Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama met a global delegation campaigning for reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism, as the group urged him to mobilise other African leaders behind the African Union’s growing agenda.
The delegation — including experts from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and the United States — presented Mahama with a set of priority actions aligned with the AU’s reparations drive, it said in a statement released on Friday.
The AU launched its initiative in February, aiming to forge what it called a unified vision of reparations. Proposals under discussion range from financial compensation and formal acknowledgments of past abuses to policy changes and other remedies.
Historians estimate that at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported on European ships between the 15th and 19th centuries, then sold into slavery. Campaigners argue the legacy of slavery and colonialism continues to shape present-day inequality, including racism.
Momentum behind reparations has grown internationally, but it has also prompted backlash. Several European leaders have rejected opening talks, while critics contend modern states and institutions should not be held responsible for centuries-old crimes.
Ghana has been among the most prominent advocates for reparations on the continent, but the delegation said success will depend on tighter coordination among African political leaders. It urged Mahama to press peers across the continent to show “strategic coherence and unity” and to “choose courage over comfort” by standing with civil society and affected communities in Africa and the diaspora.
The group also met Ghana’s foreign minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and Mahama’s envoy on reparations, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, on Wednesday.
At an EU–AU summit in Luanda last month, leaders from both blocs recognised the “untold suffering” caused by slavery and colonialism, but did not commit to reparations. During the summit, Ghana’s Vice President Jane Opoku-Agyemang urged EU member states to back a UN resolution Ghana is preparing to recognise slavery as among the “gravest crimes against humanity”.