Abibitumi Newsroom

Accra, Ghana — October 8, 2025 — The Africa in Transition Conference opened at the University of Ghana with a clear mandate: turn belonging into systems—citizenship pipelines, leadership exchanges, and a coordinated decade of repatriation. Hosted by the Africa Caribbean Centre for Development (ACCD) and running October 8–11 under the theme “Centring Thought and Action of Global Africa and Beyond”, the ceremony underscored a through-line from welcome speeches to real-world pathways.

Kofi Okyere-Darko (KOD)—appearing as an honored guest—voiced a mobility vision for an Africa with fewer barriers to intra-continental travel, drawing strong applause and immediate interest in Ghanaian citizenship from attendees (opening-session transcript). The message: inspiration is good; implementation is better.

That ethos carried into the keynote welcome from Dr. Kofi Osei-Kusi, President of the Pan-African Leadership Institute (PALI), who invited the diaspora to “feel the warmth… and the vibrancy of our people” and paired it with structure: a newly signed Memorandum of Understanding between PALI and The University of the West Indies (UWI) Global Campus to build joint leadership programs and exchanges—including a January graduation and six-day immersion in Trinidad & Tobago. See coverage via Ghana News Agency and the Ghana News Standard.

Hon. Samia Nkrumah’s symbolic presence

Hon. Samia Yaba Nkrumah—a 2025 headliner—joined the opening, embodying continuity from her father’s pan-African vision to today’s institutional work. ACCD’s channels trail her role in this year’s program

That’s where the Decade of Our Repatriation (DOOR) and RepatriateToGhana (R2GH) stitched the opening to action. DOOR lays out the public framework for a decade-long return and reintegration of the global African diaspora to Ghana—start with the initiative’s homepage at decadeofourrepatriation.com and its About page. R2GH is the hands-on on-ramp that turns intent into lawful residence, citizenship, and community reinsertion—see About R2GH and the site’s FAQs. Together, they form the long arc and the last mile.

In-room acknowledgments underscored that continuum. Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon—Lead Organizer of DOOR—was recognized twice during the opening, first by Dr. Osei-Kusi and again by Professor Ian Boxill of UWI (opening-session acknowledgments). Earlier this year, Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon received the Kwame Nkrumah Award for Pan-African Leadership, presented by Hon. Samia Nkrumah at the Pan-African Leadership Global Conference Graduation & Awards—documented here: award announcement and award archive.

By the close of the opening session, the chain was intact: KOD’s barrier-light mobility vision; PALI’s new UWI bridge; Samia Nkrumah’s living lineage; and DOOR × R2GH’s implementation toolkit. If the week holds to that standard, Africa in Transition will be measured not by speeches, but by documents filed, exchanges launched, and families who—over the coming decade—call Ghana home again.

Further Reading & Registration
• ACCD Conference Hub — Africa in Transition 2025: https://conference2025.africaribbeancentrefordevelopment.com/ conference2025.africaribbeancentrefordevelopment.com
• ACCD Main Site: https://africaribbeancentrefordevelopment.com/ africaribbeancentrefordevelopment.com
• PALI × UWI MoU Coverage: GNA | Ghana News Standard GNA+1
• DOOR — Decade of Our Repatriation: https://decadeofourrepatriation.com/ | About decadeofourrepatriation.com+1
• RepatriateToGhana: About | FAQs repatriatetoghana.com+1
• Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon — Award: Announcement | Archive | Abibitumi note obadelekambon.com+2obadelekambon.com+2

Editor’s note: Opening-session quotations are drawn from on-the-record transcripts provided to the reporter by event organizers.