BY SHERIFF GHALI IBRAHIM
The greatest evils that reduced Africa and ensured its perpetrual dependence on Europe and America have always been slavery, colonialism and imperialism. Albeit there are internal forces and contradictions, stooges, bad governance and legacies of colonial indebtedness. Forcefully imposed and coercively enforced, the impacts of slavery are unforgiving and Africans are not oblivious of the horrors it instilled in the memory lanes of Africans.
The African Union has made a resolution to make the scars of slavery wither and the slave masters pay reparations to Africa against the dehumanization of Africans as carried out during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade (1526-1867).
Over the period of the Atlantic Slave Trade, from approximately 1526 to 1867, some 12.5 million captured men, women, and children were put on ships in Africa, and 10.7 million arrived in the Americas. The Atlantic Slave Trade was likely the most costly in human life of all long-distance global migrations. The number of people carried off from Africa reached 30,000 per year in the 1690s and 85,000 per year a century later. More than eight out of ten Africans forced into the slave trade crossed the Atlantic between 1700 and 1850. The decade 1821 to 1830 saw more than 80,000 people a year leaving Africa in slave ships. Well over a million more—one-tenth of those carried off in the slave trade era—followed within the next twenty years.
By 1820, nearly four Africans for every one European had crossed the Atlantic; about four out of every five women who crossed the Atlantic were from Africa. The majority of enslaved Africans brought to British North America arrived between 1720 and 1780. Africans carried to Brazil came overwhelmingly from Angola. Africans carried to North America, including the Caribbean, left mainly from West Africa.
Well over 90 percent of enslaved Africans were sent to the Caribbean and South America. Only about 6 percent of African captives were sent directly to British North America. Yet by 1825, the US population included about one-quarter of the people of African descent in the Western Hemisphere. The Middle Passage was dangerous and horrific. The sexes were separated; men, women, and children were kept naked, packed close together; and the men were chained for long periods. About 12 percent of those who embarked did not survive the voyage.
Enslaved persons suffered a variety of miserable and often fatal maladies due to the Atlantic Slave Trade, and to inhumane living and working conditions. Common symptoms among enslaved populations included blindness, abdominal swelling, bowed legs, skin lesions, and convulsions. Common conditions among enslaved populations included beriberi (caused by a deficiency of thiamine), pellagra (caused by a niacin deficiency), tetany (caused by deficiencies of calcium, magnesium, and Vitamin D), rickets (also caused by a deficiency of Vitamin D), and kwashiorkor (caused by severe protein deficiency).
Diarrhea, dysentery, whooping cough, and respiratory diseases as well as worms pushed the infant and early childhood death rate of enslaved children to twice that experienced by White infants and children.
The African Union has consequently designated the year 2025 as the “Year of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations.” This initiative underscores the AU’s commitment to addressing historical injustices, including the trans-Atlantic slave trade, colonialism, apartheid, and genocide. It builds on decades of advocacy and collaboration, aiming to foster unity and establish mechanisms for reparatory justice on a global scale.
Designating only one year (2025) is never going to be enough. For decades, the call for reparations has journeyed through critical milestones: the Abuja Proclamation of 1993, the Durban Programme of Action in 2001, and the Accra Declaration and Proclamation of 2022 and 2023. These laid the intellectual and institutional groundwork for today’s continental commitment. In July 2025, African leaders endorsed a ten-year commitment: 2026 to 2036 will be the African Union Decade of Reparations. The Decade will build on the foundations laid so far and carry them forward in a sustained way. Over the next ten years, the focus will be on the following:
◦Mobilizing continental and global support for reparations and reparatory justice
◦Working hand in hand with civil society and diaspora communities to keep citizens at the heart of the process
◦Promoting education, research, and awareness of Africa’s history and contributions to the world
◦Developing policies and partnerships that respond to the lasting impacts of slavery, colonialism, and exploitation
This is not only an AU agenda, it is a people’s agenda. The African Union Decade of Reparations belongs to Africa’s citizens everywhere, on the continent and across the world!
The Pan-African Parliament has reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to the African Union’s 2025 Theme, “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations” during its ongoing 5th Ordinary Session of the 6th Parliament in Midrand, South Africa. Through this session, the Parliament has taken a decisive, coordinated action to advance justice, restore dignity, and drive inclusive socio-economic transformation across the continent. During the session, Hon. José Manteigas Gabriel, Pan-African Parliament Committee on Justice and Human Rights Rapporteur, led a comprehensive report adopted by consensus of the Pan-African Parliament. Hon. Gabriel noted that the 2025 theme seeks to address the historic injustices of colonialism, slavery, and structural racism, which continue to underpin Africa’s wealth disparities and marginalisation.
Manteigas posited that “Reparations go beyond economic reparation to include institutional reforms, recovery of cultural artefacts, development assistance, and reforms of the educational system,”
The issue of reparatory justice however, is a gradual and continuous process which the African Union pursues. There has to be collective campaign and support by international institutions, states and non-governmental organizations, where more debates and contributions have to be made at international multilateral level, the United Nations and intercontinental institutions. Reparation is key to correcting historical damages and reconciling historical dislodgements. Africa may find a development path supported by reparatory justice in implementing plans and strategies of development. If this happens, internternal reparation within African countries should also be pursued. African governments that siphoned resources, diverted funds and looted African treasuries should be held to account for the enslavement of their people. Through this means, African history can be corrected and Africans will rediscover their lost path to development.
PROF GHALI IS THE HEAD OF THE INTERNATIONAL CENTRE, UNIVERSITY OF ABUJA, AND DIRECTOR, CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY CHINA-AFRICA RESEARCH IN NIGERIA
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