At the United Nations General Assembly session, President Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, noted that it was time for Europe and the United States of America to acknowledge that the enormous wealth they enjoy was derived from the sweat, tears, blood and horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and centuries of colonial exploitation. "If there are reservations in some minds about paying reparations, it should be remembered that when slavery was abolished, slave owners were compensated for the loss of slaves because people were called property and considered commodities. This is certainly an issue that the world must face and can no longer ignore. The AU has authorised Ghana to hold a global conference on this issue in Accra in November." "Perhaps we should also admit that it cannot be easy to build self-confident and prosperous societies from nations that have for centuries plundered their natural resources and traded their peoples as commodities." He calls for the payment of reparations to countries affected by the transatlantic slave trade. He said the world has long been unwilling and unable to deal with the consequences of the slave trade. However, he pointed out that this was gradually changing and it was time to bring the issue of reparations to the fore. "Granted, today's generations are not the ones who participated in the slave trade, but this great inhumane enterprise was state-sponsored and deliberate; and its benefits are clearly intertwined with the present-day economic structure of the nations that planned and carried it out," he said. And the exploitation has not stopped, he said: according to a report on illicit financial flows out of Africa by the panel headed by the highly respected former South African President Thabo Mbeki, which said Africa loses more than eighty-eight billion US dollars ($88 billion) annually to illicit financial outflows. "Yes, these funds must also be returned to the continent. It is difficult to understand why recipient countries are happy to keep such funds and call the countries that are deprived of the funds corrupt." He said a joint task force of the African Union Commission and the OECD Secretariat, under the auspices of the United Nations, must be mandated to find ways to stop the harmful outflows.
Excerpts from: "Reparations must be paid for the slave trade" - President Akufo-Addo at the 78th UN session.
Graphic.com.gh Politics Sep - 21 - 2023 , 07:31
This is the enquiry the Ghanaian president is referring to:
Illicit Financial Flows: It’s time to end the plunder of Africa’s resources | Africa Renewal
Ghana to host AU global conference on reparation for Africa
By Bright Ntramah
President Akufo-Addo has called for an official apology from European countries involved in slave trade for the crimes and damage caused the population, image and character of Africans. Speaking at the Debois Centre in Accra at the Global Convening for the Restitution of African Cultural Heritage, the President noted that no amount of money can restore the damage caused by the Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade and its consequences which spanned many centuries.
He, however, noted that the time has come to revive and intensify the discussions about reparation.
In recent years, the long struggle for the restitution of African Heritage which started during colonization entered a new phase. In 2017, there was a resurgence of the movement which urged lawmakers, private collectors, and museums to expedite objects illicitly taken from the African Continent during the colonial period.
There is a global pressure to repatriate African heritage, that there is a global alliance of stakeholders that through advocacy and negotiation can see returns through. It is against this backdrop, that the Open Society Foundations Global Initiative for the Restitution for African Cultural Heritage convening, is focused on interrogating key questions to continue to advance and build a resilient and sustainable restitution movement.
President Akufo-Addo said if reparation can be paid for the victims of the holocaust, then same can be done for victims of slave trade.
But, before the discussions on the reparation conclude, the President wants the European countries engaged in slave to issue an official apology to Africa for its role in the slave trade.
He called on African countries to present a uniform front in the fight for reparation.
President Akufo-Addo joined calls for the return of African cultural materials illegally taken by the Europeans.
Ghana has been selected by the AU to host the global conference on reparation for Africa which will seek to bring together Africans and members of African diaspora to set out a concrete strategy for achieving the goal of reparation.
UN report urges countries to consider financial reparations for transatlantic slavery
UN secretary general says no country has comprehensively accounted for the past
@aamnamohdinTue 19 Sep 2023 18.23 CEST A UN report calling on countries to consider financial reparations for transatlantic slavery has been hailed as a significant step forward by campaigners. The report by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said no country had comprehensively accounted for the past and addressed the legacy of the mass enslavement of people of African descent for more than 400 years. “Under international human rights law, compensation for any economically assessable damage, as appropriate and proportional to the gravity of the violation and the circumstances of each case, may also constitute a form of reparations,” the report said. “In the context of historical wrongs and harms suffered as a result of colonialism and enslavement, the assessment of the economic damage can be extremely difficult owing to the length of time passed and the difficulty of identifying the perpetrators and victims.” The report stressed, however, that the difficulty in making a legal claim to compensation “cannot be the basis for nullifying the existence of underlying legal obligations”. Campaigners have described the report as an important step forward in the fight for reparative justice. Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations, said: “This is a hugely significant step for the international reparations movement. For decades, grassroots organisations have fought for this level of recognition for their claim. “Those who were enslaved were not in a position to push for reparations, but their descendants who continue to suffer the impact of African chattel slavery are.” She added: “UK civil society organisations are coming together in Black History Month to discuss this more widely as the all-party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations hosts its inaugural conference – Charting a Pathway to Reparations.” Michael McEachrane, a researcher and member of the UN permanent forum on people of African descent, agreed the report was “a huge step forward”, but added it came amid significant recent activity on the international stage. McEachrane said: “There seems to be a big emphasis on reparations as a matter of financial compensation [in the report]. Various initiatives at the UN level, including the Caricom call for reparatory justice, moves way beyond a conception of reparations as a matter of financial compensation. “There is no financial compensation for 500 years of enslavement and colonialism, and what most of us are calling for is a systemic and structural transformation.” A recent report by the UN permanent forum on people of African descent, which was sent to the human rights council and general assembly, also called for reparative justice. UN report urges countries to consider financial reparations for transatlantic slavery | Slavery | The Guardian
We believe the demands of the Ghanaian President are justified:
We need in our one human family a consensus between the people of the
- between the people of the states that have enslaved and/or trafficked people and the states from which people have been taken, on how to deal with this history
- between people of the states that have colonised other states and the states whose regions have been colonised and how we deal with this history
- between the states from which money flows illegally out of Africa and those into which it flows
- between the states that export and import capital, raw materials and finished products
this is not only in the interest of the African states, but of all states, because it strengthens the basis for peace and can also reduce the causes of flight.
We are looking to build social relations between people from "both sides", to examine the problems together and discuss solutions together, and to critically accompany negotiations between states.
Get in touch if you want to participate.
Wolfgang Lieberknecht, International PeaceFactory Wanfried
whatsapp: 004917643773328
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