Ghana’s President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, is reported to have asked those nations that bene­fitted from the obnoxious Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to pay reparation to the victims.

Nana Addo said this when he took his turn to address the 78th session of the General Assembly in New York recently.

“No amount of money will ever make up for the horrors, but it would make the point that evil was perpetrated, that millions of pro­ductive Africans were snatched from the embrace of our continent, and put to work in the Americas and the Caribbean without compensation for their labour,” Nana Addo is quoted as saying.

Avid students of history know that America and some of its European partners advanced and developed on the back of slave labour. We know that in that time human beings, our forebears, became nothing more than commodities in auction markets.

These were Africans in their prime; weavers, fishers, farmers, craftsmen etc. The slave dealers looked out for able-bodied young men and women who could serve as good plantation labourers and studs and wenches to sire their own replacements as they aged in those faraway lands.

As I have written many times, the Church and the Crown took commis­sions on every slave that was deliv­ered to the Americas. Their complic­ity in the despicable act cannot be pushed under the carpet. They knew that the black race was the progeni­tor of all races on earth, yet allowed them to be treated like garbage. It is unconscionable.

At a symposium that I was invited to in New York about a decade ago, the young African-Americans in the auditorium were palpably angry with those of us in Africa. Their reason was that they were sold into slavery by our chiefs and elders and so harboured a disdain for the remainder of us here. Apparently, they were fed this false narrative by their slave masters.

When it was my turn, I agreed that fratricidal and feudal wars among us at that time very likely made it pos­sible to sell off war captives; and our chiefs were the commanders-in-chief of their armies.

I was also quick to say that more than sixty percent of them were ab­ducted by Europeans who can be de­scribed as slave raiders. I made them aware that it was more profitable for these raiders or abductors to waylay the people than pay for them.

“You have fifty percent of our story because once you were taken away we did not know anything anymore; and we have the other fifty. Unless we bring these together, others will be in control of the narrative, so holding us in contempt does not help our cause as victims of this organized crime,” I concluded.

During question time, I pointed out that both Africans at home and in the Diaspora should be grateful to Alex Haley whose epic book, Roots, threw the light on our under­standing of what might have happened after our forebears left our shores. The story of Gambian, Kunta Kinte, tells our ordeal more succinctly. The Gambia river is called Kambi by the locals.

But whichever way the narrative is, slavery by all standards is a crime against humanity. Up till today, blacks are discriminated against in almost all Caucasian societies. Argentina made it a state policy to not have Argentines of African descent. All blacks in that coun­try after the slave trade was abol­ished were either exterminated or ‘exported’ from that country.

The call, there­fore, for repara­tion is a good one. Before Akuffo Addo, many African leaders had made a strong case for reparation. To remind the world, Nana Addo stated that money cannot assuage the pain of a continent whose labour enriched the West.Our leaders must be relentless in asking for this reparation.

But first, how will this reparation be quantified? Which countries were most affected by the slave trade? At least, we know which forts and castles served as holding centres for slaves awaiting shipments. My understanding is that the slave ships had detailed mani­fests of their human cargoes, so getting a near accurate per­centage may not be too difficult.

Secondly, what form will this repara­tion be? Are we asking for money, equitable economic opportu­nities as in the West or both? Sadly, our African Union can­not agree and speak with one voice, so how do we get start­ed? Already, African leaders are taking different sides in the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza conflicts. A typical African ex­ample.

Thirdly, who will manage whatever reparations that may be agreed upon is another matter altogether. If it is established that certain countries lost more persons to slavery, will the reparations come to the countries on a pro rata basis? The more slaves taken from you, the more your quantum of reparation.

The complexity of all this is that Africans were illiterate at the time of slavery and have no records of the families that lost their relatives to the human trade. So, do the respective countries become the beneficiary re­cipients of reparation on behalf of the people? This might be the plausible way out; and that is where I cringe.

I cringe at that possibility because Africans know too well that their pres­ent crop of leaders cannot be trusted to use proceeds from repara­tion to the benefit of the mass of their people; not by a long shot.

My personal recommendation is for the United Nations (UN) to put together a Trustee of Experts to, first, look at the pri­ority needs of the beneficiary coun­tries and, second, to administer the dis­bursement accordingly. The moment our politicians get their hands into the pie, zilch will be done for the people.

Then we want to think about our compatriots in the Americas and Caribbean. In the United States they are referred to as African-Americans. When I was a student in the sixties they were Afro-Americans. As direct descendants of slaves, will these blacks also be considered in the reparation package? Admittedly, many African-Americans have done well for themselves, some excelling in their various fields of endeavour.

But the majority of them in the U.S. are under the radar of achieve­ment, resorting to crimes of all shades, drug addiction, prostitution and many more vices. How do they benefit from the back-breaking toil of their ancestors? To exclude them will make them angrier than they ever have been.

What the country of Haiti has been reduced to currently is a case in point. Social order has been turned on its head by gangs in murderous aban­don. This is the time to press the rep­aration button harder so that justice is seen to have been served. Whatever the case may be, our forebears must not suffer and die in vain.

Writer’s email address: akofa45@yahoo.com

By Dr. Akofa K Segbefia