Ghana’s president encouraged to mobilize African leaders to support the fight for reparations for slavery
John Dramani Mahama, the president of Ghana, met with a global group seeking compensation for colonialism and transatlantic slavery. The delegation asked Mahama to inspire other African leaders to choose “courage over comfort” and support the expanding movement.
Mahama was presented with priority tasks under the African Union’s (AU) reparations agenda by the group, which was composed of experts from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, and the United States, the statement said on Friday.
The AU started a campaign in February to develop a “unified vision” of what reparations might include, including monetary compensation, official admissions of historical wrongs, and legislative changes.
From the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, European ships abducted at least 12.5 million Africans, transported them against their will, and sold them into slavery.
Advocates assert that action is required to address racism and other modern-day legacies.
Proposals for reparations have gathered steam, but opposition is also intensifying. Many European leaders have argued that current states and institutions shouldn’t be held accountable for previous wrongs, and many have rejected even talking about the issue.
Ghana has been a leading advocate for reparations in Africa, but the delegation emphasized the importance of “strategic coherence and unity” among African political leaders.
In order to seek restitution, they encouraged Mahama to inspire other leaders to “choose courage over comfort” by joining civil society and impacted communities in Africa and the diaspora.
Mahama’s envoy on reparations, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, and Ghana’s Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa also met with the team on Wednesday.
During a European Union-AU summit held last month in Luanda, the capital of Angola, leaders from both countries recognized the “untold suffering” brought about by colonialism and slavery, but they refrained from making a reparations commitment.
Vice President of Ghana Jane Opoku-Agyemang called on EU members to back a UN resolution that Ghana is drafting to declare slavery one of the “gravest crimes against humanity” during the summit.
