A formal Senior Special Advisor at the UN, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah has said he is happy that the United Nations resolution on the Trans- Atlantic slave trade has happened in his lifetime.
According to him, it is an issue that started in the early 1900s. He also stated that former President, Akuffo Addo, raised the issue of reparation and further compensations for the countries that were affected by the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
“You know, when the former President Akufo-Addo was in power, he laid the foundation, so to speak. And I am happy that President Mahama succeeded him and he has carried it forward to this level,” he said on 3FM’s Hot Edition.
On March 25, 2026, the UN General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution spearheaded by His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, declaring the Trans-Atlantic slave trade the “gravest crime against humanity”.
Supported by 123 countries, rejected by 3, and 52 countries abstaining from the vote, the resolution called for reparations, formal apologies, and restitution of stolen artifacts.
The US, Israel and Argentina voted against this resolution.
On the issue of reparations for African countries and the areas to look at, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah said, “it’s an issue that has not gotten any consensus on how, and what to pay them, whether it goes out, and how it is utilised and all. There has been very intense debate over that and frankly, I don’t have the answer as such’’.
“But I know that given the burden of indebtedness that African countries have to the West, it could be easily used to write off the billions of dollars that we owe. It can also be directed to introduce some serious infrastructure on the continent,” he added.
According to Dr Agyemang-Duah, “”We’ve been talking about maybe a railway line from Johannesburg to Cairo, from Senegal to Addis Ababa, that is to say, cross-continental infrastructure like that.”
We also have this long-standing plan of building the greatest dam in the world in Congo, which will have the capacity to supply all of Africa with hydropower. If African countries and their leaders can agree, we can decide to channel that amount into such a project that will be beneficial for all of Africa,” he added.
