Pan-African People’s Studios has announced the premiere of its new documentary, ‘Reparations: The Colonial Debt’, set for 16 August 2025 in Bamako, with a post-premiere broadcast on ORTM and Africable Television.
The film, created by Malian filmmaker Ibrahima Sow, confronts one of 2025’s most urgent continental conversations: the necessity of reparations from former colonial powers.
Weaving archival evidence, expert testimony, and contemporary analysis, the documentary catalogs historic abuses committed during colonial rule and examines the enduring economic pressures exerted on African nations today.
The film features contributions from renowned scholars and public intellectuals, including Gnaka Lagoke (Côte d’Ivoire), professor of history and Pan-African studies, and Aminata Dramane Traoré (Mali), sociologist and writer.
‘We have a duty— not just a right, but a duty— to demand reparations’, says Malian researcher, Dr. Fode Moussa Sidibé, underscoring the film’s central thesis and call to action.
Traoré highlights the long tail of exploitation with a stark example:
‘One of the most frightening illustrations of colonialism is the fate of the Congo under Belgium’, she notes, pointing to a legacy that still shapes governance, economies, and public welfare across the continent.
Despite varied academic and professional backgrounds, the film’s experts are unanimous: reparations are essential to restore historical justice and to enable Africa to speak as an equal on the global stage. By documenting both past atrocities and present-day inequities, ‘Reparations: The Colonial Debt’ positions reparative justice not as a symbolic gesture, but as practical redress for centuries of extractive policies.
