THE president of Africa’s continental legislature has delivered a stark warning that the continent will remain trapped in underdevelopment unless it purges the psychological legacy of colonialism and reclaims confidence in its own culture and values.
Addressing a two-day international conference examining colonial crimes, Pan African Parliament President Chief Fortune Zephania Charumbira declared that centuries of colonial rule had inflicted damage far beyond physical exploitation — systematically destroying African identity and implanting a corrosive belief in Western superiority.
“Culture is the glue that binds us together, and without our culture we are disunited and directionless,” Chief Charumbira told delegates gathered in Algeria’s capital for the African Union-backed conference.
The PAP leader singled out colonial-era education systems as a particularly insidious weapon that continues to undermine African development decades after independence. That system, he argued, conditioned Africans to reflexively view Western products and ideas as superior while regarding their own as inferior — a mindset that now threatens ambitious continental integration efforts.
The consequences are concrete and current. Chief Charumbira warned that the African Continental Free Trade Area, designed to boost commerce between African nations and reduce dependence on former colonial powers, faces failure unless Africans overcome their conditioning to favour Western imports over goods produced on their own continent.
He pointed to Zimbabwe’s adoption of heritage-based education tailored to local culture as a model for decolonising school systems across Africa, arguing such reforms are essential to restoring African self-confidence.
Chief Charumbira also delivered a blunt assessment of the struggle for reparations, cautioning that former colonial powers remain deeply resistant to providing compensation for historical injustices. He cited his own country as evidence, noting that Zimbabwe remains under sanctions for reclaiming land seized during British colonial rule — punishment his government refuses to reverse despite economic pain.
“Africa must move from rhetoric to action in the fight for reparatory justice,” the PAP president declared, adding a warning that without continental unity, the battle would prove futile.
The International Conference on Crimes of Colonialism brings together African Union bodies, government ministers, legal experts, historians and diaspora representatives to examine colonialism’s moral, legal, economic, cultural and environmental dimensions. The gathering aligns with the AU’s 2025 theme, calling for justice and reparations for Africa and people of African descent.
