Ambassador Kwame Muzawazi
By Dickson Bandera
Zimbabwe-based Pan-African think tank, the Institute of African Knowledge (INSTAK), has announced a historic legal initiative aimed at addressing longstanding injustices against Africa and Africans, positioning the continent as an active agent in defining its own history and global identity.
Drawing on decades of research, particularly The Africa Factbook published by INSTAK in 2000, the organisation is preparing to seek two advisory opinions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and a definitive ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). These actions aim to challenge distortions of Africa’s history, geography, and humanity that have persisted for centuries.
The first action will request an ICJ advisory opinion on Africa’s right to reparations for the centuries of European slavery and colonialism that devastated the continent’s people and institutions.
The legal effort aligns with the African Union’s 2025 theme, “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations”, and relies on the extensive historical and economic evidence meticulously compiled in The Africa Factbook.
The second action will challenge the long-standing distortion of Africa’s landmass in global cartography. For centuries, world maps have minimized the continent while inflating Europe and North America, embedding subconscious narratives of African inferiority. Modern geographic data confirms that Africa’s true size exceeds the combined land area of Europe, the United States, and China.
INSTAK argues that this misrepresentation is not merely a cartographic quirk but a reflection of a colonial worldview that continues to shape perceptions of Africa’s place in the world.
The third action targets racial bias in Polish education and culture. INSTAK will bring a case to the ECHR challenging racist and degrading depictions of Africans in textbooks and popular culture, including the absurd stereotype that Africans are dark-skinned because they do not bathe. The case is intended as a test to confront and correct educational and cultural biases in other Western jurisdictions, dismantling pervasive narratives of anti-Africanism that persist globally.
“For too long, Africa has been defined by others—our past rewritten, our maps redrawn, our humanity diminished,” INSTAK said. “These legal actions are not symbolic; they are a demand for intellectual and moral justice. Africa is not a passive subject of history—it is an active agent of its own destiny.”
The think tank acknowledged that the litigation may encounter stiff resistance, not only from those who have historically benefitted from Africa’s subjugation, but also from Africans who have internalized narratives of inferiority. Yet INSTAK remains resolute, emphasizing that restoring dignity and truth is a struggle worth undertaking, no matter the obstacles.
INSTAK stressed that these legal initiatives are acts of correction rather than hostility, rooted in the same spirit that animated The Africa Factbook: to debunk myths about Africa, restore factual truth, and reclaim the continent’s rightful place in global consciousness.
“This is not about bitterness; it is about balance. It is about ensuring that our children—and the world’s children—grow up seeing Africa as it truly is: vast, dignified, beautiful, and central to humanity’s story.”
The three-pronged legal initiative represents a historic moment in the Pan-African struggle for narrative sovereignty, bridging scholarship, advocacy, and law. It signals Africa’s growing confidence to confront the world not as a petitioner, but as a partner demanding fairness, respect, and truth.
