By Hannah Dadzie
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has rejected claims that Africa was an equal participant in the transatlantic slave trade, describing the narrative as historically inaccurate and damaging to global justice efforts.
Addressing the media in Accra, after the adoption of a landmark United Nations resolution on slavery, the Minister clarified that while some African intermediaries existed, they neither designed nor controlled the system of enslavement.
“It is also important to address, with clarity and historical accuracy, a narrative that has often been used to dilute the gravity of this history the suggestion that Africa was an equal participant in what has been described as a “trade” Mr Ablakwa said
He explained that the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans was driven by external demand and sustained by global financial and legal systems developed outside the continent.
According to Mr Ablakwa, these systems reduced human beings to property and entrenched exploitation over centuries.
Ablakwa stressed that any African involvement occurred within a context of coercion, unequal power relations, and disruption caused by foreign economic interests.
“To describe this as a shared enterprise is to misrepresent the scale and responsibility of what was an organised system imposed on African peoples,” he stated.
He further noted that such narratives have historically been used to divide Africans and weaken collective calls for reparatory justice, but said growing global awareness and unity are now countering those claims.
