Mahama favours cooperation over direct payments for slavery reparations
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on La Nouvelle Tribune
Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama believes reparations linked to the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism can take the form of economic and social cooperation rather than direct financial payments. This approach should involve African countries and former slave-trading and colonial powers, according to statements reported by La Nouvelle Tribune.
Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama believes reparations linked to the slave trade and colonialism do not necessarily have to take the form of direct financial payments. He favours economic and social cooperation with African countries and former slave-trading and colonial powers, particularly in education, healthcare, economic growth and debt treatment.
Mahama recalls that the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism left lasting consequences, particularly after the exploitation of unpaid labour and the extraction of African resources for the benefit of colonial powers. He also cites the £100 million fund announced by the Church of England to address certain historical consequences of the slave trade.
The Ghanaian president also recalls that the UN General Assembly adopted on 25 March 2026 a resolution put forward by Ghana recognising the transatlantic slave trade in enslaved Africans and racial enslavement as the “most serious crime against humanity”. The text received 123 votes in favour, against three opposed votes from the United States, Israel and Argentina, while 52 countries abstained.
Mahama's position comes after his call for British apologies for the slave trade, made on 1 November 2026 in his call for British apologies.
