Nana Akufo-Addo Pushes For Slave Trade Reparations For Africa and African Diaspora

• President Nana Akufo-Addo has revived calls for the payment of reparations for African countries over the slave trade
• The president said the reparations are long overdue because Jews and Native Americans among others have received reparations for injustices done their race
• He said no amount of money will make up for the damage done to Africa and Africans in the Diaspora but it would be appropriate for Europe to do it

President Nana Akufo-Addo is leading renewed calls for reparations from Europe to Africa and Africans over the trans Atlantic slave trade.

Delivering the keynote address at the Reparations and Racial Healing Summit, held at the Kempinski Hotel, Accra on August 1, 2022, he said the reparations for Africa and the African diaspora are long overdue.

"Predictably, the question of reparations becomes a debate only when it comes to Africa and Africans.

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"When the British ended slavery, all the owners of enslaved Africans received reparations to the tune of £20 million, the equivalent today of £20 billion, but enslaved Africans themselves did not receive a penny. Likewise in the United States, owners of slaves received three hundred dollars for every slave they owned; the slaves themselves received nothing.

He added further:

"Take the case of Haiti, which had to pay reparations amounting to twenty-one billion dollars ($21 billion) to French slaveholders in 1825 for the victory of the great Haitian Revolution, the first in the Americas and the Caribbean which freed the slaves. It was a payment made under duress that impoverished Haiti throughout the 19th century till today".

He admitted that no amount of money can restore the damage caused by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and its consequences, which have spanned many centuries.

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He said, however, that it is now time to revive and intensify the discussions about reparations for Africa.

"Indeed, the time is long overdue," he stressed.

He said native Americans and Japanese-American families have received reparations for injustices done them in the past.

He said the six million Jewish people who perished in the concentration camps of Germany under Hitler, have received reparations and homeland grants and support.

"So, it is time for Africa, twenty million of whose sons and daughters had their freedoms curtailed and sold into slavery, also to receive reparations," the president said amid applause.

Ghana's Year Of Return to commemorate the beginning of slave trade

In 2019, the Ghanaian government implemented Year of Return. President Nana Akufo-Addo in September 2018 had declared that Ghana was going to welcome and encourage African diasporans to come to Africa to settle and also invest in the continent.

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Also the Year of Return, was a year-long campaign which climaxed in December 2019.

According to the President and the Ghana Tourism Authority, the Year of Return is also to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the African slaves that arrived in America.

Source: YEN.com.gh