PREVIEW
Accra’s quest is backed by many Commonwealth states and George Soros – but the EU won’t join the debate
The Ghanaian government plans to table a United Nations resolution demanding reparations for the slave trade and recognising transatlantic slavery as the ‘gravest crime in the history of humankind’.
Successive governments in Accra have led African diplomatic efforts on reparations. President John Dramani Mahama plans to table the proposal at the UN General Assembly, possibly as early as this month, the Foreign Ministry has said.
The African Union and the Caribbean Community (Caricom) set up a Global Reparation Fund following a joint summit in 2023, but it is unclear whether the fund is operational or how it is financed (Dispatches, 22/11/23, African and Caribbean states join forces in campaign for transatlantic slavery reparations).
The campaign could get more traction in the Commonwealth, whose Secretary General since April 2025 is Shirley Botchwey, who had been Ghana’s Foreign Minister before being elected to head the Commonwealth at Marlborough House. But the UN resolution is primarily about political symbolism.
The reparations campaign also has the support of Hungarian billionaire philanthropist George Soros, whose Open Society Foundation has paid for a series of summits across Europe and Africa on slavery reparations. But it is unlikely to get support from many European countries. While Germany's agreement to pay Namibia €1.1 billion (US$1.3bn) for its genocide against the Herero and Nama people is the largest single reparations payment, Britain, France and Belgium have been deeply reluctant to discuss reparations, let alone accept that they have any liability (AC Vol 64 No 25, The case for reparations).
‘A backlash against truth is one that we hope would not occur,’ said Accra’s foreign ministry in a statement. ‘Ghana is not seeking to reopen old wounds but to heal those wounds with truth.’
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