The Member of Parliament for Salaga South, Zuwera Mohammed Ibrahimah, has said that Africans deserve reparations from the West to address the “historical injustices and injurious crimes committed against Africans and people of African descent through transatlantic enslavement, colonisation and apartheid.”
She explained that such a gesture would also “address the inequities present in the international economic and political orders, as well as demonstrate the progress of reparatory justice and healing for Africans and for all people of African descent.”
Addressing the subject in Parliament in the wake of the theme for the AU’s 38th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from February 15–16, 2025, the MP said an earlier conference held in Accra on reparations had proposed the establishment of a “Committee of Experts on Reparations, to develop an African Common Position on Reparations.”
The 38th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU bore the theme: “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations.”
The Accra Reparations Conference held from November 14 to 17, 2023 in Ghana’s capital, was the culmination of years of advocacy for adequate compensation from the West to Africa and its people for the injuries occasioned by the transatlantic slave trade, colonisation, and other dehumanising actions.
Ms Ibrahimah, reiterating a statement she had made on the floor of Parliament earlier this year, said the Accra Reparations Conference had further proposed a Committee of Experts on Reparations to develop an African Common Position on Reparations; a reference group of legal experts to work led by the Commission and including the judicial and quasi-judicial organs; the establishment of a global reparations fund based in Africa; and the establishment of a transcontinental partnership framework embracing the AU, the African Diaspora in Latin America, North America, Europe, UK, and other relevant identifiable groups to build a strong common front in pursuit of reparations and reparatory justice at the global level.
The proposal falls in line with the proposition of various individuals who recently shared their views regarding how Africa could pursue the reparations agenda.
In the summary of their views, they proposed a common Pan-African movement to champion the project to elicit the ultimate goal of compelling the West to compensate Africa and its people for the injustices they suffered from the slave trade and other dehumanising activities.
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