President John Dramani Mahama has called on the global community to support a historic push for reparatory justice, urging recognition of the transatlantic slave trade as one of the gravest crimes against humanity.
Speaking at the United Nations High-Level Special Event on Reparatory Justice in New York themed “Reparatory Justice for the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and the Racialised Chattel Enslavement of Africans,” on March 24, 2026, Mahama said the world must confront the truth about slavery and its enduring impact on people of African descent.
“Truth begins with language,” he stated, stressing that enslaved Africans were not “slaves” by nature but human beings who were trafficked and forcibly enslaved under a system that denied their dignity and humanity.
Mr. Mahama told delegates that the proposed UN resolution would allow the global community to acknowledge the suffering of approximately 18 million men, women and children whose lives were uprooted over four centuries.
“This resolution is a pathway to healing and reparative justice. It is also a safeguard against forgetting,” he said.
The Ghanaian leader detailed the brutal realities of the slave trade, describing how Africans were captured, stripped of their identities, transported under inhumane conditions, and subjected to forced labour across plantations and mines in the Americas and the Caribbean.
He argued that the entire system was built on a false racial hierarchy that portrayed Black people as inferior, enabling widespread atrocities and exploitation.
Mahama also raised concerns about what he described as the “erasure” and distortion of slavery in modern education systems, warning that such narratives risk diminishing the scale and severity of historical injustices.
“Violence begins with language,” he said, cautioning against the use of euphemisms and misleading descriptions that downplay the horrors of slavery.
He further rejected arguments that slavery should be judged within the context of its time, insisting that “slavery was wrong then, and it is wrong now.”
The President urged unity among African nations, the diaspora, and people of conscience worldwide to support the resolution, describing it as a crucial step toward restoring dignity and achieving justice for the victims of the slave trade.
Mahama concluded by calling on UN member states to vote in favour of the resolution, emphasizing the need to “speak truth to power” and ensure that the atrocities suffered by millions are neither denied nor forgotten.
Source: Mubarak Yakubu
