa, Trust Africa, and the NAWI Collective, along with broad grassroots networks across the continent.
This diverse coalition underscores what organizers describe as "the legitimacy and urgency of Africa's demand for debt cancellation and fair trade." The unity displayed by these varied organizations - spanning labor unions, civil society, legal professionals, and grassroots movements - demonstrates the broad-based nature of the continent's frustration with current economic arrangements.
The rally will commence from Obra Sports Stadium and terminate at Independence Square, with participants carrying banners and placards reading "Cancel Africa's Debt Now," "Debt Cancellation is Reparative Justice," "People-Centered AfCFTA," and "Stop the Bleeding."
A particularly powerful element will be a chain-breaking ceremony designed to dramatize Africa's liberation from what organizers call "the shackles of debt." This symbolic act aims to capture the rally's central message that debt cancellation represents a form of reparative justice for historical and ongoing exploitation.
Importantly, organizers have extended invitations to lenders and donors through their embassies and organizations, challenging global financial institutions to demonstrate whether they are "ready to listen to Africa's people and act on the urgent demand for justice."
The rally aligns with the African Union's 2025 theme of "Reparative Justice for Africans and People of African Descent," positioning debt cancellation not merely as economic relief but as a moral imperative rooted in historical justice.
This framing reflects a growing continental consciousness that views current debt burdens as continuation of historical patterns of extraction and exploitation. By demanding debt cancellation as reparative justice, organizers are making a powerful argument that connects contemporary economic challenges to longer histories of colonialism and structural adjustment.
Organizers have specifically called on local, regional, and international media to assist in communicating information about the rally widely and to provide comprehensive coverage of what they describe as a "landmark event."
The rally is positioned as "a defining moment for Africa's economic future" and "a message to the world that Africa is united, organized, and determined to demand and obtain reparative justice and reclaim its sovereignty."
As August 29, 2025 approaches, the Pan-African Rally for Debt Cancellation and Trade Justice represents more than a single day of protest. It embodies a continental awakening to the need for fundamental restructuring of global economic relationships.
The rally's organizers are clear that this is "not just a Ghanaian moment" but rather "a continental campaign" that will deliver a petition to policymakers demanding debt cancellation, trade justice, and comprehensive reforms in the global financial system.
With Africa's debt crisis showing no signs of abating and the human cost of debt servicing becoming increasingly apparent, the Accra rally may well mark a turning point in how the continent approaches its relationship with global creditors and trading partners.
The success of this mobilization could signal the emergence of a more assertive, unified African voice in global economic governance - one that refuses to accept the status quo and demands fundamental change in how the international community engages with African development aspirations.
As thousands prepare to march through Accra's streets, their message will be clear: the time for half-measures and empty promises has passed. Africa demands debt cancellation, trade justice, and reparative justice - and it demands them now.