By *Jomo Thomas
I am in Accra, Ghana, representing St. Vincent and the Grenadines, at the Next Step conference on the landmark United Nations Resolution on the trafficking of enslaved Africans.
PM Friday was invited to attend the conference, but had pressing matters of state to deal with on the regional level and asked me to attend instead. I view the responsibility conferred on me as a signalled honour.
In March 2026, 123 countries voted in favour of a resolution that labelled the Transatlantic Slave Trade the gravest crime in the history of mankind. Three countries, the United States, Israel and Argentina, led by some of the vilest leaders in our midst, voted against the resolution; 52 nations comprising all of Europe, including all of the former enslaving colonial powers, abstained.
The Next Step conference, as the name implies, is to chart the way forward to ensure that a laser-sharp focus is maintained on the crime scene that is Africa and the Americas, where Europeans plundered, using the most depraved means of murder, pillage and exploitation and to highlight the developmental mess that the slave trade, slavery and colonialism have left in its wake.
My biggest disappointment is that French President Emanuel Macron was invited to attend the conference. Macron’s presence is a monumental insult to the memory of Ghana’s founding father, Kwame Nkrumah and all other liberation fighters for independence and the struggle against slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism and anti-imperialism.
Fresh off his France-Africa summit in Kenya, where he slanderously declared himself a modern-day pan-Africanist, Macron comes to Accra, evidently hoping to pivot for the further penetration and exploitation of the entire African continent following the defeats and setbacks French imperialism has suffered in the so-called Francophone Africa, particularly in Burkino Faci, Mali and Niger.
The conference builds on a number of critically important positions of the past beginning with the Abuja proclamation (1993) on reparations for African Enslavement, Colonisation and Neo-colonialism which affirmed that the claim for reparations represents a concrete step toward remedying historical wrongs, the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (2001) which acknowledged the Transatlantic Slave Trade as crimes against humanity that ‘should have always been so’ and further acknowledged that enslavement, colonialism and genocide contributed to underdevelopment and disparities affecting developing countries.
The conference recognised and highly praised the Algerian Parliament’s September 2025 resolution, which declared colonialism a crime against humanity.
It also equally recognised the CARICOM Ten-Point Plan as a conceptual, actionable framework for advancing reparatory justice. It also recognised its strengths as an important blueprint for a comprehensive global reparations settlement.
The conference recognised and affirmed that the aspirations of Africans and people of African descent are inexorably linked across continents, territories, and generations and that their strength lies in purposeful solidarity, coordinated action and shared strategic vision.
It reaffirmed the freedom of African peoples to govern, create, produce and develop according to their aspirations and interests, free from external domination.
The conference set a Global Strategic framework for reparatory justice that, among other things, commits to fight for :
An acknowledge of truth and an apology from states and institutions that have not apologised for their participation in humanity’s greatest crime, compensatory reparations, restitution, global governance reform, rebalancing global economic and development architecture, debt relief and finacial justice, the establishment of a global reparations fund, corporate accountability and business responsibility, technology transfer and capacity building, public health and wellbeing, gender justice, climate justice, education, knowledge and cultural renewal.
As we say in the reparations movement, step by step, reparations in our lifetime. When history returns to this moment, it must record the Accra Next Step reparations conference as much more than a gathering of remembrance.
Football: the beautiful game
In a 1977 autobiography titled “My Life and the Beautiful Game”, Pele, the legendary Brazilian footballer, coined the term “the beautiful game” in describing football. It stuck. Most football lovers will agree that the touches, passes, goals and athleticism displayed on the field have rightly won the sport its title. The game, at its highest, is a marvel to behold.
However, there is something ugly about the 2026 World Cup. The double standards, hypocrisy and dishonesty of FIFA and mainstream media are nauseating to say the least. If FIFA had any guiding principles, the US’s opportunity to host the 2026 World Cup along with Canada and Mexico would have gone up in smoke.
A little history is in order. On Feb. 22, 2022, Russian soldiers crossed into Ukraine in what the Russian leader called a limited military operation. Many leaders across the world, especially those in the Global North, were swift in condemnation. Six days after the Russian invasion, FIFA and other international athletic organisations banned Russian athletes from participation in all organised sports. The ban continues, and Russians are denied the opportunity to compete under their nation’s banner.
Now for the contrast. The American and Israelis regimes have twice invaded Iran (June 2025 and February 2026). Trump has also ordered military strikes in Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. Yet FIFA and other athletic organisations have not condemned these actions. No sanctions, boycotts or bans are imposed. The USA remains a boastful host of the football World Cup.
The mainstream media, which are really stenographers of the corporate and political elite in the Global North, have gone along with the charade as if this is business as usual. There has not been a single journalist with the courage to highlight or condemn the double standard. Trump banned an African referee and treats the Iranian players as lepers, Canada bans a Ghanaian star player, and all mouths are shut tight, pens are laid down, and the sweet sound of fingers tapping on keyboards goes silent.
The politics of sports are laid bare. For these reasons, I vowed not to watch a single game of the 2026 World Cup. As Juvenal warned centuries ago, the ruling elite resolved to “give them bread and circuses”. There is never enough bread and they can never get enough circus.
Think about these things when you sit down to watch the next game.
*Jomo Sanga Thomas is a lawyer, journalist, social commentator and a former Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
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