81st UNGA: Mahama Demands Meaningful Reparations for Transatlantic Slave Trade

President John Dramani Mahama has reiterated Ghana’s call for reparatory justice for Africans and people of African descent, declaring that the transatlantic trafficking and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans remains the gravest crime against humanity in human history.

Addressing the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2026, President Mahama said the tragedy was for centuries rendered in the passive voice as though millions vanished.

“They did not vanish. They were hunted, captured, trafficked, bought, sold, exploited, and exchanged for profit,” he said.

He recalled the tabling of Resolution A/RES/80/250 on the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery by Ghana on March 25, 2026, which was affirmed by 123 nations.

“That resolution was not a mere gesture,” he stressed, noting that its structural legacies continue to fuel systemic racism, economic marginalisation and a global financial architecture weighted against Africa.

While welcoming positive overtures from the Netherlands, Germany and France to join the dialogue on reparatory justice, the President said real repair demands structural transformation – dismantling unfair trade regimes, predatory resource extraction, discriminatory credit ratings and unsustainable debt burdens.

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