The African Union (AU)’s theme for 2025 is Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations. As the AU said, the initiative shows its ‘commitment to addressing historical injustices, including the trans-Atlantic slave trade, colonialism, apartheid, and genocide’. A full concept note is available here. ASWDNET members will explore this theme in May during African Day Indaba. The theme will feature prominently throughout our publications. We encourage social work institutions throughout the world to engage with this theme in teaching, research, practice and advocacy and support the work the AU is doing on this social issue. The philosophical foundation of reparations is Ubuntu and the theory that supports this is Ubuntu justice. Keep reading.
On theme page of the ASWDNET website, there is a link to the AU website. There are also other links to continental institutions that are studied (in class, fieldwork or research) by social work and development students such as ADF, PAWO and ASSWA.
Ubuntu philosophy and ubuntu justice theory on reparations
Ubuntu social justice
In Fundi Dictionary, justice and Ubuntu justice are defined as:
Justice: Act of returning and replacing; apologising and reconciling when someone does wrong; it also includes warnings and punishments.
Ubuntu justice: Acts of deterrence; returning and replacement; apology, forgiveness and reconciliation; and warnings and punishments.
A social justice framework by Osei-Hwedie and Bodie-Moroka
Key learnings from Ubuntu
Using this understanding of justice, therefore:
Apology, forgiveness and reconciliation do not come before repair, returning and replacement.
Justice is not only about the past, but preparing relations now and in the future.
Justice is about preventing violence of colonisation and slavery from continuing or recurring in the past.
Social justice is tied to economic justice.
Justice is reciprocal, it heals both the perpetrator and survivor.
Wrong doing is not about the individual, but their family, community and society – justice is therefore not an individual thing.
Elevating the reparations agenda globally
Another way to elevate the global reparations conversation is by shifting the focus from crimes against Africa to crimes against humanity. The atrocities committed – including genocide, forced removals, the looting of resources and cultural artefacts, numerous war crimes and slavery – were not only crimes against Africa but crimes against humanity as a whole.
Many former colonial powers argue that they bear no direct responsibility for injustices committed centuries ago, dismissing reparations claims as impractical or backward-looking. Others contend that development aid, debt relief and foreign investment function as reparations, negating the need for further redress.
This challenge is further exacerbated by Africa’s lack of leverage in compelling former colonial powers to engage in meaningful reparations. Unlike other groups that have secured reparations – such as Jewish Holocaust survivors or Japanese Americans – African countries lack the political, economic or institutional influence to pressure former colonial powers into the conversation.
One way to address these challenges is by expanding the AU theme’s focus, which currently emphasises justice and healing for Africans and Afro-descendants. During implementation, the AU could approach reparations as a forward-looking global agenda aimed at repairing both victims and perpetrators.
In doing so, the AU could build on traditional African conceptions of justice (Ubuntu) embedded in its transitional justice and post-conflict reconstruction and development policies, where reparation is inherently forward-looking. This is further reinforced by the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent’s recommendations and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights resolutions.
Such reframing would respond to critics in Europe and North America who dismiss Africa’s reparations agenda as backward-looking, assuming that violence ended with the abolition of the slave trade and colonialism. The reality is that violence has evolved into systemic injustices that continue to shape global inequalities, including representation in multilateral institutions (from Institute of Security Studies).
