Story by, Paul Mensah Nsor
The Pan-African Progressive Front (PPF) has issued a strongly worded statement opposing French President Emmanuel Macron’s participation as a keynote speaker at the High-Level Next Steps Conference on Reparatory Justice, scheduled for June 17–19, 2026 in Accra.
The conference is being convened by President John Dramani Mahama in his capacity as African Union Champion for Reparations. It follows the United Nations General Assembly’s March 25, 2026 resolution, backed by 123 member states, which formally recognized the transatlantic slave trade and enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.
While praising Ghana’s leadership on reparations, the PPF said Macron’s presence at the gathering represents “not accountability, but performance.” The group argued that France has not earned the moral authority to address the conference, citing what it called deliberate political choices by Paris.
The PPF pointed to France’s decision to abstain from the March 25 UN resolution. “France abstained. Not to vote in favour. Not to stand with the 123 nations who affirmed what every honest historian, every descendant of enslaved Africans, and every person of conscience already knows,” the statement read.
The group dismissed the explanation offered by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot that France refused to “create a hierarchy among crimes against humanity,” calling it “an insult dressed as a principle.”
The PPF also noted that France was among nine states that voted against the 2022 UN Human Rights Council resolution 51/32 calling on states to deliver restorative justice for slavery and colonialism.
The statement highlighted France’s role in the slave trade, stating that the country “enslaved and trafficked more than 1.4 million Africans” and “colonised more African territory than any other European power.” It also referenced the 1825 indemnity imposed on Haiti, estimated at over $115 billion in today’s terms, which it said France has never repaid or apologized for.
The PPF argued that any serious conversation about France and reparations must address the CFA franc, which it called “colonialism’s continuation by financial means.” The currency, used by 14 Central and West African nations, requires states to deposit 50% of their foreign exchange reserves in the French Treasury. “France cannot speak of reparations while the CFA franc remains in place,” the PPF said.
The group further demanded the unconditional return of tens of thousands of African cultural objects held in French museums, noting that the Quai Branly Museum alone holds over 70,000 items from sub-Saharan Africa.
Five Demands for “Genuine Accountability”
The PPF listed five actions it said France must take before earning the right to speak at a reparatory justice conference:
1. Deliver a full, unconditional, and legally meaningful state apology for its role in the slave trade, colonial occupation, and the debt extorted from Haiti.
2. Cancel the outstanding ‘debts’ of its former colonies.
3. Dismantle the CFA franc system and support full monetary sovereignty for the 14 African nations still using it.
4. Complete the unconditional return of all African cultural artefacts in French public collections as permanent restitution.
5. Establish and fund a reparations fund with meaningful financial commitments, directed by African governments and diaspora communities.
The PPF called on President Mahama, the African Union, and conference organizers to ensure the gathering “does not become a stage for the rehabilitation of those who have not yet demonstrated the political will to deliver what justice demands.”
“We are not opposed to France being part of the Reparations conversation, we are opposed to France being given a keynote platform in that conversation before it has taken a single concrete, structural, and irreversible step toward reparatory justice,” the statement said.
“Words at a conference in Accra will cost France nothing. Cancelling Haiti's debt would cost something real. Dismantling the CFA franc would cost something real. Returning 70,000 artefacts would cost something real,” the PPF added.
The group concluded: “Reparations are not a diplomatic conversation, they are a debt. And unlike Haiti's debt to France, this one is just.”
