Ghana urges recognition of enslaved women's suffering at slavery conference

Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama called for the suffering of enslaved women to be recognized during a high-level conference in Accra discussing the aftermath of the UN's resolution on transatlantic slavery. Mahama asserted that any efforts toward truth, commemoration, restorative justice, or historical accountability would be incomplete without acknowledging the specific experiences of women.

"Any framework for the pursuit of truth, commemoration, restorative justice, or historical accountability that does not recognize the specific experience of women will remain incomplete," Mahama stated, as reported by local media. He elaborated that enslaved women and girls endured exploitation beyond forced labor, and their reproductive capacity was used to perpetuate slavery across generations. Therefore, he argued, any process failing to address these specific experiences cannot achieve true justice.

Mahama outlined that the next steps in the UN-recognized reparation process should involve practical measures such as research, education, commemoration, restitution, and strengthening alliances between Africa, the African diaspora, and the international community. "History does not ask us to inherit guilt, but to inherit responsibility," he added.

The resolution, proposed by Ghana, received 123 votes in favor at the UN General Assembly, with the United States, Israel, and Argentina voting against it. Fifty-two nations abstained, including Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The resolution identifies the "trafficking of enslaved Africans and the racialized slavery of Africans" as the ultimate crime due to its profound, lasting, and systemic impact on global history and its ongoing consequences through racialized systems of labor, property, and capital.