Africa (Commonwealth) _ It is time for Africa’s sons and daughters, whose liberties were restricted and sold into slavery, to receive reparations, said Ghana’s President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo during a recent reparations conference in Accra.
Akufo-Addo’s call for compensation for the millions of Africans sold into slavery, as well as other colonial-era injustices perpetrated on the continent, is part of a rising global reparations movement. The Accra restitution Conference last week resolved to establish a worldwide restitution fund, signaling the movement’s growing strength.
The African Union (AU) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which has 20 members, are collaborating to build what AU Commission Vice-Chair Monique Nsanzabaganwa described as “a united front” to correct past wrongs and secure reparations payments.
Nsanzabaganwa stated during the conference that Africa had “borne the brunt of history’s injustices, and endured the ramifications of a past marked by slavery, colonization, and exploitation.” We must understand that these injustices had long-term ramifications that are still felt today, she remarked.
The demand for reparations is not an attempt to rewrite history or to perpetuate the victimhood cycle. . It’s a cry to acknowledge the indisputable truth and correct the wrongs that have gone unpunished for far too long and continue to thrive today, according to Nsanzabaganwa.
From the 15th to the 19th centuries, at least 12.5 million Africans were abducted, forcefully transported by European ships, and sold into slavery, according to some estimates. Those who survived the perilous trip were forced to work in horrible circumstances in the Americas, mostly in Brazil and the Caribbean, assuring massive profits for their owners.
Britain and Portugal led the slave trade, although the United States, Netherlands, Spain, France, Denmark, and Sweden were all extensively engaged.
Anna Hankings-Evans, a German-Ghanaian lawyer specializing in international economic law, said it was “enriching” to collaborate with descendants of enslaved Africans from Caribbean and American nations on the reparations quest.
It is critical for us to get together and learn from each other’s cognitive processes, she said on the conference’s fringes. “While our experiences are very unique, nevertheless our power lies in togetherness.”
Following King Charles III’s October visit to Kenya, South African politician Julius Malema joined the argument earlier this month. “The British… have got no business putting their foot here [in Kenya], except they should pay reparations to Kenyans,” he went on to say.
Under British control in Kenya, King Charles talked of “abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence” without saying “sorry.”Kenyans, however, were more interested in actual remedies than an apology on social media.
An irate group of indigenous Khoi and San people had assaulted the Dutch king and queen a month ago during their tour to South Africa.
A group of Khoi and San elders yelled slogans against Dutch invaders taking land from their ancestors as the royal couple toured Cape Town’s Slave Lodge, which previously housed slaves belonging to the Dutch East India Company. They held placards that said, “We want compensation.”
In South Africa, Dutch invaders stole Khoi and San territory and forced many indigenous South Africans into service. Many studies have attempted to quantify the cost of the African slave trade. According to the new Report on Reparations for Transatlantic Chattel Slavery in the Americas and the Caribbean, slave states owe astonishing sums under international law.
According to the research, known as the Battle Report, the worldwide cost of the slave trade might be as high as $131 trillion (€120 trillion), accounting for both crimes committed during the slave era and losses created after enslavement.
According to the research, the United States owes about $27 trillion in reparations, the United Kingdom $24 trillion, and Portugal $21 trillion. The UN has issued a report outlining tangible actions to repair the harm done to persons of African origin.
