Communiqué Issued at the Conclusion of the Two‑Day Frantz Fanon Centennial Conference Held at the Faculty of Social Sciences Auditorium, University of Jos, Nigeria 27–28 November 2025

Preamble 

Scholars, policymakers, students, civil society actors, artists, women and gender activists,  trade unionists, and representatives of regional and continental bodies convened at the  Frantz Fanon Centennial Conference held at the University of Jos, Nigeria to reflect on the  enduring relevance of Frantz Fanon’s thought on Africa’s political, economic, and social  realities. The conference was attended in-person by 638 (Six Hundred and Thirty-Eight)  persons on Day-1 and 412 (Four Hundred Twelve) persons on Day-2. Online participation  figures were 242 participants for Day-1 and 167 participants for Day-2. 

Held under the theme ‘Fanon and Africa’s Condition: Reflections on an Enduring  Legacy’, with a Keynote delivered by Professor L. Adele Jinadu under the Chair of  Professor Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja and inter-generational dialogue facilitated by  Professor Okwudiba Nnoli, the conference recognises Fanon not merely as a revolutionary  thinker, psychiatrist, and anti-colonial activist, but as a prophetic voice whose ideas  illuminate the persistent contradictions of post-colonial governance. 

Observations 

Participants affirm that sixty years after Fanon’s passing, many African states still confront  unresolved structural challenges: neo-colonial economic dependencies, elite domination,  violent governance cultures, increasing women and youth marginalisation and  disillusionment, and widening legitimacy deficits. The conference emphasises that  engaging Fanon today requires not just commemoration but action towards justice, dignity,  autonomy, and people-centred governance. 

Participants observed that Africa is experiencing democratic decline and democratic  backsliding, essentially due to the persistence of neo-colonial structures, thinking, and  institutions. This, they affirm, was long theorized by Fanon that the national petty  bourgeoisie in Africa is incapable of liberating both itself and the countries it inherited  from colonialism through colonial and nationalist struggles. 

Resolutions and Commitments

conference thus resolves and recommends the following: 

1. Political Governance and Democratic Renewal 

Participants identify the urgent need to: 

1. Strengthen people's organizations through research, advocacy, and solidarity that  are rooted in the struggle against neocolonialism and neoliberalism to establish  genuinely free countries in the African continent; 
2. Deepen protections for civic space, free expression, academic freedom, and press  independence across all African states; and 
3. Demand that the African Union (AU) and Regional Economic Communities (RECs)  adopt minimum continental standards on political party financing, electoral  integrity, and accountable governance. 
4. Economic Transformation and Structural Change 

Participants at the conference: 

1. Reaffirm Fanon’s critique of extractive economies and commit to advocating for  value addition, industrialisation, and regional production networks rather than  continued dependence on raw commodity exports; 
2. Call on African people to demand and make the Africa Union (AU), African  Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, and national governments to  support a Continental Industrialisation and Value-Addition Framework, driven by  technology, green economy innovation, and youth-led entrepreneurship; and 
3. Urge national governments to pursue economic sovereignty, fair taxation, and  stronger protection of natural resources, including critical minerals to the global  energy transition. 
4. Youth mentorship, Fanonist Clubs and Transformative Activism Participants at the conference agree to: 
5. Acknowledge the dissatisfaction, disaffection, and the energy of youth and their  creative utilization of technology to effect a change, and to continue to study,  understand, and support them by providing them with solidarity and access to  knowledge 
6. Set up a mentoring structure between elder and young scholars in the process of anti colonial knowledge production and its utilization in promoting the transformation of  the African continent; 
7. Facilitate the establishment of Fanonist clubs in institutions of higher learning in  Nigeria and in other African countries for socializing young people into Fanonist ideas,

   laying the foundation for mental emancipation, and producing critical minds among  them; and 

   1. Advocate partner organizations to commit themselves, individually and collectively, to  establishing both a mentoring framework for knowledge production and the  transformation of Africa and its countries. 
   2. Youth Agency and Transformative Leadership 

