Ashley Green-Thompson runs an organisation that supports social justice action.
Image: Supplied
There’s the story of the last surviving passenger on the last-ever slave ship that sailed from the West African coast to North America in 1859. She was a short woman named Matilda McCrear, and in her seventies she walked 24km from her home in Alabama to Selma in the USA to make her claim for compensation for the man-made suffering she and her family had endured. She had been captured at the age of two with her mother and sisters in what is now Benin by African slave traders. Her name was Abake, which means "born to be loved by all", and she was of the Tarkar people.
We must always recognise the individual humanity and personal experiences that are so often forgotten during our conversations on the dysfunction of our systems. The trans-Atlantic slave trade that happened between the 15th and 19th centuries saw over 12.5 million Africans abducted from their homes and sold into slavery in the plantations of the Americas, and the industrial complexes of Europe. Can you imagine the horror of that time for Abake, her mother, and her sisters? Bound hand and foot, they would have been taken to the coast to board the slave ships bound for the west. At Goree Island in Senegal, there is the “Door of No Return" that leads to the ships. Abake’s family would have heard the stories of it in their communities, and the fear that would have filled their hearts is unfathomable.
There can be no argument that the development of European and American economies was enabled in no small measure by centuries of free labour from enslaved Africans. The trade in kidnapped human beings enabled the accumulation of capital and raw materials to feed the industrial revolution in Europe. It’s not just that it benefited the west, it simultaneously impoverished Africa. It is through the energy, drive and creativity of youth that economic activity and growth are incubated. While they are physically strong and inquisitive, young people are drivers of the type of enterprise needed for progress. The slave traders would have sought out the youthful and strong, and so they removed the very core of what would have been the engine of development.
The economic crime of slavery and the immense human suffering it caused cannot be denied. And that is why March 25, 2026 will become a significant date in our history. On this day the United Nations adopted a resolution recognising the transatlantic slave trade as the ‘gravest crime against humanity’. This resolution encourages states to explore notions of reparatory justice that include compensation and restitution, and the return to their countries of origin of cultural treasures looted by colonisers. Importantly, it recognises the impact of slavery in shaping modern patterns of poverty and privilege, and how it is a primary driver of inequality between nations today.
It was Ghana who led the resolution. Their President John Dramani Mahama said that this moment marked “a route to healing and reparative justice”, and is a massive step towards accountability for historical wrongs. Ghana’s Foreign Affairs minister Samuel Ablakwa’s words: “History does not disappear when ignored, truth does not weaken when delayed, crime does not rot … and justice does not expire with time”
123 countries voted in favour of the resolution that calls for reparations, apologies and measures to address the enduring legacy of slavery and structural racism. The United States of America, Israel, and Argentina are the only countries that voted against the resolution. There is little surprise in that – the USA in particular has a massive debt for its extraction of wealth from Africa. There are others who should be considering reparations for the benefit they gained, especially the UK and EU member states. Of course, most of them, including Canada, abstained from voting.
Let us not be lulled into the false security that ignoring history allows, where we wash our hands of complicity and culpability. Don’t be duped by calls – usually from the privileged among us - to let bygones be bygones. Philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It means we have to deal with those traumas, ensure that we account for the historical wrongs committed against others, and provide interventions to address the consequences of those wrongs, if we want to advance humanity and live in peace.