President John Dramani Mahama has challenged the global community to confront the full horror of the transatlantic slave trade and embrace reparative justice as a pathway to healing, in a spirited appeal to an assembly of global figures.
Speaking at the United Nations Headquarters in New York yesterday at the UN High-Level Special Event on Reparatory Justice, President Mahama began his eight-page address with a provocative declaration: “There is no such thing as a slave”.
Explaining his assertion, President Mahama stated: “There were human beings who were trafficked and then enslaved by people who believed they could own those human beings as chattel, as their personal property”.
He emphasised that the distinction was critical, indicating: “Not if you acknowledge an individual’s humanity; not if you respect an individual’s basic right to dignity”.
President Mahama described the transatlantic slave trade as a system “designed to deny African people their humanity”, premised on a racial hierarchy “with no basis in fact or science”.
“When discussing slavery and its resulting institutions and practices, we must always start by reclaiming racial equality, the dignity of Africans, the humanity of our ancestors who were enslaved and, as a matter of course, our own humanity,” he said.
