[1/3]Women perform a traditional dance during the opening ceremony of the African Union Conference on Reparations in Accra, Ghana, November 14, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko Acquisition of licensing rights
ACCRA, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Financial reparations are long overdue for Africans and the diaspora in compensation for the enslavement of people of African descent, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo said on Tuesday on the first day of a conference on how to address historical injustices.
Advocates have long called for reparations or other reparations for slavery, but the movement has recently gained momentum around the world amid growth from countries in Africa and the Caribbean.
“No amount of money can undo the damage caused by the transatlantic slave trade… But certainly, this is an issue the world must face and can no longer ignore,” Akufo-Addo said, opening the four-day conference reparations in Ghana’s capital Accra.
The event is expected to create an African-led action plan to advance restorative justice, establish an African expert panel to oversee the plan’s implementation and strengthen cooperation with the wider diaspora, according to a list of planned outcomes in her website.
“The whole period of slavery meant that our progress, economically, culturally and psychologically, was stifled. There are legions of stories of families torn apart,” Akufo-Addo said. “You can’t quantify the effects of such tragedies, but they must be recognized.”
From the 15th to the 19th century, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported by European ships and traders and sold as slaves. Those who survived the brutal journey ended up toiling on plantations under inhumane conditions in the Americas, mostly in Brazil and the Caribbean, while European settlers and others profited from their labor.
In September, a United Nations report said countries could consider making financial payments among other forms of reparations, but warned that legal claims are complicated by the passage of time and difficulty in tracing perpetrators and victims.
Akufo-Addo said he welcomed what he called a clarion call from Caribbean nations for reparations.
“We in Africa must work with them to advance the cause,” he said to applause from the audience that included other African and Caribbean heads of state and other high-level delegates.
Report by Christian Akorlie and Maxwell Akalaare Adombila. Alessandra Prentice writes. Edited by Aurora Ellis
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