President John Dramani Mahama has described the transatlantic slave trade as the greatest crime against humanity, insisting that Africa will continue to demand justice and reparations for centuries of enslavement and exploitation.
Addressing world leaders at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Thursday, September 25, 2025, Mahama said Ghana, as Africa’s champion on reparations, will formally table a motion at the UN to ensure the horrors of slavery are recognised at the highest level.
“The slave trade must be recognised as the greatest crime against humanity,” Mahama declared. “As African Champion on reparations, Ghana intends to introduce a motion in this August body to that effect.”
The Ghanaian leader reminded the Assembly that more than 12.5 million Africans were forcibly taken from their homelands and transported to build the wealth of powerful Western nations.
He condemned the historical injustice in which former slave owners, rather than the enslaved, were compensated.
“As did our coloniser, as well as the governments that happily paid reparations to former slave owners as compensation for the loss of their ‘property’—that ‘property’ for which compensation was paid referred to enslaved people who had been freed,” he said.
Mahama argued that reparations are necessary not only for slavery, but also for colonisation and the massive theft of Africa’s resources and cultural heritage.
“We must demand reparations for the enslavement of our people and the colonisation of our land that resulted in the theft of natural resources, as well as the looting of artefacts and other items of cultural heritage that have yet to be returned in total,” he told the Assembly.
The President noted that the struggle for reparations is tied to Africa’s broader fight for dignity and fair representation in global affairs.
“We are tired of the continued image of poverty-stricken, disease-ridden rural communities, living at the periphery of huge foreign-controlled natural resource concession areas,” he said. “We are tired of not being represented in ways that reveal the richness and complexity of our history or acknowledge all that we have overcome to arrive here, in this liminal space of untold possibilities.”
Mahama said Africa must now take control of its narrative and resources, stressing that the continent will no longer accept being exploited while its history is erased or simplified.
He urged the international community to acknowledge Africa’s true value and contributions. “We recognise the value of our land and the value of our lives,” he stated firmly.
His call for reparations was delivered as part of a wider demand for global reforms, including Africa’s rightful place in decision-making structures such as the UN Security Council and a reset of the world’s financial system, which he said is skewed against the continent.
Mahama concluded by stressing that the push for reparations and fair treatment is not about dwelling on the past but about ensuring a just and equal future for Africa’s people.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
