At the end of a three‑day summit in Accra, ministers from across Africa and the Caribbean called for an official apology and reparations from former colonial powers that built wealth off the transatlantic slave trade.
The demand follows a landmark UN General Assembly vote in March, which recognized the trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and urged states to contribute to a reparations fund.
A 19‑point plan was adopted during the Ghanaian conference, calling for debt relief, the return of looted cultural objects, and the creation of a global reparations fund—though the amount was left unspecified.
Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama opened the conference with the words, “History does not ask us to inherit guilt, but it asks us to inherit responsibility,” and urged donors to issue full, unconditional apologies.
French President Emmanuel Macron also acknowledged that enslaved people were “dehumanised and treated as goods” but warned that financial compensation should not be treated as a final “cheque.”
Despite the moral force of the UN resolution, no country has yet paid reparations directly to the descendants of enslaved Africans, and several governments—including the United States, Israel and Argentina—voted against the declaration.
Keynotes from the UK and US diplomats highlighted the lack of legal basis for reparations, citing that the institutions responsible today cannot be held accountable for past injustices.
