Slavery is criminal; pure and simple! 2 - Mahama’s moral clarity in a world of evasion
Those who suffered slavery must be at the forefront of articulating and driving this movement, and defining how much must be paid as reparations, although no amount can ever assuage the pains and scars of that evil policy.
President Mahama is very much on the right side of history with the call; Africans at home and in the diaspora must rise and strengthen the movement.
The case of Germany provides a powerful precedent. Following the Holocaust, Germany acknowledged its responsibility and committed to reparations for survivors and their descendants.
These payments were not only financial; they represented a moral recognition of wrongdoing.
If reparations are justified for the Holocaust – a crime of immense scale and horror – then the case for reparations for slavery is equally, in fact, more compelling.
Slavery was longer in duration, broader in scope, and global in impact.
Yet, unlike the Holocaust, it has not been met with a comparable level of accountability.
Slavery stands apart in human history for several reasons. Its scale was vast, affecting millions. Its duration spanned centuries.
Its structure was calculated, premeditated, systematic, and supported by states, institutions, and economies.
And its justification was rooted in racial ideology, embedding notions of superiority and inferiority that continue to influence global relations.
It was not a single act of violence but a continuous system of oppression – one that normalised exploitation and dehumanisation on an unprecedented scale.
The economic argument for reparations is straightforward.
The labour of enslaved Africans generated enormous wealth – wealth that has compounded over time.
When calculated across centuries, the value of this labour runs into trillions of dollars.
Reparations, therefore, should not be framed as aid or goodwill.
They are a debt – a recognition that wealth was accumulated through exploitation and that justice requires redress.
Such reparations could take multiple forms: financial compensation, investment in education and infrastructure, institutional reforms, and formal acknowledgements and apologies.
The scale must match the magnitude of the crime.
On the floor of the UN on September 25, 2025, Mahama told the world: “We must demand reparations for the enslavement of our people and the colonisation of our land that resulted in the theft of natural resources, as well as the looting of artefacts and other items of cultural heritage that have yet to be returned in total.”
On March 24&25, 2026, at the High-Level Special Event on Reparatory Justice for the Trafficking in Enslaved Africans and the Racialised Chattel Enslavement of Africans at the UN Headquarters, Mahama, acting as the African Union Champion for Reparatory Justice, not only pushed for compensation from former colonial powers, arguing that these historical injustices created enduring economic and social disparities; he presented a resolution (passed on March 25) identifying the transatlantic slave trade as the "gravest crime against humanity".
Mahama’s clarion call comes at a moment when the global conversation on justice is evolving.
Movements addressing racial inequality, decolonisation, and historical accountability have gained prominence.
The Global South is increasingly assertive in shaping international discourse. In this context, the demand for reparations is no longer marginal.
It is part of a broader rethinking of global justice.
Mahama’s intervention is timely because it reframes the issue in clear moral terms.
It challenges the world to move beyond acknowledgement toward action.
Slavery is criminal; pure and simple.
This must be stated without equivocation, and in the strongest terms possible.
This is not a rhetorical statement.
It is a moral and historical fact.
The question is no longer whether slavery was wrong.
The question is whether the world is willing to confront the consequences of that wrong.
Reparations are not about revisiting the past for its own sake.
They are about addressing the present realities shaped by that past.
History will judge not only those who committed slavery, but those who refuse to repair its legacy.
In the end, the demand for reparations is a demand for justice – long delayed, but no less necessary.
The writer is a researcher with a focus on foreign policy, public diplomacy, resource diplomacy, and state media/journalists.
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