In 1492, Pope Nicholas granted the Portuguese the right to ‘conquer the lands of the infidels, expel their inhabitants, subjugate them and force them into eternal servitude’ along the coast of West Africa.

More than five centuries later, a critical question remains: Has the relationship between Western powers and Africa fundamentally changed or merely evolved in form? From Libya to the Democratic Republic of Congo, from Mozambique to other regions rich in natural resources, patterns of external domination, exploitation, and destabilization continue to raise urgent concerns. Across Africa and the Global South, movements for justice, sovereignty, and peace are gaining momentum through international advocacy for reparations, shifting geopolitical dynamics in the Sahel, renewed alliances among formerly colonized nations, and grassroots organizing led by activists and diasporas. Grounded in the principles of the UN Charter, these efforts challenge ongoing forms of domination and call for a more just global order.

Guy Feugap
Guy Feugap is Africa Organizer for World BEYOND War. He is a secondary school teacher, writer, and peace activist, based in Cameroon. He has long worked to educate youths for peace and non-violence. His work has put young girls in particular at the heart of crisis resolution and awareness raising on several issues in their communities. He joined WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) in 2014 and founded the Cameroon Chapter of World BEYOND War in 2020.


Wolfgang Lieberknech
Wolfgang Lieberknecht is a co-coordinator of the World BEYOND War International Peace Factory Wanfried chapter. He is in favour of seeing ourselves worldwide as a human family that works together to ensure that all its members can live in dignity. This is also the philosophy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The previous generation in Germany waged an imperialist war that cost the lives of over 60 million people; Germans engaged in slave trading and brutal colonisation. As part of the Western alliance, the German state does everything it can to maintain the unjust world order. Many people in Germany don't know about it, others don't care. Wolfgang learnt about this as a teenager and has spent his whole life trying to contribute to change. For many years in the African-European Black and White Initiative. Today, he is working with others to set up the International PeaceFactory Wanfried in his home town as a space where people from different countries, religions and skin colours can get to know each other and train to create peace, because we don't get it for free: we have to work hard for it. But anyone who has experienced the suffering of war knows that we are all responsible for it because we did not commit ourselves in time to finding peaceful solutions.

Moderator: Annachiara Canetta

Annachiara Canetta is the Europe Organizer of World BEYOND War, based in the Netherlands. She is a researcher, activist and organizer engaged in the anti-war, Palestine, climate and food sovereignty movements. She has participated in campaigns against fossil fuel and weapon companies, as well as in local mutual aid and community building efforts. She is passionate about organising intersectionally across different movements, highlighting how the war system diverts fundamental resources from all other struggles for environmental and social justice.

Within the food sovereignty movement, Annachiara has volunteered with and supported agroecological farms in both the Netherlands and in Palestine. She has also conducted research on alternative fundraising and grant-making practices directed towards grassroots and activist organisations.

She holds a BA in International Relations and a MSc in International Development Studies, with a specialisation in Sociology of Development, and Conflict and Disaster Studies.

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