Slavery: the Ghanaian president revives the debate on reparations
Nana Akufo-Addo urges forming a united front to advance the cause of reparations.
AP - Jacquelyn Martin
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
In a series of tweets this Tuesday, August 2, Nana Akufo-Addo pleads for financial reparations to be paid to victims of slavery in Africa, adding that it is high time there was a debate on the subject.
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“
It is time that Africa – whose 20 million sons and daughters had their freedom curtailed and were sold into slavery – also received reparations
,” writes Nana Akufo-Addo.
“
Now is the time to revive and intensify discussions on reparations for Africa.
The time has come for a long time
, ”he concludes from a series of tweets published this Tuesday morning.
The day before, at a summit on slavery reparations, the Ghanaian president recalled the devastating effects of the slave trade for the continent, adding that this period had set back the economic, cultural and psychological progress of the country. Africa.
“
Even if no amount of money will be able to repair the damage caused by the slave trade and its consequences which have spread over several centuries, we must heal from the wrongs of the past
”, affirms the Ghanaian president.
Nana Akufo-Addo believes that the entire African continent deserves an apology from the European nations involved in this slave trade.
And he urges the African Union to engage with Africans in the Diaspora and form a united front to advance the cause of reparations.
The effects of the Slave Trade have been devastating to the African continent and to the African Diaspora, with the entire period of slavery stifling Africa's economic, cultural and psychological progress.
— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) August 2, 2022
The issue of reparations for victims of slavery is not new, notes historian Miriam Cotthias;
it was approached from the beginning of the 20th century by Pan-African leaders.
It then returned repeatedly, driven both by African-Americans in the United States and by the European abolitionist movement, without ever being completely successful.
“
There were leading countries like Jamaica, which created the commission on reparations and which united all the Caribbean states around this request by determining ten main points which were necessary for the development of these former slave colonies,
recalls again the historian.
But on the African side, this has never been posed in such a rigorous and clear-cut manner.
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