President John Dramani Mahama has rejected claims that the involvement of some Africans in the transatlantic slave trade diminishes the crime of slavery or weakens the case for reparations.
Speaking at a high-level dialogue on reparations at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica during his state visit, President Mahama argued that while some Africans acted as intermediaries, responsibility ultimately rests with those who conceived, financed and institutionalised the transatlantic slave trade.
Drawing a comparison with the Holocaust, he said the participation of some Jewish individuals in Nazi operations did not negate the genocide or diminish its status as a crime against humanity.
“The Holocaust occurred, and I believe that there was a Holocaust and six million Jews were killed. Some of the most brutal prison guards were Jews. Some of those who went into the communities and showed where Jews were hiding and delivered them to the Nazis to be exterminated were Jews.
“But it doesn’t mean the Holocaust didn’t happen and that the Holocaust wasn’t a crime against humanity.”
President Mahama said the same principle applies to the transatlantic slave trade.
“So even the argument that Africans were involved in enslaving Africans does not stop it from being the gravest crime against humanity.”
He urged the international community to examine the wider legal, financial and commercial structures that sustained the slave trade for centuries, including the systems of insurance, auctions and government-backed institutions that profited from the trade.
According to the President, the transatlantic slave trade was a highly organised enterprise involving governments, businesses and financial institutions, and cannot be dismissed simply because some Africans participated in it.
“It was a very systematic trade, and so you cannot wish it away just by saying that some agents whom you use as agents to bring you slaves as commodities participated in it, and because they were Africans, then it means that the slave trade didn’t happen.
“No, we reject that.”
‘We Must Tell Our Children the Truth’
President Mahama also stressed the importance of presenting a more complete account of slavery to future generations, arguing that independent African nations have a responsibility to tell their own history truthfully.
“We are now independent. We should be able to tell our children the truth.”
Reflecting on his own education, he said history lessons placed greater emphasis on abolitionists than on the scale and brutality of the slave trade itself.
“When I was growing up in primary school, the abolitionists were put as the most important thing that happened in the slave trade.
“We were taught about the slave trade. The gravity of what happened in the slave trade was never really spelled out. It was the bravery of the abolitionists and how they were the knights in shiny armour who came and stopped it and saved Africans.”
While acknowledging the contributions of abolitionists, President Mahama said history had often overlooked the suffering endured by millions of enslaved Africans.
“So all these people who were involved in the abolition movement were lionised in our history books. Now we can begin to tell our children the truth.”
He welcomed growing international interest in the history and legacy of slavery, noting that a United Nations resolution on reparations has renewed global efforts to better understand the transatlantic slave trade and its enduring consequences.
“I think that since the resolution was passed on the General Assembly, it’s piqued interest in trying to understand and know what exactly happened.”
President Mahama expressed confidence that greater public awareness of the past would help shape a more informed future.
“I believe that awareness is being created. People are aware of what happened. And it helps for you to know where we have come from, because that informs where we are going.”
