On March 25, the United Nations General Assembly held a historic vote on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the four centuries’ long enslavement of Africans. Majority of member states adopted a resolution affirming the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and racialised chattel slavery as the gravest crime against humanity. For all Africans and the descendants of enslaved peoples in the Black diaspora; this vote is indeed consequential. That majority of the member states in the General Assembly voted to adopt the resolution speaks to the deep hurts caused by slavery, several centuries after.
By mobilising international opinion through the instrumentality of the UN, the world was served yet another reminder that the quest for justice and dignity for the victims of slavery remains alive. Contrary to the lecturing and hectoring of the naysayers, the African continent cannot, and will not forget the depravities of slavery. According to the Brittanica online, between 10 and 12 million Africans were transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas between the 16th and the 19th century. Started by the Portuguese as early as the 1480s, the trade eventually drew in the major European powers, including the Dutch, the French, the Spanish and the English. History further records that in 1713 agreement reached between Spain and Britain, the later was granted a monopoly on the trade of enslaved people with the Spanish colonies. In line with the fine print of this agreement Britain was entitled to supply those colonies with 4,800 enslaved Africans per year for 30 years.
The Brittanica further records that the contract for this supply of the human cargo was assigned to the South Sea Company, of which British Queen Anne held some 22.5 percent of the stock. Little wonder, estimates for the cost of African reparations stand at over USD 100 trillion. This reflects the labour cost, and the extreme human resource losses suffered by the African continent. It is therefore not surprising that many of the countries, whose economies profited heavily from slave labour, either voted against or abstained from voting on the resolution. And the pattern is quite clear that the opponents of the resolution are the countries, which benefited economically from chattel slavery. Therefore, the 52 countries which voted against the resolution, and those who abstained have demonstrated their lack of commitment to ensuring justice for the victims of slavery. Posterity will judge all such countries harshly for their denial and refusal to own up to their complicity in the most degrading treatment of fellow human beings. Those countries and voices, which oppose reparative justice for the crime of slavery remind the world that they profited from the blood and sweat of African slaves, yet are unwilling to ensure restitution and justice.
This brazen denial will however not erase the dehumanising realities exemplified by slavery and the slave trade. The monumental violations wrought by the evil of slavery, requires reckoning and redress. As such, Africa cannot simply “move on” from the memories of the depravities and violations of chattel slavery. Although a non-binding vote, the 123 States, which voted in favour of the resolution sponsored by Ghana, demonstrated clearly that a tragic part of Africa’s past deserves to be universally acknowledged and addressed. This is the basis of the decades-long African campaign for reparative justice. It is a clear commitment to ensuring that countries and cultures, which bore the brunt of the monumental evil are understood and listened to. Notwithstanding the dismissive and derisive views of countries, which opposed the vote, the moral and historic burdens precipitated by slavery, will not simply disappear.
Africans must keep the knowledge of this past alive and resist the temptation to forget. The core issues canvassed in the March 25 vote remains incontrovertible. It is that the extraction of millions of Africans and their forced transportation to plantations in the New World for four centuries, is truly the highest crime ever committed against all of humanity. And it is a grave injustice humanity must address. Slavery is a stain on the conscience of human kind. It is an irony that some of the countries, which voted against the resolution are the ones which were at the vanguard of reparation for the victims of the Holocaust. For instance, United States State Department data indicates that from “1945 to 2018, the German government paid approximately $86.8 billion in restitution and compensation to Holocaust victims and their heirs.” While not arguing that reparative justice has to necessarily be about money and payments, similar principles should also apply to the plight of Africans. Given the scale of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the damage it did to African society and economies, there is no reason why expanded measures for the purpose of reparation should not be applied.
In terms of the efforts to table this resolution and the voting outcome, the President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama deserves commendation. The Ghanaian leader has earned his place in the pantheon of African statesmen given the way he courageously moved forward with this resolution, despite the derisive comments of states, which benefited economically from slave labour, but continue to dismiss calls for justice. The Ghanaian delegation at the UN, served as the prime catalyst as it showcased the power in African and Global South solidarity. The consensus derived from the Africa group at the UN General Assembly, which ensured the resolution is voted on, is a remarkable demonstration of African and Diaspora leadership. Commendable too is the mobilisation of diplomatic talents, experience and resources, which culminated in the triumph of the resolution. Equally worthy of note is the role played by the African Union (AU), which has kept the issue of reparative justice alive in broader continental conversations about Africa’s development trajectory.
At the heart of this vote is the dignity of the African. There can be no mistaking the fact that if the depravities and injustices of slavery are allowed to stand with no measures to ensure justice, the indirect message will be that there is a leeway for more of such violations. It is pertinent to assert that the same racist, supremacists and xenophobic ideas, which were used to justify and enable slavery, are still very much around. Far right politics, driven by ultra-nationalism, and the notion that might is right, is shaping norms and values. These worldviews even manifest strands suggesting the recolonisation of Africa, while disregarding international law and the rules-based international order.
Therefore, the quest for reparative justice, is not just about payment of monies to affected survivors, heirs and communities. Reparative justice is also about acknowledging the monumental crimes against Africans. It is about the restoration of the dignity of those violently denied their place as human beings. At its heart, reparatory justice seeks to make amends for past wrongs and to provide redress for the physical, material and moral damage inflicted on individuals, groups and nations. Addressing the historic wrongs and injustices of slavery will help prevent its various mutations in the present day. As such, the vote at the UN General Assembly is one of the important steps for humanity to acknowledge and document the violent, brutal and victims of slavery suffered in the hands of perpetrators centuries ago.
However, leaders of Africa must come to terms with the fact that the UN General Assembly vote is just a first step in the struggle for reparative justice. It is important that as the debate on the crimes of slavery and the slave trade shapes up internationally, good governance takes root on the African continent. Anomalies like corruption, Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs), election rigging, extreme poverty and lack of basic infrastructure should be decisively addressed. Some of those engaging in denial and deflection about these monumental crimes against humanity point to these harsh conditions in Africa as indicators of lack of seriousness on the part of African elite. To take the moral high ground, African leaders must do the needful in terms of creating better and conducive social conditions for citizens. This is the surest way for African and Diaspora leaders to effectively advocate, stay the course, and not be distracted. The posturing by those who engineered and benefited heavily from slavery cannot erase the necessity of reparative justice. The spirits and souls of Africans against whom these grave crimes were committed will continue to cry out for justice. As American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jnr once noted: “the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
