Accra Conference Adopts 19-Point Framework for Slavery Reparations

Al Jazeera reported that a three-day conference titled “Next Steps” on slavery and reparatory justice took place in Accra, Ghana, from June 17 to 19. The event drew heads of state, policymakers, legal experts, civil society groups and representatives of the African diaspora.

Months earlier the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution, supported by 123 countries, that recognised the transatlantic slave trade as among the gravest crimes against humanity.

Conference participants then adopted a 19-point framework that calls for formal apologies from countries and institutions that profited from slavery, along with reparations mechanisms, debt relief, the return of cultural artefacts and human remains, educational initiatives and stronger international cooperation.

Several participants said apologies alone would fall short. Yaw Owusu Akyeaw of African Diaspora 126+ stated that a verbal apology is a symbolic way to acknowledge a wrong while doing nothing tangible for repairing the damage or compensating those affected.

Marvin Walker, a Guyanese entrepreneur who recently moved to Ghana, said such an apology can be seen as a shallow gesture, not a genuine expression of a change of heart or any deeply felt regret. David Adofo of the African Chamber of Content Producers noted that slavery interrupted Africa’s growing civilisation at the time and that the best of Africa was taken out of the continent.

He pointed to the Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment, a British colonial film initiative carried out in East and Central Africa between 1935 and 1937, and said investment in educational content production to reorient people should be fully funded by the West and developed by Africans.