The ramifications of the slave trade, according to President Akufo-Addo, have been disastrous for both the African continent and the African diaspora. He said that the entire history of slavery hampered Africa's attempts to advance economically, culturally, and psychologically.
President Akufo-Addo emphasised the need for reparations for Africa and the African diaspora during his speech at the Reparations and Racial Healing Summit on August 1, 2022. He lamented the fact that only when it comes to Africa and Africans does the topic of reparations "become a conversation."
The President claims that when the British abolished slavery, all of the owners of enslaved Africans got reparations totaling 20 million pounds sterling, or the equivalent of 20 billion pounds sterling in today's money, but the Africans who were really held in slavery received nothing.
In the same way, slave owners in the United States earned $300 for each slave they held, but the slaves themselves received nothing.
In fact, Haiti had to pay $21 billion in reparations to French slave owners in 1825 as compensation for the success of the great Haitian Revolution, the first in the Americas and the Caribbean to free the slaves.
"Native Americans have received and will continue to get reparations," the president added. "Japanese-American families who were detained in internment camps in America during World War II also received compensation. Jews who perished in the extermination camps of Hitler's Germany, six million of them, were compensated with money and assistance for their country.
So it is time for Africa, where 20 million of its boys and daughters had their liberties restricted and were sold into slavery, he argued.
The President remarked that "nevertheless, it is now time to reinvigorate and deepen the debate regarding reparations for Africa. He reiterated that no amount of money can undo the harm inflicted by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and its effects, which have lasted many centuries. The moment has really come long late.
Thus, he urged summit attendees not to focus too much on the specifics of how reparations should be paid but rather to first establish clearly the righteousness of the request for reparations.
The President continued, "And, even before these reparations discussions come to an end, the entire continent of Africa deserves a formal apology from the European nations involved in the slave trade for the crimes and damage it has caused to the population, psyche, image, and character of the African throughout the world.
President Akufo-Addo asked the African Union to interact with "our kith and kin from the diaspora" and establish a unified front to push the cause of reparations in light of the fact that the Caribbean Community, CARICOM, has taken the lead in the reparations issue.
Without a focus on racial reconciliation, the reparations conversation will fail. To take advantage of the possibilities that lie ahead of us in the future, we must put the wrongs of the past behind us, he said.
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