How Slavery Reparations Could Help Make Yearning to Return to Africa a Reality
Natricia Duncan, The Guardian, August 18, 2024
Supporting the right for people of African descent to return to the continent has become a key pillar of the growing global push for reparatory justice from Britain and other colonisers.
When Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, visited Jamaica this month he addressed the issue of repatriation for Jamaicans and others whose ancestors were kidnapped from Africa and sold into transatlantic chattel slavery.
His visit coincided with a month-long series of emancipation celebrations and came as Jamaican officials prepare to travel to the UK to formally lodge an unprecedented petition with King Charles to seek legal guidance on their slavery reparations claim from Britain.
Speaking in Jamaica’s parliament, Mahama described repatriation as “a right of all persons of African descent”.
He said this was why Ghana had in 2000 passed the Right of Abode Act, which allows eligible people of African descent to apply for the right to live and work in Ghana without a visa.
His country was also “considering a new homeland return bill that will codify residence and citizenship pathways for all members of the global African family”.
This was welcomed by the Caribbean reparations movement. Repatriation and resettlement is one of 10 points outlined in the Caribbean Community Reparations Commission’s vision for reparatory justice.
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The idea of people returning to Africa, Golding said, was becoming a policy conversation, with Ghana and several other countries offering forms of citizenship or right-of-return programmes for people of African descent.
