President John Dramani Mahama, the African Union Champion for Reparations, has announced his intention to introduce a motion on the payment of reparation by western nations to Africa at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
“The slave trade must be recognised as the greatest crime against humanity. As African Champion on reparations, Ghana intends to introduce a motion in this August body to that effect,” President Mahama stated in his address at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly UNGA80) in New York.
“More than twelve and a half million Africans were forcibly taken against their will and transported to create wealth for the powerful Western nations.
“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 looking of artefacts and other items of cultural heritage that have yet to be returned in total. We recognise the value of our land and the value of our lives.”
He said as did their coloniser, as well as the governments that happily paid reparations to former slave owners as compensation for the loss of their “property”—that “property” for which compensation was paid referred to enslaved people who had been freed.
President Mahama said an increasingly insecure world was witnessing upward spending on defence budgets of bilateral partners and steep cuts in Official Development Assistance.
He said since July 2024, there had been a 40 per cent drop in humanitarian aid to Africa.
“In this era of global uncertainty, Africa must exercise sovereignty over its natural resources to raise the necessary funds to ensure the well-being of its citizens,” the President stated.
He said the days of parceling out vast concession areas to foreign interests for exploitation must come to an end.
He said Africans would continue to welcome foreign investment, but they must negotiate better for a
bigger share of the natural resources that belong to them.
“We are tired of the continued image of poverty-stricken, disease-ridden rural communities, living at the periphery of huge foreign-controlled natural resource concession areas,” he said.
“We are tired of having people extract the most they can from us and, in return, offer us the very least by way of respect, consideration, and dignity.
“We are tired of not being represented in ways that reveal the richness and complexity of our history or acknowledge all that we have overcome to arrive here, in this liminal space of untold possibilities.”
President Mahama quoted the Indian-American writer, Arundha Roy, who wrote: “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
The President said: “I want to add that for the sake of Africa, and quite selfishly, for the sake of my 18-year-old daughter, “I hope this new world that is arriving is a place of safety and equality for women and girls”.
He reiterated that to succeed, African leaders must empower everyone, including women and girls, to reach their full potential.
The African Union (AU) during its Mid-Year Review in July, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, adopted a landmark resolution to extend the theme of Reparations by a decade, covering the period from 2026 to 2036 with President John Dramani Mahama as the Champion.
Source: GNA
Source: ghanabusinessnews.com
