President John Mahama has pledged to call out individuals who seek to trivialize the historic adoption of the United Nations resolution declaring the Transatlantic Slave Trade as the gravest crime against humanity, particularly through arguments that attempt to equalize responsibility.
President Mahama described claims that Africans were equally responsible for the slave trade as “infantile,” arguing that such assertions overlook the systemic nature and scale of the transatlantic trafficking of Africans between the 15th and 19th centuries. He drew a parallel to the Holocaust, noting that although some individuals of Jewish descent were complicit under coercion, the crime itself remained orchestrated and institutionalized.
Speaking during an engagement with Civil Society Organisations at the Jubilee House, President Mahama acknowledged that while some Africans participated in the trade, European powers and slave owners constructed a vast commercial and financial system that enabled and profited from the trafficking of Africans, forming the foundation of their modern economies.
He further dismissed attempts to trivialize the resolution as attention-seeking and lacking historical grounding.
“A few of our people, I don’t know whether for attention or popularity, criticized the achievement and tried to belittle it, and they made all kinds of infantile arguments. They say Africans were involved. But the crime was systematic. The ships that carried the slaves were insured by reputable insurance companies that are some of the richest in the world today and profited from the slave trade,” President Mahama stated.
The President also referenced historical reparations paid to slave owners following the abolition of slavery, noting that some European governments compensated slave masters for the loss of enslaved labour, with payments in certain instances continuing into the 21st century. He questioned why perpetrators received compensation while descendants of enslaved Africans and their home countries have yet to receive reparative justice.
President Mahama further noted that slave ships were deliberately designed to transport large numbers of enslaved Africans, with insurers paying compensation when enslaved persons, treated as cargo, were lost during voyages across the Atlantic.
He emphasized that the scale of the Transatlantic Slave Trade remains unmatched, citing estimates that approximately 12.5 million Africans were forcibly transported from the continent, with about two million dying during the Middle Passage before reaching the Americas and Europe.
President Mahama described the adoption of the United Nations resolution as a historic acknowledgment of the crime at the highest global level, noting that it represents a significant step toward reparative justice and global recognition of the injustices suffered by Africans and people of African descent.
Meanwhile he also hinted a t a coalition to be established around theCaribbean Community 10-Point Reparations Plan, with close collaboration from African institutions and global partners, to pursue reparative justice following the landmark United Nations resolution declaring the Transatlantic Slave Trade the gravest crime against humanity.
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