Africa stands at a defining crossroads.

Across the continent, nations are asserting rightful claims for reparatory justice, economic sovereignty, and global dignity. At the same time, legislative efforts emerging in Ghana and elsewhere risk narrowing democratic space and undermining the very foundations upon which that future depends.

These developments—particularly laws that super-criminalize LGBTQ people—are not simply questions of culture or morality. Increasingly, they form part of a coordinated effort to replace Africa’s rights-based constitutional order with a transnational framework of “family sovereignty,” reshaping constitutional governance in ways that extend far beyond questions of sexuality.

At stake is more than law. It is the coherence of Africa’s moral and political position in the world. A continent that seeks reparatory justice for the harms of slavery and colonialism must also ensure that its own legal frameworks reflect dignity, inclusion, and shared humanity.

Reparatory justice requires moral coherence. It cannot be claimed abroad while denied within.

In recent global engagements, Ghanaian leadership has stood alongside diaspora voices in calling for recognition of the transatlantic slave trade as a great crime against humanity. That alignment is significant. Yet it raises a deeper question: how can a shared claim to dignity and repair be advanced globally while democratic space is narrowed at home?

We affirm that Africa must determine its future for itself. But Africa’s political and moral life is already a Black International reality. The African Union’s recognition of the diaspora as the “Sixth Region” reflects a lived truth of movement, return, investment, and shared destiny.

In this moment—when diaspora communities are responding to Ghana’s invitation to return and build—the question is not whether Africa will decide for itself, but how that “self” is defined. A future grounded in sovereignty must also be grounded in coherence—one that includes the continent and its diaspora in mutual accountability and shared responsibility.

We write as African and African-descended faith leaders, scholars, and public intellectuals committed to the long arc of Black freedom—not as separate constituencies, but as one people.

Our dispersal did not sever our belonging—it expanded our responsibility. But that dispersal was not incidental. It was produced through the transatlantic slave trade and formalized through the partition of Africa—forces that fragmented a people across geography, governance, and moral life.

This is not diasporic interference. It is African reconstruction.

African reconstruction is the work of reassembling a people—across continent and diaspora— into a coherent political, moral, and economic community capable of determining its own future.

We therefore call upon African Presidents to declare an immediate moratorium on legislation that constrains democratic freedoms and super-criminalizes LGBTQ people.

This call is not an appeal to delay. It is a demand for responsibility.

A pause interrupts a recurring pattern in which intensified moral regulation displaces engagement with deeper structural realities.

These developments are unfolding within a broader context of resource extraction, climate vulnerability, and shifting global power. In such moments, moral regulation often coincides with diminished attention to the economic systems shaping African life.

These dynamics are further shaped by movements that frame moral regulation as a defense of sovereignty—recasting complex questions of identity and belonging as external threats. In doing so, they risk fusing African self-understanding with exclusionary definitions of identity, including hostility toward LGBTQ people as a proxy for cultural authenticity.

This framing does more than narrow democratic space. It fragments the Black International at a moment when deeper coordination is required, weakening the shared political and moral alignment necessary to advance claims such as reparatory justice on the global stage.

At the same time, many of these efforts are linked—directly or indirectly—to networks that promote narrow moral agendas while remaining largely silent on corruption, extraction, and inequality. This reflects a troubling continuity: the use of moral regulation to obscure material exploitation, often undergirded by theological frameworks that separate questions of sexuality from the deeper demands of justice, governance, and economic dignity.

We do not claim to have all the answers. But the questions before us are too significant to be resolved through hurried legislation.

This moment calls for pause—not as retreat, but as responsibility. That pause should culminate in a historic convening:

 

The Desmond Tutu Conference

A Black Global Freedom Gathering

This gathering stands within a tradition of consequential assemblies—from the Pan-African Congresses to the Bandung Conference—where peoples defined their place in a changing world.

We believe this moment demands similar seriousness and coordination.

Together, we must wrestle with foundational questions:

• What forms of governance can secure dignity, accountability, and democratic participation while remaining grounded in African cosmologies?
• How do we confront enduring structures of extraction and inequality while building systems rooted in shared stewardship and economic justice?
• How do we draw from indigenous African spiritual traditions to cultivate moral clarity, social cohesion, and collective healing?
• How do we address the growing alignment between political and religious networks that promote restrictive legislation while remaining silent on corruption, inequality, and democratic erosion?

