Kwasi Pratt Jnr. Calls for Renewed Pan-African Revolution at 80th Anniversary of 5th Pan-African Congress

Story by Eugene Nyarko Jnr. l Accra l November 19, 2025

The 80th Anniversary Conference of the historic 5th Pan-African Congress ended on Wednesday, November 19, with a powerful call for a renewed continental liberation agenda. Addressing delegates at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum in Accra, the General Secretary of the Socialist Movement of Ghana, Kwasi Pratt Jnr., invoked the spirit of the 1945 Manchester Congress and urged Africans to complete the unfinished mission of true political and economic emancipation.

Organised by the Pan-African Progressive Front (PAPF), the conference commemorated the seminal 1945 gathering in Manchester, which united African workers, students, intellectuals and global freedom fighters in defining Pan-Africanism as a struggle for total liberation and unification under scientific socialism.

Pratt reminded participants that although African nations now hold flags of independence, the deeper structures of economic domination persist. “Foreign control of finance and trade, resource plunder, exploitative contracts and odious debt continue to undermine the sovereignty of African peoples,” he said. He stressed that the vision of Manchester extended beyond ending colonial rule—it aimed to build a self-reliant, industrialised, socially just and united Africa.

In a sweeping declaration on behalf of Pan-African movements, progressive parties, trade unions, peasant groups, youth, women’s organisations, cultural workers and the African diaspora, Pratt outlined a comprehensive agenda for Africa’s complete liberation. Key commitments included:

• Full political and economic unification of Africa, grounded in popular participation and democratic control of the continent’s wealth.
• Reclamation of natural resources, land and strategic industries to benefit the African people.
• A continental industrialisation plan, prioritising manufacturing, technology and value-added production, supported by an Africa-wide network of railways, energy corridors, roads and digital infrastructure.
• Agrarian transformation and food sovereignty, ensuring agriculture is reorganised to feed Africans first.
• Financial independence, including the establishment of an African monetary system and the cancellation of illegitimate external debts.
• A Pan-African education and scientific ecosystem, featuring universities dedicated to developing skills and technologies that meet Africa’s social, industrial and agricultural needs.
• Strengthening Africa’s defense capacity, with the development of indigenous military industries and the rejection of foreign military presence on African soil.
• A united push for reparations, creating legal and political frameworks to demand restitution for slavery, colonialism, and neo-colonial exploitation.
• Solidarity with oppressed peoples worldwide, using Africa’s political and economic power to advance global justice.

Pratt issued a stirring pledge from the conference floor: “Standing on the shoulders of the Manchester delegates of 1945, we vow to complete the Pan-African revolution they began. The era of Africa’s economic subjugation will no longer be tolerated.”

He called on African governments, mass movements, trade unions, peasants’ associations and the global African family to mobilise resources, knowledge and collective power to realise the aims outlined in the declaration, which the conference is expected to adopt.

The event concluded with renewed commitment to strengthening Pan-African solidarity and advancing a unified developmental vision for the continent and its diaspora.