Accra, March 25, – President John Dramani Mahama has declared that a global resolution recognizing the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity is vital to prevent historical amnesia and advance reparatory justice.
Speaking at a high-level UN event ahead of Ghana's plenary motion, President Mahama said the resolution offers a "moral framework for remembrance, healing, and accountability." "This stands as a safeguard against forgetting," he stressed, rejecting "slave" terminology: "Human beings were trafficked and enslaved through baseless racial hierarchies."
Middle Passage Horrors
He detailed captives' dungeon confinement, Middle Passage mortality (10-15%), auction block inspections, and plantation brutality across Brazil, Jamaica, and Barbados. "Business boomed because labor was virtually free," he noted, citing 1661 Barbados Slave Code and Virginia's partus sequitur ventrum doctrine.
Plenary Motion
At the UN General Assembly—marking International Day of Remembrance—AU Reparations Champion Mahama moved the Africa Group's motion for 13-18 million victims. "We document to heal individually, communally, globally," he said, noting 20 years of Remembrance Day progress.
Justice Appeal
Quoting Theodore Roosevelt ("Neutrality serves wrong") and MLK ("Arc bends toward justice"), President Mahama urged delegates: "Stand on history's right side. Let our vote restore their dignity."
Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa emphasized Elmina/Cape Coast castles' legacy and women's exploitation, committing Ghana to reparations dialogue.
GHBUSS
25 March 2026
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