Slave Trade Compensation : Crucial Common Front For Africa

The Trans African Slave Trade, everybody knows is the worst trade that affected millions of Africans. It was the largest forced migration in history and one of the most inhumane. After several decades of virtual ply for compensation, African countries seem ready to get into action by combining their efforts to obtain reparations from European countries for the trade and other colonial-era wrongs committed centuries ago. For over 400 years, Africans were transported to many areas of the world, yet no reparations have been paid. Because the process is proving much slower, Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo, on August 1, 2022 revived the push for slavery and colonial retribution. Addressing the Summit on Reparations and Racial Healing in Accra (Ghana), the Ghanaian Head of State said, “No amount of money can restore the damage caused by the transatlantic slave trade and its consequences which has spanned many centuries, but nevertheless, it is now time to revive and intensify the discussions about reparation for Africa because it has long overdue,” Akufo-Addo emphasized.
Though in recent years some European nations that played key roles in colonial crimes and slave trade have hesitantly tendered an apology for their actions, the Ghanaian leader holds that, “The entire continent of Africa deserves a formal apology from European nations that were involved in the slave trade, the crimes and damage it has caused to the population, psyche, and image of the African the world over.” His call comes on the heels of the African Union relentless efforts to see that African countries are compensated. According to John Ikubaje, who works at the AU Commission, “The issues of reparative justice did not start today, it started long time ago and the African Union has been doing a lot in this regard”.
Despite these efforts, many African countries believe that little progress has been made. This year Germany agreed to pay Namibia $1.3 billion in reparation for genocide committed during its colonial-era occupation of the country. That was after the European nation returned skulls of people murdered during the Namibian genocide a century ago. Tens of thousands of Namibians were slaughtered between 1904 and 1908. A ceremony was performed at a church service in Berlin in August 2018 to hand over the remains to the descendants of the Herero tribe. Berlin w...