African governments are taking concrete steps toward launching a coordinated reparations campaign against the United Kingdom for atrocities committed during the colonial era, with Nigeria taking a leading role and framing the push as a matter of legal justice, not charity, despite UK resistance focused on future relations.
Momentum for the initiative accelerated at a recent high-level conference in Algiers, where officials, academics and legal experts from across the continent met to shape a common strategy.
The gathering advanced an African Union (AU) resolution adopted earlier this year, which calls for colonial injustices to be formally recognised, classified as crimes against humanity, and addressed through reparations.
The AU’s push builds on growing pressure within individual member states. Nigeria has emerged as a leading advocate, particularly after Senator Ned Nwoko submitted a $5 trillion reparations claim to the British government in September, an action that, while independent of the AU, set a benchmark for the scale of damages being discussed at the continental level.
The United Kingdom has routinely dismissed such demands, arguing that revisiting historical grievances is neither feasible nor productive and insisting that its focus remains on forward-looking partnerships with African nations.
British officials have previously criticised reparations proposals as “hypocritical” and incompatible with modern diplomatic priorities.
However, African leaders say the case is strengthening amid renewed global scrutiny of colonial legacies.
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