Ghana is spearheading a landmark UN resolution to formally recognize the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity” and to establish a framework for reparations.
Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa emphasized the effort is not about personal gain but justice-calling for educational endowments, skills training funds, and compensation tied directly to descendants of enslaved Africans.
An estimated 12-15 million Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas between 1500 and 1800; over two million perished during the Middle Passage. Ghana, a key departure point for slave ships, has long championed restitution.
The resolution also demands the return of cultural artifacts looted during colonial rule, which Ablakwa described as vital to national heritage and spiritual identity.
While nations like the UK have historically opposed reparations-citing generational distance from the crime-the African Union backs Ghana’s initiative as a step toward historical reckoning.
President John Dramani Mahama called the move “historic” and “a safeguard against forgetting.”