UN General Assembly Passes Racially Divisive Slavery Reparations Resolution

Sadly, slavery “endured for thousands of years” 

Ghana led the push for the resolution. “Today, we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice,” said Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, who spoke ahead of the vote on behalf of the 54-member African Group.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres added his voice in calling for actions to “ensure reparatory justice.”

The United States representative who spoke at the General Assembly session said prior to the vote that the U.S. disputes the legality of such reparations. The United States was one of only three UN member states that voted against the resolution. Applause erupted in the UN General Assembly Hall following the vote.

This General Assembly resolution is only the latest in a long series of pronouncements by UN entities and officials calling for “reparatory justice.” It is yet another progressive scheme to rationalize massive wealth distribution from well-off countries to poorer countries.

The resolution focuses entirely on the trans-Atlantic slave trade and enslavement of Africans, declaring that “the large-scale trafficking of enslaved Africans marked a profound rupture in human history.” The resolution presents a very narrow view of human history.

Sadly, slavery “endured for thousands of years,” as the distinguished economist and author Thomas Sowell noted. And it “was gotten rid of by the West– not only in Western societies but in other societies conquered, controlled, or pressured by the West. The resistance put up by Africans, Asians, and Arabs was monumental in defense of slavery, and lasted for more than a century.”

Moreover, Africans were not only the victims of slavery. Some Africans were slave owners and traders themselves. As Akosua Perbi, a lecturer at the University of Ghana and the author of “A History of Indigenous Slavery in Ghana from the 15th to the 19th Century,” wrote, “It was the Africans themselves who were enslaving their fellow Africans, sending them to the coast to be shipped outside.”

Yet, African countries have their hands out for much more money on a flimsy pretext

Indeed, Ghana, which led the charge for the March 25^th UN General Assembly resolution, should look at its own sordid history before celebrating the resolution’s passage. “When the first Europeans i.e. the Portuguese set foot on the shores of Ghana in 1471, they found in existence a brisk trade in slaves and other goods between Ghana and its coastal neighbors,” Akosua Perbi wrote. “The social and political structure of pre-colonial states in the region of present-day Ghana enabled individuals, members of royalty and state officials to purchase slaves for internal needs and for external demand.”

It’s not as if the West has turned its back on African countries. From 2000 to 2023, Africa received a cumulative amount of U.S.$1.3 trillion in aid, according to an article published by ISS African Futures. The United States has been a very generous donor of aid to Africa over the years. The European Union has been right up there too in providing foreign aid to Africa.

However, strict accountability measures for all that money have been lacking. Hundreds of billions of dollars are wasted annually because of corruption and illicit financial flows, according to Acting Director of Economic Development, Integration and Trade, and Head of Economic Policy and Sustainable Development at the African Union, Dr. Patrick Ndzana Olomo.

Yet, African countries have their hands out for much more money on a flimsy pretext.

There is no legitimate case for paying reparations to African countries based on some notion of collective white guilt for enslavement of Africans by prior generations centuries ago, especially when Africans were slave owners and traders themselves. “Reparatory justice” is a racially divisive and unjust attempt to rob more money from successful countries for a grand wealth redistribution scheme concocted by the progressive Left and promoted by the woke United Nations.