By Kurt Campbell in Algeria
Caribbean leaders are making it clear, the era of talk and rhetoric has run its course.
On Friday, speaking at the 2nd Global Africa Diaspora Day during the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF 2025), they issued a bold call for unity and action with one central demand, economic sovereignty.
For years, leaders have spoken about the promise of a Global Africa Commission, a collective body that would align Africans on the continent and the diaspora behind a shared economic and political agenda.
That commission was not unveiled in Algiers. Instead, the gathering produced something tangible – the launch of the Africa Trade and Distribution Company (ATDC), a new platform designed to link African producers with diaspora markets and keep more wealth circulating within the global African family.
Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley set the tone with a blunt message. “We have been talking for too long. Conversations and rhetoric are not enough,” she declared, her words drawing rapt applause.
For her, the time has come to build institutions and frameworks that make economic cooperation as natural as cultural and historical bonds.
“People follow the money,” she said, urging Africans to stop taking pride in heritage alone and instead invest in shaping financial and commercial systems.
She pressed again for a Global Africa Commission, describing it as the collective body “to chart the course forward” and harness the strength of the estimated 350 million people of African descent who live outside the continent.
Mottley’s appeal was more than policy, it was moral. Quoting Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, she compared the shattered history of Africa and the diaspora to a broken vase: “The love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than the love that took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.”
St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Terrance Drew grounded the moment in a long struggle stretching from the Haitian Revolution to the Pan-African Congress of 1945.
“After long fights, the next fight is for economic sovereignty,” Drew said. “No one from outside will resolve our issues. We must lead ourselves and connect our people, so trade and investment bring tangible benefits — lifting our people from poverty and securing dignity.”
He reminded the audience that liberation was never gifted, saying: “blood was shed for us to be free” and argued that the economic battle must be waged with the same determination as past struggles against slavery and colonialism.
Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell turned to sport and culture to make his case. Africans and the diaspora dominate the global stage in athletics, football, basketball, cricket and music — yet too often the ownership, profits, and decision-making lie elsewhere.
“We cannot just provide the skill and the thrill,” he warned. “We must own the business of sport — the clubs, the stadiums, the television rights, the apparel rights — so our global citizens can benefit from their own talent and success.”
His message was that talent without ownership reproduces exploitation, while ownership brings empowerment and prosperity.
The launch of the ATDC was cast as a practical first step in that direction. Supported by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the company is designed to serve as a commercial bridge between African producers and diaspora consumers, reducing reliance on external intermediaries.
For Afreximbank President Prof. Benedict Oramah, the ATDC is more than a business. It is a statement that Africans will no longer be “sweat labourers” enriching others.
“We must produce within our communities, sell within our communities, and take pride in consuming what our communities produce,” he said.
The atmosphere in Algiers was charged, with speeches repeatedly drawing bursts of applause, chants and even moments where, as one participant described, “the hair rose on the skin.” For many, it felt like a turning point: a shift from memory to markets, from invoking the past to building economic structures for the future.
While the Global Africa Commission remains an idea awaiting its institutional birth, the Africa Trade and Distribution Company is already on the table.
Caribbean leaders will gather again in Addis Ababa for the second Africa–Caribbean summit in a few days where they will carry the same message that while history has prepared the ground, only trade, investment and ownership will shape the destiny of a truly Global Africa.
Caribbean leaders are pushing for a Global Africa Commission to advance reparatory justice, foster economic partnerships and promote self-determination by creating direct trade and travel links between the regions.
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