By Kim Poole, Diaspora Representative, ACALAN
During the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81), a profound question reframed the global conversation on restitution: If stolen African artifacts are important enough to recover, what about the people who were taken?
Kim Poole, Diaspora Representative to the African Union African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), placed this concept of “Cultural Reparations” at the forefront of UNGA81. Her advocacy highlights a critical gap in current reparatory justice efforts. True restitution cannot end with returning material heritage; it must expand to repair the severed ties of language, cultural knowledge, and belonging experienced by descendants of displaced Africans.
This family-centered approach aligns directly with the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which envisions a continent united by strong cultural identity and shared heritage. At the “Journey to 20 Seats” African Union ECOSOCC engagement in Washington, D.C., Poole and the Teaching Artist Institute showcased an exhibition documenting the historical pathways to formal Diaspora participation. The exhibition reinforced that political representation within African institutions must be matched by meaningful cultural reconnection.
As the African Union champions the Decade of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations (2026–2035), ACALAN is working to integrate language recovery into the broader reparatory justice framework. Language is not merely a tool for communication; it carries history, worldview, and identity. When language transmission is interrupted by enslavement, entire lineages lose their ancestral compass. Providing the infrastructure for the Diaspora to learn African languages transforms education into an act of repair.
Returning an artifact without empowering descendants to understand its cultural context leaves the work of restitution unfinished. By forging concrete pathways for linguistic and cultural reconnection, African institutions are not just addressing the traumas of the past—they are actively building a reparative future for the global African Diaspora.
