President John Dramani Mahama used his platform at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, September 25, 2025, to make a bold declaration about Africa’s place in the future of global governance.
Addressing world leaders in New York, Mahama reflected on Africa’s limited role in the founding of the United Nations while emphasizing the continent’s growing influence in shaping the world’s future.
“At this 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, I would like to speak about Africa’s role in the future of this organisation. However, it is impossible to do that without first considering the collective role that Africa played in its founding, which was small and relatively insignificant,” he said.
He recalled that of the 51 founding members of the United Nations in 1945, only four were African — Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, and South Africa. Drawing further back, he noted that Africa’s participation in the League of Nations had been just as limited.
“Out of the 42 founding Member States of the League of Nations, only three were African — Liberia, the Union of South Africa, and Ethiopia. Egypt was to join later in 1937. Africa’s overall participation in the organisation’s founding was minimal and relatively unimportant.”
Mahama linked this exclusion to Africa’s colonial history. “Before all the other talks and meetings, representatives from a group of 14 nations gathered in Berlin for a series of discussions that began in 1884 and which led to the partitioning and formal colonisation of the African continent, which is also called the Scramble for Africa,” he reminded the Assembly.
But he argued that the tide has now turned. “In the past, the majority of the 54 nations that now comprise Africa were never offered a seat at the table where plans for a new world order were being drawn. But Madam President, as fate would have it, the tables are turning and Africa’s role in the alter shape of whatever is yet to come for this world is going to be huge and it will be consequential.”
Mahama cited UN projections that by 2050, Africa will account for more than a quarter of the world’s population, with one-third of all young people between the ages of 15 and 24 living on the continent. “So you see, the future of this world is African,” he declared.
Raising his voice for emphasis, Mahama repeated his central message: “Allow me to say this once again a little louder for those of you in the back. The future is African.”
He went on to highlight Africa’s growing role as a driver of change. “Already today, Africa is a catalyst for human potential and development as well as for economic reform and ecological stability. Africa is a catalyst for systemic change,” he stressed.
Acknowledging that some may find this assertion unsettling, Mahama suggested that such discomfort is rooted in history.
“If this reality, which is fact-based and straightforward, seems provocative or unsettling, perhaps it’s because you are viewing it through the lens of centuries of filters, colonialism and imperialism, and the resulting implicit bias.
“Maybe you are unaware of the resilience of African nations or their remarkable ability to make a strong comeback just when you think it’s safe to count them out.”