Africa is poised to become the demographic center of the world within this century. The frameworks being constructed now will shape not only the continent, but the global Black future.

Africa’s future cannot be built on frameworks that divide its people while leaving untouched the systems that exploit its resources.

We urge African leaders to pause where pause is needed, to convene where dialogue is necessary, and to lead with courage, vision, and moral coherence.

On behalf of The ICJUSTICE Affirming Elders Council

Bishop Joseph W. Tolton, Lead Executive

With full support and solidarity across the regions of the Africa Union:

 

Founding Signatories

FAITH LEADERS: EPISCOPAL / CLERGY LEADERSHIP

• Bishop Abraham Kheibeb

Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Namibia — Namibia (Region 5)

• The Rev. Dr. Canon Mpho Tutu van Furth

SFchFng Tutu Teach FoundaFon— The Netherlands (Region 6)

• Bishop Zac Niringiye

Assistant Bishop (ReFred), Church of Uganda (Anglican)— Uganda (Region 4)

• Bishop Yvette A. Flunder

Presiding Bishop, Fellowship of Affirming Ministries — United States (Region 6)

• Bishop Deogratias Vatiri

Presiding Bishop, Church of God Rwanda — Rwanda (Region 4)

• Rev. Dr. Iva E. Carruthers

General Secretary Emeritus, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference — United States (Region 6)

• Bishop Justin Munyaga

Kazigero Pastor, Victory Church of Congo (Region 3)

• Rev. Dr. MacDonald

Sembereka Blantyre Synod, Church of Central Africa Presbyterian — Malawi (Region 5)

• Bishop O.C. Allen III

Presiding Bishop, United Progressive Pentecostal Churches — United States (Region 6)

• Rev. Dr. Dennis Wiley

Co-Senior Pastor Emeritus, Covenant BapFst United Church of Christ — United States (Region 6)

• Pastor ÁTla Augusto dos Santos

Pastor, A Igreja da Vila (Brazil), Scholar of Blackness, Pentecostalism, and Inclusive ChrisFanity — Brazil (Region 6)

• Pastor José Malua

Theologian and Associate Pastor, Igreja BaFsta de Água Branca (IBAB), São Paulo; Author, African Theology: In Dialogue with LaFn American Theologies — Latin America (Region 6)

• Rev. Cannon Thabo Otukole

Anglican priest and advocate for democraFc leadership and human dignity, Botswana (Region 5)

• Rev. Elder Seraphin Kamutera

Pastor, Enaim African Methodist Episcopal Church; District Superintendent for AME Churches in Goma, DemocraFc Republic of the Congo (Region 3)

• Rev. Jao Damio Elias

Ecumenical Leader and Advocate for DemocraFc Renewal — Mozambique (Region 5)

 

PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS / ACADEMIC & CIVIC LEADERSHIP

• Prof. Takyiwaa Manuh

Senior Fellow, Center for DemocraFc Development (CDD-Ghana); Emerita Professor of African Studies, University of Ghana — Ghana (Region 2)

• Dr. Moyo Gafa

Lecturer and Researcher, University of Zambia — Zambia (Region 5)

• Prof. Sylvia Tamale

Professor Emeritus, School of Law, Makerere University — Uganda (Region 4)

• Hon. Dr. Willy Mutunga

Former Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya — Kenya (Region 4)

• Dr. Tom Mulisa

Lecturer, School of Law, University of Rwanda — Rwanda (Region 4)

• Rev. Dr. Brad R. Braxton

President and Professor of Public Theology, Chicago Theological Seminary — United States (Region 6)

• Rev. Bafana Khumalo

Co-Executive Director, Sonke Gender Justice — South Africa (Region 5)

• Prof. Horace G. Campbell

Former Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies, University of Ghana — Jamaica / United States (Region 6)

• Prof. Akosua Adomako

Emerita Professor, University of Ghana, Center for Gender Studies & Advocacy — Ghana (Region 2)

• Rev. Dr. Obrey M. Hendricks Jr.

VisiFng Scholar, Departments of Religion and African American & African Diasporic Studies, Columbia University— United States (Region 6)

• Dr. Cornel West Dietrich

Bonhoeffer Chair, Union Theological Seminary; Professor Emeritus, Princeton University — United States (Region 6)

• Dr. Audrey Gadzekpo

Professor, Department of CommunicaFon Studies, University of Ghana; — Ghana (Region 2)