President John Mahama has justified calls for former colonial powers to pay reparations to African countries to guarantee justice and heal old wounds.
In his presidential address commemorating African Union Day on Sunday, the president said the unjust acts committed by former colonial masters had held the world’s second largest continent back.
He said reparations were not just about the money but a sense of admission of wrongdoing by the colonialists.
“For too long the legacy of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism has cast a long shadow on the lives and progress of Africans and people of African descent. These historical injustices have left deep scars. Reparations are not merely about financial compensation. They are about acknowledging the profound and enduring damage inflicted on upon our people,” the president said pointedly during the broadcast.
He noted that reparations was meant to address “uncomfortable truths” of our past, requiring appropriate steps to remedying them.
President Mahama, who described this year’s African Union Day as a “turning point,” said Africans currently seek “meaningful dialogue with those responsible” with the objective of correcting previous African right violations.
Among other reliefs, the president urged the colonial countries to issue formal apologies for their role in slavery and colonialism.
He also called for their support in helping Africa address its age-old debt burden which continue to be a bane upon the continent’s financial growth.
He urged his fellow African leaders, civil society organizations, youth groups and members of the diaspora
to work together to ensure justice and heal old wounds which continue to be an challenge to the continent’s progressive.
“Let us work together to build a future where justice prevails, where the wounds of the past are healed and where the potential of every African and person of African descent is fully realized.”
African Union Day is celebrated annually on 25th May, 2025 in member states. Its antecedent, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was formed on that day, 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Mitchell Asare Amoamah
