Jurist Kenya arts festival promotes reparatory justice for Africans and African descendants

[Dadparvar]

Amnesty International on Wednesday voiced support for the forthcoming “Wakati Wetu Festival,” which will host artists, musicians, policymakers, and cultural activists in Kenya to discuss “historical injustices, the ongoing impact of the slave trade and colonialism, and to imagine what reparatory justice involves.”

The festival, whose inaugural debut will take place October 22-23, is the first of its kind. Hosted in the capital Nairobi, organizers aim to “resist, repair, and reclaim,” taking on the “unfinished work of history” in an effort to address the lasting injustices and racial inequities of Africa’s subjugation under European colonial powers and perpetuated through modern systems of power. The event seeks to create spaces of healing, solidarity, and cultural renewal through art, dialogue, and community action.

Speaking on the festival’s historical significance and forecasted impact, Rym Khadhraoui, Amnesty International’s racial justice advisor, said:

We often think about colonialism as something that’s finished, but we are still living in its long shadow. Across the world, people are still suffering the long-lasting effects of colonialism and struggling to get the reparations they deserve from governments.

With many European leaders still refusing to acknowledge their responsibility to redress the persisting effects of slavery and colonialism in today’s world, the Wakati Wetu Festival provides an opportunity to come together and discuss ways to achieve justice and reparations… With so many incredible activists set to speak and perform, we hope to forge a path forward for those who are still awaiting justice.

The festival, to which Amnesty International is a partner, explicitly joins the African Union’s (AU) theme of the year, which calls for justice for Africans and people of African descent through reparations. The AU, a continental body of 55 member states, works to promote unity, peace, and development across Africa while amplifying the continent’s collective voice on the global stage. The AU’s civil society organ, ECOSOCC, is one of the festival’s organizing partners and has promoted the festival as part of the AU’s reparations agenda, praising it as a “unique platform for engagement across sectors.”

The effort serves as both a cultural gathering and a political statement to confront the lasting legacies of Africa’s colonial past while envisioning feasible and sustainable paths toward justice. The AU and global partners like Amnesty International hope to amplify Africa’s own pursuit of reparatory justice but also contribute to a global conversation on historical accountability and how the echoes of colonialism continue to shape societies today.

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