By Njeri Irungu<\/p>\n
The air at Entim Sidai Wellness Sanctuary in Nairobi was heavy with emotion and purpose as Africa\u2019s first Reparations Festival, Wakati Wetu: It\u2019s Our Time, opened its doors. Beneath the calm of the sanctuary\u2019s gardens, artists, thinkers, and activists from across the continent gathered to do what history so often forbids \u2014 to remember, to resist, and to reclaim.<\/p>\n
Convened by African Futures Lab, Baraza Media Lab, the African Union\u2019s ECOSOCC, and Reform Initiatives, the two-day event marks a continental milestone in the movement for reparatory justice. Under the theme \u201cIt\u2019s Our Time: To Resist, Repair and Reclaim,\u201d the festival blends art, activism, and scholarship into one unified call for moral and historical repair \u2014 a reawakening of Africa\u2019s own story.<\/p>\n
The opening address by award-winning Kenyan author Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor drew the audience into a deep silence. \u201cReparations is first an act of moral autopsy and then moral exorcism,\u201d she said softly, yet her words cut through the air. \u201cThere is no repair or healing without walking into, around, and naming the wound in its fullness.\u201d Her reflections were as poetic as they were piercing \u2014 a challenge to the crowd to reject the hollow comfort of sanitized justice. \u201cWhy would we want to integrate reparations into development,\u201d she asked, \u201cfold justice back into the very economic model that produced injustice?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Dr. Kathryn Nwajiaku-Dahou, Director of the Politics and Governance Programme, followed with a proverb from her father \u2014 \u201cThe cup that was meant for your lips will never pass you by\u201d \u2014 a reminder that history, however long it waits, always finds its way back to those it belongs to.<\/p>\n
That sense of reckoning deepened when veteran lawyer and former MP Paul Muite took the stage. Having been central to the Mau Mau reparations case against the British government, Muite spoke with the gravity of lived experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn order for reparations cases to succeed, the starting point is research \u2014 accurate records of who was who, who did what, with their names. It\u2019s not just about those who were detained. Justice begins with truth.\u201d His voice, measured and mournful, carried the memory of betrayal \u2014 the colonial violence, the torture, the mass detentions \u2014 and the post-independence silence that followed. \u201cEven after freedom,\u201d he said, \u201cthe third betrayal came from those who took power from the colonial masters, who did not want to hear about Mau Mau or the freedom fighters.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Throughout the day, conversations shifted from memory to media, tracing how stories of power have been written and rewritten. In a session titled \u201cUbuntu: Media and Memory,\u201d journalist Ngartia M\u016br\u016bthi reminded the audience that colonial conquest did not only happen with guns \u2014 it happened with headlines.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the colonial project to succeed, it had to manufacture consent,\u201d he said. \u201cNewspapers were the biggest tools of propaganda. Kenya was advertised as a white man\u2019s country, painting the land as empty and available.\u201d Christine Mungai, a media scholar and editor, added that resistance begins in the courage to tell uncomfortable stories. \u201cFor a journalist, it takes bravery to go against the grain \u2014 to resist conventions and tell stories that make power uncomfortable. That courage is part of repair.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As the afternoon sun dipped, the conversation turned toward identity and rebirth. Philosopher Yoporeka Somet reflected that reparations are not merely economic but existential.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot talk about renaissance if you do not know your history,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we want to talk about reparations, we must first heal ourselves by reconnecting with what we were before our story was disrupted.\u201d Dr. Natasha Shivji built on that thought, urging African states to stop waiting for validation from abroad. \u201cThe language of reparations is not simply a demand on the outside world,\u201d she said, \u201cit is a demand on the state \u2014 to organise its people, to organise history into a revolutionary platform, not a pleading for sympathy.\u201d<\/p>\n
By evening, the festival transformed into a celebration of art as resistance and healing. Under the theme \u201cConfronting the Silence,\u201d musicians, poets, and filmmakers turned memory into motion. Eric Wainaina\u2019s soulful performance wove seamlessly into the rhythms of DJ Talie, Koko Koseso, and NiK DJ, while poets painted their voices across walls that became living archives of resistance. The films If Objects Could Speak and How to Build a Library challenged the audience to confront the ghosts of stolen artifacts and silenced histories.<\/p>\n
For festival convener Liliane Umubyeyi, Executive Director of the African Futures Lab, the event was more than remembrance \u2014 it was renewal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are here because justice is both a political and cultural question,\u201d she said in her closing reflection. \u201cOur shared creation has the power to renew our understanding of our place in history. The time is truly ours. Ni Wakati Wetu!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The festival continues through October 23, with sessions exploring tax justice, climate reparations, and gendered reparations, culminating in a keynote by Brian Kagoro titled \u201cVision for the Future.\u201d A closing concert featuring Sitawa Namwalie and June Gachui will mark the end of the inaugural edition \u2014 a symbolic moment that looks toward the African Union\u2019s Decade of Reparations (2026\u20132036).<\/p>\n
In the quiet night air of Karen, it feels as though a new chapter has begun \u2014 one where Africa no longer pleads for justice, but defines it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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