21st Century Black World Institute President Ron Daniels speaks at the African Union Reparations Conference in Accra, Ghana on November 16, 2023 (Photo: AP)
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A Global Reparations Fund will be established to advocate for long-standing compensation for the millions of Africans held as slaves in the centuries-old transatlantic slave trade.
The Accra Reparations Conference, held in Ghana on Thursday, is the latest in a list of efforts to provide reparations for slavery. From the 16th to the 19th century, more than 12 million Africans were forcibly abducted by European countries and sold as slaves on plantations in the Americas, where wealth was generated at the expense of suffering.
Centuries after the end of the slave trade, reparations remain “a cornerstone of 21st century justice” for people of African descent around the world, a report from a special United Nations forum concluded. The report concluded that these people continue to face systemic racism and radicalized attacks.
Ghanaian president: “The world must face up to the issue of slave reparations”
Speaking at the conference, Ghanaian President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo said slavery reparations was an issue the world “must confront and can no longer ignore.”
“The time has come for Africa, whose sons and daughters were ruled free and sold into slavery, to receive reparations.”
Mr. Addo specifically blamed Britain and other European countries for making fortunes from the slave trade, even though “the enslaved Africans themselves never received a penny.”
Ambassador Amr Aljowaily, Strategic Adviser to the Vice-President of the African Union Commission, who read out the resolution entitled “Accra Declaration”, said that reparations are based on “the moral and legal rights and dignity of peoples.” Stated.
It is currently unclear how the compensation fund will be managed.
Representatives did not say how such a reparations fund would be administered. But Gunaka Lagoke, assistant professor of history and Pan-African studies, said the system should be used to “fix the problems” the continent faces in all sectors of the economy.
Apart from the Global Reparations Fund, which will be supported by an expert committee established by the AU Commission in collaboration with African countries, special envoys will engage in campaigning, litigation and judicial work.
Activists say reparations should include more than just cash transfers. It should also include aid for national development, the return of colonized resources, and the structural correction of laws and policies that oppress people.
Nkechi Taifa, director of the US-based Reparations Education Project, said the amount of reparations needed would be determined through a “negotiated settlement that benefits the public.”
(Article compiled with assistance from The Associated Press)
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