Africa/memory, justice, and rebuilding: the AES brings the voice of African dignity to New York
In New York, at the heart of the African Burial Ground memorial, Burkina Faso’s Prime Minister, Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo, delivered a powerful message on behalf of the Confederation of Sahel States (AES). This was not just a diplomatic speech, but a political act—a cry of truth and hope voiced from a place where the echoes of oppression still resound. Through this intervention, the AES was not pleading for recognition. It was demanding justice, dignity, and reconstruction.
This High-Level Meeting on African Memory, Justice, and Reparations, initiated by Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, set in motion a new dynamic—an Africa speaking with one voice, not as a victim, but as the heir of a history of struggles and the builder of a sovereign future. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger carried the weight of a wounded memory, but also the strength of a present that breaks away from neo-colonial logics.
The Prime Minister reminded with force: our peoples have paid the highest price—flesh, sweat, and blood—for others to enrich themselves. Today, the time has come to turn this memory into a lever for reconstruction. The AES’s proposals are clear, bold, and decidedly pan-African: resistance museums, restitution of cultural heritage, the return of diaspora expertise, African investment funds, and educational partnerships. These are the seeds of a continent standing tall, free, and in control of its own story and destiny.
Beyond memory, the AES is carrying a political project of renewal. This project follows in the footsteps of historic figures of resistance, but above all reflects the urgent reality of current sovereign transitions. The name “Burkina Faso” itself symbolizes this deliberate break from domination. Today, this spirit runs through the entire AES.
The world now hears a new voice—that of African peoples who no longer wait for permission to unite, develop, and demand respect. The AES is asserting itself as the beating heart of a concrete Pan-Africanism, rooted in history and oriented toward the future. The gathering in New York is not an endpoint, but a signal that Africa, united and standing, is moving forward.
