Algiers, Algeria – Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dr. Terrance Drew, delivered an impassioned address at the Global Africa Diaspora Day celebration during the 4th Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2025), calling for Africa and its diaspora to embrace unity, honor history, and move towards economic sovereignty.
Drew reminded the audience that the vision of “Global Africa” is deeply rooted in history. “The concept of global Africa started many, many decades ago, if we have to remember the words of his most excellent, the Honorable Marcus Garvey, when he said that Africa for Africans, at home and abroad.” He stressed the central role of the diaspora in Africa’s liberation, describing the current movement as “a continuation of a great journey of, as it was said by Mia Mottley, a vase that was broken now being reunited.”
Standing in Nigeria, Drew described the land as “holy ground, sacred ground… a country that fought for its liberation and independence from colonization.” He drew parallels to the Caribbean experience, recalling how “in the late 1700s, when ex-slaves in the person of Toussaint L’Ouverture and his excellent destiny defeated a colonial power that was France, [they] declared independence. So it was not given to us. Blood was shed for us to be able to be free people.”
Drew emphasized that even when leaders were silenced, the ideals of freedom lived on. “Even though you would have taken out an individual, you could not have taken out the concept, the idea of true liberation. And right after him came Dessalines, who defeated the French right in the Caribbean.”
He traced this spirit of liberation forward to the 1945 Pan-African Congress in Manchester, which he described as the spark of decolonization: “That Pan-African meeting, which was held in 1945 in Manchester… it was declared then that Africa and people of African descent must be free, and history speaks the rest.”
Connecting history to the present, Drew stated: “The idea that is being spread today is the idea of global Africa, where Africa, those on the continent and those in the diaspora, we form that whole vase… that vase is being put together once again.”
He called this moment the next phase of the long struggle. “It is relevant because we have taken it in stages—fighting against slavery, fighting against post-slavery, fighting against colonization, fighting for independence and liberation. And today, the next chapter in our journey is to fight for economic sovereignty.”
For Drew, this movement is inseparable from humanity’s broader advancement. “What we seek to do in lifting global Africa is really part of a long story, but our story is also connected to humanity, because in the lifting of Africa and its peoples will automatically result in the upliftment of humanity as a whole.”
He underscored the importance of tangible action and benefits. “People follow the money. That is true in the sense that it has to be tangible benefits of what we seek to do… this global trade and this reconnection can bring benefits to our people, lift our people out of abject poverty, allow our people to flourish culturally and otherwise, including economically.”
Drew cautioned against internal divisions: “Conflict and the destruction of life will not advance our cause as global Africa. Where there is division, let there be dialogue, so that through dialogue, we can resolve the issues that we have as a partner.”
He insisted that Africans must lead in solving their own challenges: “We cannot expect anyone from outside to resolve our issues. We have to be those who would lead to resolve our own issues and challenges.”
Closing his remarks, Drew declared: “The rise of global Africa, that seed has been planted. That cannot be stopped. The train has left the station. It is moving along. And I ask all of us, in our various capacities… that we get on the train which will finally see economic sovereignty to the benefit of all.”