   Participants at the conference: 

   1. Identify with the centrality of the voices of young people to Africa’s liberation  project and thus recommend the creation of a Pan-African Youth Civic Corps to  strengthen civic engagement, local governance, and leadership cultivation; and 
   2. Advocate that universities, political parties, and civil society organisations be encouraged to establish pathways for youth inclusion in policymaking, budgeting,  and peacebuilding. 
   3. Women and African Transformation 

   Conference participants: 

   1. Identify with the goals of the global activism against Sexual and Gender-Based  Violence (SGBV) and explores how Fanon’s ideas help in interrogating the  structures that enable colonial violence, patriarchy, and economic subjugation; 
   2. Commit to true liberation which must transform not only political systems, but  also the intimate and social spaces where inequality is reproduced; and 
   3. Commit to a shared project to build a world where nobody, especially on the  basis of being a women, is treated as inferior, disposable, or violable. 
   4. Peace, Security and Demilitarisation 

   Participants at the conference: 

   1. Emphasise the urgent need for security sector reform (SSR), particularly  demilitarised policing, community-based safety models, and accountability  mechanisms; and  
   2. Encourage RECs to coordinate efforts on cross-border security, mediation, and  early-warning systems rooted in community participation. 
   3. Decolonising Knowledge, Mental Health and Healing 

   Recognising Fanon’s psychiatric legacy, participants:

   1. Underscore the psychological dimensions of liberation, calling for mental health  integration into public policy, especially in conflict-affected regions; b. Commit to supporting decolonised curricula, African intellectual traditions, and the  expansion of research centres dedicated to African philosophy, languages, and  political thoughts, and 
   2. Urge governments and universities to fund community healing programmes, trauma  recovery, and cultural renewal initiatives. 
   3. Pan-African Solidarity and Global Justice 

   Conference participants: 

   1. Stress the importance of Pan-African cooperation, including unified continental  stances on debt, fair trade, taxation, migration, climate justice, and global  governance reform; 
   2. Endorse strengthening AfCFTA implementation, regional integration, and intra African mobility as pathways to Fanon’s vision of collective emancipation; and c. Reaffirm solidarity with African people’s resistance to oppression, authoritarianism,  economic subjugation, and armed conflict. 

   Institutional Outcomes 

   The conference resolved to: 

   • Establish a Fanonian Futures Working Group (FFWG) to coordinate research,  training, and policy advocacy across Africa. 
   • Publish an Annual Fanon Report assessing governance, democracy, structural  transformation, and social justice trends on the continent. 
   • Support inter-university networks for Fanon Studies, decolonial scholarship, and  cross-disciplinary analysis. 
   • Explore collaboration with the AU, RECs, UN agencies, and civil society  organisations to operationalise key recommendations. 

   Appreciation 

   Participants express deep appreciation to the Governor of Plateau State, the Vice  Chancellor of the University of Jos, Nigeria, CDD-West Africa, CODESRIA, ASUU,  University of Jos, CITAD, National Institue of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS),  ITUC-Africa, NLC, TUC, academics from all over Africa, Europe and America, activists  and volunteers for a successful conference. Students and community participants are alos  appreciated for enriching the debates.  

   Finally, the Central Planning Committee as well as the Local Organising Committee are  duly appreciated for putting together this conference. 

   Closing Statement 

   The conference concluded with a renewed commitment to transforming Fanon’s insights  into concrete action. Delegates affirmed that Africa stands at a critical juncture: the future  demands courage, imagination, and structural change. In the spirit of Fanon, the  communiqué calls for the building of societies rooted in dignity, justice, equality, and the  full humanity of all. 

   SIGNED: 

   Professor Pam Dung Sha 

   Chairperson, Conference Organising Committee

   Dr. Dauda Garuba 

   Director, Centre for Democracy & Development (CDD-West Africa) 

   Comrade Yunusa Z. Ya’u 

   Secretary, Conference Organising Committee