An interesting conference attended by senior government officials from across Africa and the Diaspora community was held in Accra, Ghana last Thursday. The theme of the discussion was Europe’s creation of wealth in the most inhumane manner and at the cost of poverty during the transAtlantic slave trade era. This was between the 16th and 19th centuries when foreign overlords forcibly uprooted an estimated 12.5 million Africans from their homeland, transporting them in the most dehumanizing conditions (termed Middle Passage) to Europe and the Americas where survivors end up enslaved on brutal plantations.
The forced enslavement of Africans remains perhaps the darkest chapter in human history, leaving an indelible mark on the African continent and its people across generations. The repercussions of this deplorable trade reverberate today as social, economic, and political inequalities. In the light of this historical injustice, there have been growing calls for economic reparations to be paid to African countries to rectify the enduring consequences of the transatlantic slave trade. At the Accra summit, President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo of Ghana denounced the British and other European countries for enriching themselves during the slave trade while “enslaved Africans did not receive a cent”.
The host President told the summiteers: “It is time that Africa, whose sons and daughters had their freedoms controlled and were sold into slavery, also received reparations.” In the end, the conference came up with a communique that called for the establishment of a Global Reparations Fund (GRF) that would seek and receive compensation owed to millions of Africans enslaved centuries ago during the transatlantic slave trade. While this is happening in the motherland, calls for reparations have gained momentum in countries throughout the African Diaspora.

To read more, click on the link below
https://www.primebusiness.africa/beyond-economic-reparation-for-transatlantic-slave-trade/