Africa Does Not Deserve Reparations (for the Slave Trade) — But Human Capital Advancement

In 2001, just days before the September 11 attacks in the United States, the United Nations hosted a landmark conference in Durban, South Africa, on slavery, colonialism, and reparations. African leaders called for apologies and compensation from Europe and the Americas, arguing that slavery was a crime against humanity whose consequences continue to shape global inequality.

The Durban Declaration acknowledged slavery’s brutality and its role in persistent poverty. But history intervened. After 9/11, the world’s attention shifted sharply toward terrorism and war, pushing Africa’s demands to the margins.

Twenty‑five years later, the issue has resurfaced. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a new resolution recognising the injustice of slavery, thanks in part to African leadership. Slavery was morally abhorrent, and its condemnation is both right and necessary. Yet the renewed call for reparations demands serious scrutiny.

My position, formed during my undergraduate studies in Political Science at the University of Ghana and unchanged today, is this: Africa, as a continent, does not deserve reparations for the slave trade. Interestingly, the current Foreign Minister of Ghana Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, was in the same Political Science cohort when these discussions and debates took place back in 2003/2004.

This is not a denial of historical suffering, nor an argument against justice for victims and their descendants. Rather, it is a call for clarity — and for Africa to pursue a more meaningful form of redress.

Slavery Was Not a Single Story
Slavery did not begin with Europeans, nor did it take only one form. Long before the transatlantic trade, many African societies practised domestic slavery. Across the continent, enslaved people often lived within households, sometimes earning freedom and social mobility.

There was also the trans‑Saharan slave trade, in which Africans were sold to Arab traders, as well as the transatlantic trade involving African intermediaries and European buyers. Enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas and the Caribbean, where slavery endured long after the trade itself was abolished.

In the United States, for example, the transatlantic trade ended in 1808, but slavery survived until the Civil War and the 13th Amendment in 1865 — an amendment that still permits forced labour as punishment for crime. Brazil did not abolish slavery until 1888.

This history matters because it complicates today’s reparations debate.

Reparations: Who Pays, Who Receives?
Calls for reparations often assume a clear moral ledger: Europe owes Africa. But history is messier.

Africans sold Africans. Powerful kingdoms captured rivals and traded prisoners of war. European traders bought human beings on the coast; they did not generally raid the interior themselves. Buyers and sellers alike profited — and all are long dead.

Modern African nation‑states did not exist at the time. Today’s borders cut across ethnic groups that once fought one another. Ghana itself was formed by the amalgamation of separate territories with no shared national identity. So who, precisely, should receive reparations — and on what basis?

Equally overlooked are the descendants of enslaved Africans in the Americas and the Caribbean, whose ancestors endured generations of forced labour, segregation, and racial terror long after Africa itself was no longer directly involved.

If reparations are about justice, they cannot be reduced to cheques paid to governments whose historical connection to the crime is indirect at best.

The Persistence of Modern Slavery
Slavery did not end; it evolved.
Across the world, particularly in the United States, mass incarceration disproportionately affects people of African descent. Legal systems still extract forced labour from prisoners under the cover of law. Jim Crow may be gone in name, but its logic persists.

Even in Africa, imprisonment with “hard labour” often mirrors slavery cloaked in legal language.

Affirmative Action and diversity policies seek to correct historical wrongs, but they are insufficient. Apologies and institutional reckoning matter, but symbolism alone cannot undo structural injustice.

What Africa Truly Needs
Africa’s greatest challenge is not unpaid historical debt — it is underdeveloped human capital.

Without unity, strong institutions, and sustained investment in education, innovation, and governance, Africa will remain on the global periphery, regardless of how many resolutions are passed in New York.

An Akan proverb captures the danger succinctly: “Bebi dehyeɛ etumi ayɛ bɛbi akoa” — a royal can become a slave in another land. Without building our societies, Africans who migrate elsewhere may still face exploitation and exclusion.

The call for reparations should therefore be reframed. It should be a demand for equal opportunity, fair treatment, and human advancement for Africans and the African diaspora, not a pursuit of monetary compensation for governments.

True justice cannot be measured or bought with money. Dignity, opportunity, and the ability to flourish are where it is truly found.

Authored by Kwadwo Kusi-Frimpong, a specialist in financial crime, governance, and regulation. He brings substantial expertise from his work with banks and financial institutions across the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and The Netherlands. Kwadwo has appeared on TV3 and is a regular contributor of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation flagship programmes including News, Market Avenue and Talking Point.

He is a graduate of University of Ghana (Political Science and Philosophy), Graduate Diploma in Law and LLM from University of Law (formerly College of Law), and a post graduate degree in Financial Strategy from Said Business School, University of Oxford.