African and Caribbean nations have renewed demands for formal apologies and reparations from countries that profited from the transatlantic slave trade, following a three-day conference in Ghana focused on advancing reparatory justice.
The conference came months after the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution recognizing the transatlantic slave trade and slavery as the “gravest crime against humanity” and encouraging member states to support the creation of a reparations fund.
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An estimated 12 to 15 million Africans were forcibly taken from the continent and transported to the Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries.
Delegates meeting in Accra endorsed a 19-point reparations framework aimed at addressing the enduring impact of slavery and colonialism. The plan calls for comprehensive debt relief, the return of looted cultural artifacts, and the establishment of a global reparations fund, although no monetary figure was specified. It also highlights the disproportionate effects of slavery on African women and girls.
Leaders attending the conference urged countries that participated in or benefited from the slave trade to issue “full, formal and unconditional apologies.”
Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama said the issue was one of responsibility rather than inherited guilt.
“History does not ask us to inherit guilt, but it asks us to inherit responsibility,” Mahama told delegates.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking virtually, acknowledged that enslaved Africans were dehumanized and treated as commodities. However, he argued that reparations should extend beyond financial compensation and should not be viewed simply as “a cheque written to bring the story to a close.”
The push for reparations gained momentum after the UN General Assembly voted in March to classify the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity. The resolution passed with 123 countries voting in favor, while the United States, Israel and Argentina opposed it. Fifty-two countries, including the United Kingdom and several European Union members, abstained.
Although General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, supporters say the vote represents an important moral and political milestone.
The United Kingdom has consistently rejected calls for reparations, arguing that present-day institutions cannot be held accountable for historical wrongs.
“No single set of atrocities should be regarded as more or less significant than another,” Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations, James Kariuki, said following the vote.
The United States also opposed the resolution, with its ambassador arguing that international law did not establish a legal right to reparations for acts that were not considered illegal at the time they occurred. Washington further questioned who would qualify as recipients of such compensation.
To date, no country has paid reparations to descendants of enslaved Africans or to affected nations in Africa, the Caribbean, or Latin America.
Historians note that most government compensation associated with slavery was directed not to the enslaved, but to slave owners. In Britain, slaveholders received compensation equivalent to more than £16 billion (US$21 billion) in today’s money following the abolition of slavery in the 1830s.
The renewed demands from African and Caribbean leaders are expected to intensify international discussions on reparatory justice and historical accountability.
