Africa is home to 1.4 billion people. It’s rich in resources, culture, history.

It should be at the centre of global politics. But it’s not. Decisions about Africa are still being made without Africans at the table. And that’s not a coincidence. It’s by design.

Look at the UN Security Council. Five permanent members and none of them African. The continent that suffered the most under colonial rule, the continent that holds the raw materials the world depends on, has zero real power in the body that decides war and peace. They call it international cooperation, but the rules were written without us in mind.

Look at global summits: the G7, the G20, the EU-Africa partnerships. These are meetings where the world discusses Africa’s future without real African leadership. Even when African heads of state are invited, they are often outnumbered, talked over, treated like junior partners in a game where the West still holds the cards.

Look at international media. When Africa is discussed, it’s usually through the voices of Western analysts, foreign correspondents, white experts who claim to understand the continent better than the people who live there. African scholars are sidelined. African journalists struggle to get international coverage. African narratives are filtered through outsiders who decide which stories matter.

This isn’t about oversight. It’s about control. Keeping African voices out means keeping power where it’s always been: with the former colonizers, with the corporations extracting resources, with the institutions making decisions on our behalf. When Africans do speak up, they’re ignored, silenced, or labelled as ‘radical’. Because an Africa that controls its own future is a threat to the global order.

But the tide is turning. African activists, thinkers, and leaders are refusing to wait for permission. They’re building independent media, creating policy spaces, forcing their way into conversations where they’ve been excluded. Because Africa doesn’t need a seat at their table – we need to build our own.