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His Excellency speaking at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, called upon European nations to compensate Africa for the harm inflicted by this tragic chapter in history.
Akufo Addo expressed his disappointment with the global community's longstanding reluctance to acknowledge and address the grave consequences and atrocities of the slave trade, emphasizing that such sensitive issues should no longer be disregarded.
President Akufo-Addo stressed that although the present generation cannot be held responsible for the slave trade, it was a state-sanctioned and deliberate endeavor with enduring economic implications for the nations that orchestrated it, however, he argued that it is high time the topic of reparations is brought to the forefront of international discussions.
While recognizing that no amount of money can fully compensate for the horrors endured by Africans during the slave trade, he asserted that paying reparations would serve as a significant acknowledgment of the profound injustices committed against Africans.
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“Reparations must be paid for the slave trade. No amount of money will ever make up for the horrors, but it would make the point that evil was perpetrated, that millions of productive Africans were snatched from the embrace of our continent, and put to work in the Americas and the Caribbean without compensation for their labor"
President Akufo-Addo also pointed out that when slavery was abolished, slave owners were compensated for the loss of their "property," as enslaved individuals were considered commodities.
This historical precedent, he argued, highlights the necessity of addressing the issue of reparations without hesitation and announced that the African Union (AU) has granted Ghana the authority to host a global conference on this matter in November in Accra.