The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has asserted that the motivation behind advocacy for reparation over the Transatlantic Slave Trade is not a demand for direct payment to leaders.
Rather, he said it is geared toward addressing the enduring consequences of historical injustices.
The proceeds are intended to support programmes and initiatives in areas including education, infrastructure development for affected communities, he said at a presser on March 31, 2026, on the adoption of a historic United Nations General Assembly resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans and Racialised Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime against Humanity.
In his estimation, no amount of compensation can fully account for the scale of the atrocities and their lasting impact.
Addressing the Press, the Minister explained that the adoption of the resolution signals a shift in the international community’s approach from commemoration to acknowledgement of the structural consequences of the transatlantic slave trade and the need to advance dialogue on reparatory justice.
He stated that the narrative that transatlantic slavery was a trading system with the involvement of Africa is a strategy to divide the front of Africans and People of African Descent.
According to him, what transpired was not trade in its true sense of the word.
“Trade requires consent, exchange and agency. However, what happened was the exact opposite as Africans were captured through raids and coercion, transported in chains, confined in inhumane conditions and subjected to violence at every stage from inland capture to coastal detention to the Middle Passage across the Atlantic.
“This was a system of organised human trafficking and exploitation driven by external demand, financed through transcontinental networks and codified through legal regimes developed outside the African continent.”
He opined that although instances of local intermediaries existed, this did not amount to control or ownership of the system and therefore, cannot be interpreted as equal participation.
The resolution A/RES/80/250 championed by President John Dramani Mahama, in his capacity as the African Union Champion on Reparations, was adopted on March 25, 2026, which was also the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and Transatlantic Slave Trade.
One hundred and twenty-three member states of the United Nations voted in favour of the resolution, with three voting against and 52 abstentions.
The resolution provides a framework for engagement on reparatory justice, including dialogue on compensation and institutional reforms, as well as enhanced cooperation in education, research, and cultural restitution.
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Source:
opemsuo.com
