After years of dithering by the world at large, Ghana’s President John Mahama finally led Africa and the diaspora, to seek redress for Africans who suffered under the Transatlantic Slave Trade, with a Resolution that was adopted by the U.N General Assembly, to declare the trafficking of enslaved Africans as the “gravest crime against humanity.”
It may not sound a big deal for some people, but there is this feeling among many Africans that, the admission that the slave trade was a criminal act, will help the souls of our ancestors, who were trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean to finally rest in peace.
A very worthy point to note is that Israel, Argentina, and the U.S. chose to oppose the adoption of the Resolution. The deputy U.S. ambassador, Dan Negrea, said before the voting that it “does not recognise a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred.”
The journey from the decision to fight for the rights of victims of slavery till the adoption of the Resolution had not been an easy one. It is for this reason that, in his address before the vote to adopt it, President Mahama said, it was “a historic opportunity to reposition the international debate on memory, historical truth, and reparatory justice.”
In calling for the adoption of the Resolution, he pointed out to delegates at the Assembly that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights prohibits slavery in all its forms. The International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights reaffirm that prohibition, and anchor it in the inherent dignity of every member of the human family. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court classifies enslavement as a crime against humanity.
In addition, the principle behind the Resolution was the fact that, the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement violated peremptory norms of international law, “jus cogens” (compelling law), from which no derogation is ever permitted, and which generate obligations “erga omnes” (towards all), owed to the international community as a whole.
Under the “Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts,” those obligations carry a concrete legal consequence: full reparation, encompassing restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. It reaffirmed what international law already requires. It is not writing new law; it is demanding that existing law be respected.
For those who instinctively reach for the statute of limitations, President Mahama said “the Resolution offers a direct answer drawn from African jurisprudence: a crime does not rot. The Kouroukan Fouga of 1235, pre-dating European contact with the African continent by two and a half centuries, established that the right to life and physical integrity are inviolable.”
One group that should be jubilating with the passing of the Resolution is the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU). Days before it was presented to the Assembly, they expressed their support and hoped “it would signal collective strength and a shared determination to see the pursuit of reparations for Africans and people of African descent through to its conclusion.”
For PALU, an essential element of the process is truth-telling and recognition, particularly acknowledging that the erasure of African history during and after these historical injustices has led to sustained harm that cuts across legal theory and procedure, heritage and identity, economics, and other aspects of contemporary African and African diaspora societies.
It is also worthy to note that, the criminality of the slave trade has been a subject matter that has concerned the political class across the continent for a long time. The latest was in February 2025, when Togo welcomed the decision by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, at its 38th Ordinary Session to adopt the “Classification of Slavery, Deportation and Colonisation as Crimes against Humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Africa”.
The AU decision was taken on the initiative of Togo to mark a milestone in the quest of the African peoples and people of African descent for the just recognition and reparation of the crimes of slavery, deportation, and colonisation.
Togo’s foreign minister Robert Dussey told the AU delegates that the history of Africa and its peoples over the last five centuries has been marked by a series of injustices and events that are as tragic as they are unacceptable.
Dussey said the gravity of these historical injustices, which were criminal acts that were well thought out, planned, and methodically executed, perpetrated against the peoples of Africa and people of African descent, led Togo to submit to the decision-making bodies of the African Union the request that led to the decision. This responded to the most pressing aspirations of the peoples of Africa, Afro-descendants, diaspora organisations and African civil society for justice and reparation.”
He said the decision to classify slavery, deportation, and colonisation as crimes against humanity and genocide against the peoples of Africa, allows the continent to put its own words on its sufferings throughout history, in order to work towards a better knowledge of the painful periods of the continent’s development, by the younger generations.
Dussey was of the opinion that this move will begin the work of healing the deep scars left in African societies, to send a strong message to the international community about the thirst and expectations for recognition and reparation of the historical injustices suffered by its peoples. It is hoped this will take the lead on the issues of reparation and restitution so as not to allow others to dictate the terms of the debate.
He said the acceptance of the sins of slavery and colonialism will help “to deny legitimacy to any rhetoric that seeks to justify slavery and colonisation, to have a precise and appropriate language in its struggle for reparation and restitution on the international stage, and to protect present and future generations of Africans and Afro-descendants from the risk of a resurgence of slavery and colonisation.”
Now that the issue of criminality of the slave trade has been put to rest, the next move is to get “the prompt and unhindered restitution” of cultural items — including artworks, monuments, museum pieces, documents, and national archives — to their countries of origin without charge.
In November 2013, delegates at a Reparation Summit in Accra, agreed to establish a Global Reparation Fund to push for the compensation for millions of Africans who were enslaved during the Transatlantic Slave trade. This will be a very tough road to traverse because it will be difficult to determine who will pay what and to whom. Since then there have been some efforts in that direction.
To back Africa’s case, the Anglican Church of England has already recognised its historical complicity in colonialism and the Transatlantic slave trade, shifting towards a stance of repentance, which they called “reparative justice,” that they hoped will address the legacies of these actions. This position includes acknowledging the church’s past ownership of enslaved people, economic benefit from slavery, and the use of colonial structures in missions.
In acknowledging its past complicity, the Church has accepted that it once gave “moral legitimacy and institutional support to slavery,” and that it benefited financially from enslaved labour, particularly through institutions like the Codrington estate in the Caribbean.
The Codrington Project (officially the Renewal and Reconciliation) is a 10–15 year, £7 million reparative justice initiative launched in September 2023 by the Codrington Trust and the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG). It aims to address the historic enslavement of people on the Codrington Estates in Barbados, which were previously owned by the USPG.
The Codrington project should open the doors for similar projects now that the wishes of Africans and people of African descent have been achieved with the declaration of slavery as a crime.
Accordingly, President Mahama’s words that, “reparation justice will not be handed to us. Like political independence, it must be asserted, pursued, and secured through determination and unity” should remind Africa to continue the fight till total reparation is achieved.
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Francis Koktuse is a free-lance journalist based in Accra. Currently, he is the local Stringer for the New York Times. He also writes for University World News, as well as Science and Development.Net. He was a Staff Writer for the African Concord, and Africa Economic Digest in London, UK.
The souls of our ancestors will now rest in peace!