10/12/2026
The just-concluded Third Africa in Transition Conference in Ghana heard a powerful Caribbean voice sound the clarion call for Global Africa to organize power. The speaker, P.J. Patterson, former Prime Minister of progressive Jamaica, went further, warning that the time was over for Africa and the Caribbean to remain “suppliers of raw materials, labor, data and markets…we must build the capacity to produce and innovate. Our greatest wealth, by far, is our people.”
Emphasizing that the future belongs to societies (like African and Caribbean) that educate their people, create knowledge, master new technologies, and build competitive enterprises, Patterson reasoned that, “As artificial intelligence and the knowledge economy reshape power, Africa and the Caribbean cannot remain suppliers of raw materials, labor, data and markets while value is captured elsewhere… we must build the capacity to produce and innovate.”
We here at Elson Consulting Group congratulate Dr. Ian Boxill, professor of sociology at Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies, for his bold leadership and persistent excellence in organizing this conference through the Jamaican-Ghana-based Africa Caribbean Centre for Development, and in collaboration with Dr. Kofi Osei-Kusi of the Pan-African Leadership Institute of Ghana. Here is a fuller report:
Former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson has challenged Africa, the Caribbean and the worldwide African diaspora to move beyond goodwill and organise their collective power, warning that others will continue to capture the value of African resources, labour and talent in a world where, in his w...
