Africa needs collective effort to recover from cruel colonial damages, reparations necessary – President Mahama
President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana says Africa cannot recover from the brutal legacy of slavery and colonialism without a united struggle for reparations.
According to him, the continent’s healing required not only monetary compensation but also a collective remembrance of history to resist revisionism and restore dignity to Africans everywhere.
Expatiating on the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade, President Mahama painted a chilling picture where Africans were shackled for months in ships, forced to lie immobile, fed only to keep them alive, and often thrown overboard when illness broke out.
“We cannot imagine the unspeakable horror that people had to go through. The Middle Passage took 80 to 90 days, and many never made it. Millions died before even reaching the Americas,” he recalled, stressing that the slave trade was “the most criminal human enterprise known in the world.”
President Mahama was speaking on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, at the Accra launch of veteran journalist and Pan-Africanist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr’s new book, “Reparations. History, Struggle, Politics and Law.”
The event drew a high-powered audience of ambassadors, high commissioners, traditional and spiritual leaders, political representatives, academics, and activists to the AMA Emporium where poetry and music performances set the tone for deep reflection.
President Mahama, who prefaced the book, noted that the global reparations movement had often been met with resistance, with attempts at rewriting history to erase the scale of Africa’s suffering.
“There is something in this world called revisionism. We see it even in our own curriculum, where names are erased or diminished. In the slave trade too, there are efforts to reduce its impact, but history must be told truthfully if reparations are to be meaningful,” he said.
The Ghanaian leader hailed Kwesi Pratt’s book as a significant contribution to the reparations struggle. “Kwesi Pratt has done the heavy lifting for our generation. This book takes us beyond rhetoric and provides facts, figures, and pathways. Reparations must make justice visible,” he emphasized.
The 130-page book, written with the full backing of the Pan-African Progressive Front (PPF) headquartered in Accra, quantifies the debt owed to Africa: $2–3 trillion for unpaid slave labour, $4–6 trillion for colonial extraction, $500 billion for debt cancellation, more than $50 billion for stolen artefacts, and $1 trillion for climate reparations. It also proposes concrete strategies to recover these resources and use them for Africa’s development.
Comrade Kyeretwie Opoku, who chaired the function, re-echoed the President’s call for collective effort, stressing that Africa’s recovery could not come through imitating colonial models of development but through solidarity, justice, and bold action.
On his part, Mr. Pratt maintained that reparations must go far beyond compensation for past crimes.
"They must trigger a global reset that reorganises international systems to ensure fairness for all nations. Reparations is about resetting the world. Reparations is about the redistribution of surplus value. Reparations is about reorganizing this world, because the way this world is structured is weighted against us,” he stated.
Mr. Pratt explained that institutions like the United Nations, the IMF, and the World Bank were created at a time when most African countries were still colonies and were therefore excluded from decision-making.
"As a result, the very structures that govern global affairs today continue to reflect colonial-era inequalities, leaving Africa disadvantaged," he added.
President Mahama later launched the book and bought the first gold-plated copy for GHC 200,000.
That was after an impressive review of the new literary work by Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihere.
The book itself reflects years of careful research and analytical effort. Beyond the figures, he offers concrete strategies for mobilizing these resources and channeling them into Africa’s transformation.
Having been presented to Heads of State at the African Union Summit in Malabo in July 2025, the book has already gained continental recognition, with demand for additional copies soaring by the day.
And only last month, Mr. Pratt was a special guest at a forum of African experts in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he had the privilege of doing a pre-launch of the book in grand style to a highly expectant audience.
This book is written for activists, students, community leaders, and African youth — for everyone who can think and is ready to act.
It is intended for those who are prepared to openly declare their position and fight for a better world for themselves, their loved ones, their country, and their continent.
