In March this year, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) convened the three-day Shifting Financial Power forum in Nairobi, Kenya. Over 100 participants attended, including farmers, researchers, activists, policymakers, and civil society leaders from across Africa.

Speaking at the event, Stephen Greenberg of the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) called on AFSA and the broader food sovereignty movement to adopt an explicitly anti-capitalist stance. He argued that capitalism prioritises profit over people, reducing land, water, labour, and even food, into mere commodities. This system concentrates wealth and power, stripping communities of political agency.

Amid today’s crises, Greenberg urged a shift toward systems rooted in human and environmental needs, not profit margins, and challenged African movements to lead the way in imagining a just and sustainable future beyond capitalism.

“We’re entering into an era of uncertainty, of disruption, of crisis, and this opens up opportunities… for us to start thinking beyond capitalism, about what kind of system could we establish or build up that places human need, the needs of the environment at the centre of the decisions we make about how to allocate resources,” says Greenberg.

Find a detailed report from the event, here.