From May 19 - 21, AfaLab joined Pan-African thinkers, organizers and movement builders at the 4th Africa Movement Building Space to confront extractivism, climate injustice, and neocolonialism.
Together, we imagined a sovereign, unified, and just Africa - one that does not need saving, but organizing, solidarity, and bold imagination.
The sessions deepened this vision through robust discussions on food systems, agroecology, health, geoengineering, and human rights. These justice-centered dialogues sharpen the demands and policy goals driving African-led transformation.
At African Futures Lab, we believe accountability for racial and gendered harms must extend across all sectors, including climate, agriculture, and global health. These cross-sectoral dialogues are essential to building movements that reflect the lived realities and political demands of African communities.
Key Takeaways from the Convening Include:
- Africa’s climate crisis is rooted in colonial extraction and unjust global systems.
- False solutions like carbon markets and geoengineering risk deepening harm—African communities need homegrown, feminist, community-led solutions, not copy-paste models from the Global North.
- 22 African countries face debt distress—our movements must connect climate, economic, and debt justice.
- Food and health systems are under pressure—agroecology and public systems are critical pathways forward.
- Climate finance must stop propping up fossil fuels and start funding frontline-led transitions.
- Intersectionality is not optional—we must center race, gender, youth, and disability justice in all we do.
This convening was a reminder that movements across the continent are not only resisting—we are reimagining and rebuilding systems rooted in justice, solidarity, and care.