Global Fight for Slavery Reparations

A landmark conference in Accra, Ghana, has united African and Caribbean nations in an unprecedented push for reparatory justice.

Backed by the African Union and CARICOM, delegates endorsed a unified 19-point global framework demanding formal apologies and financial compensation from nations that profited from transatlantic slavery.

The roadmap outlines structural reforms, including a Global Reparations Fund, comprehensive debt cancellation for the Global South, climate justice financing, and the restitution of looted cultural artifacts. It also emphasises addressing historical brutalities uniquely suffered by enslaved women and girls.

This momentum follows a non-binding United Nations resolution labeling the trade the “gravest crime against humanity.” However, Western powers remain resistant. The United Kingdom and United States oppose financial reparations, arguing modern institutions cannot bear liability for historical wrongs.

Amidst these tensions, leaders urged reconciliation. French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged enslaved people were “dehumanised and treated as goods”, but warned reparations must not be seen as a “cheque written to bring the story to a close.”

Meanwhile, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama offered a path forward, telling delegates: “History does not ask us to inherit guilt, but it asks us to inherit responsibility.”

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