GHANA – President Akufo-Addo said these reparations were “long overdue” and needed to be intensified.
He said even though the perpetrators who were the so-called owners of the slaved Africans had received reparations, it “becomes a debate” only when it comes to Africa and Africans.
According to the president, when the British ended slavery, all the owners of enslaved Africans received reparations to the tune of £20 million sterling, the equivalent today of £20 billion sterling, but enslaved Africans themselves did not receive any compensation, citing an Africa Business report.
He said that likewise in the United States, owners of slaves received $300 for every slave they owned; the slaves themselves received nothing.
“Native Americans have received and continue to receive reparations; Japanese-American families, who were incarcerated in internment camps in America during World War II, received reparations. Jewish people, six million of whom perished in the concentration camps of Hitlerite Germany, received reparations, including homeland grants and support. So, it is time for Africa, 20 million of whose sons and daughters had their freedoms curtailed and sold into slavery, also to receive reparations,” said President Akufo-Addo. Furthermore, he questioned double standards in the debate when it came to other races and ethnic groups that were wronged historically.
According to a 2020 Quartz Africa article, standing on an auction block in chains, an African man in good health could sell for over $1 200 in New Orleans in the decade before the US Civil War, according to an article by the business news outlet.
Furthermore, a girl of nine or 10 could fetch $1 400 under the right market conditions, writes Lynsey Chutel for Quartz Africa, adding that pricing took into account a man’s strength or a girl’s ability to bear children for resale.
