Changing Futures
Building an Infrastructure for Healing
Kwesi Amoak, far left, facilitating a session at the Accra Summit II
“In joining us, you are helping to demonstrate that we stand united in our determination to heal from the conditioned behaviors that all too often undermine our individual health and well-being, our relationships, and our ability to work together effectively to advance our collective interests ... Working together, we will, indeed, build a powerful global network of ‘inspirers and healers, wherever our people are scattered, able to bring us together again.’
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Felicia Appenteng, AAI Program Architect, and Kwesi Amoak, AAI Director of Alumni Engagement & Storyteller in Residence, attended the Global Circle for Reparations and Healing: Accra Summit II that took place from March 26-28, 2025 in Accra, Ghana. The Accra Summit’s mission is to build trust and relationships to establish a foundation for long-term collaboration to do the essential work of building an infrastructure for healing for Africans and the Global African Diaspora.
Kwesi facilitated two sessions at the summit, “What is necessary for our healing?” and “How do we build an infrastructure for healing for Africans and the Global African Diaspora?”. Here are the key findings and conclusions from his sessions:
A participatory approach was utilized for this session, hence, we all sat in a big circle to deliberate together.
We offered a proposed three-pronged relational ontological framework of Healing, Harmony and Harambee (3H) as essential components of an infrastructure for healing and reparative justice. With core Afrocentric principles such as Maat (just and upright conduct) and embodied ways of knowing, the relational framework encompasses a vast community of not those of us alive but of ancestors and the unborn, the physical environment and the divine (deities).
The indispensable theme of trust served as the fulcrum for our deliberations in the context the proposed 3H framework. Initial discussions centred on defining, unpacking, and clarifying the meanings of trust, notably through lived experiences (of trust and mistrust) and concepts (such as big “T” Trust and small “t” Trust) were offered. We agreed on some shared values such as reliability, credibility competence and consistency as conditions of trustworthiness for healing.
In the second part of the session, we undertook a learning exchange through four regional groupings namely, Caribbean & South America, North America (USA), Africa and Europe to unearth verbal articulations/expressions and vocabularies of trust in varied forms, namely, sayings, poetry, songs, poetry, physical gestures etc. From the knowledges of cultures, oral traditions and lived experiences, we learnt examples of expressions of trust building among black people such as eye contacts and the gesture of nodding the head (upwards or downwards depending on if you are in the US or the UK), expressions like “you feel me?” “my word is my bond” and words like “Thembeka,” “Shosholoza” “Bribi” and “Ahala”. As an effort of towards harmonizing the verbal articulations, vocabularies, and the intricate nuances of trust-building, it was clear from this exercise that our understanding deepened with the variety of expressions from across the different regions, and that we could retool the meaning of the word trust with other expressions based on embodied, lived experiences of commitment, solidarity, and community.
Conclusion & Recommendations:
The concluding part of the session was focused on Harambee (all pull together). The following are highlights of concluding reflections and recommendations:
It is important to celebrate our achievements on the work of healing: It was noted (by Dr. Joy) that it was necessary to congratulate ourselves for navigating through difficult conversations at the summit without flaring up and fighting.
There is no need to rush and announce (in a typical expected deliverable mode) a declaration. It is useful to share deliberations and consult further with key members of the community who were not present to have a holistic declaration.
The work of healing requires deliberate retreat and resting so as not to dissipate our energies.
It was observed that the summit had brought together a team of healers from different backgrounds and is crucial to mobilize, reflect and act on the proposed framework. One way to do this is to develop Communities of Practices (CoPs) of healing by engaging with communities at the grassroot level to include more voices especially of younger people. Also, in the context of a relational framework for healing, it is useful from time to time recognize and acknowledge the voices of dissent and disagreements (done cautiously with wisdom).
It is imperative to mobilize and map out resources, including: media content such as films, newsletters, online groups, sources of funding etc.
The need to design, compile and enact rituals of healing. In the case of the session we demonstrated an example using a simple (jama) song and gestures.
We as blacks from the diaspora and on the continent are not exposed enough to each other. An infrastructure for healing demands concrete steps to work on our dismemberment.
We need undertake further work to document varied experiences of trust building and other crucial component of the work of healing. Further research and documenting of varied dimensions of the black experience enables theory building-the intellectual work necessary for the work of healing-towards decolonial and pluriversal futures.
To learn more the Accra Summit II, go to accrasummit.com
