Africans Don't Need Reparations; We Need Good Leadership - Offei-Ansah

Slavery reparations for Africa long overdue - Akufo-Addo

A publisher at the Africa Briefing, Jonathan Offei-Ansah, has urged Ghana and other African countries to forget about getting reparation from their former colonial masters.

According to him, what the continent needs are good leaders who will nurture the human and natural resources of the country to create opportunities for all of its citizens and not the current leaders who only come to power to enrich themselves.

“The issue of reparation began long ago; even in America, they are talking about reparation to African Americans. But one has to be realistic. This is arguable, but I believe that it is a mirage to talk about reparations. I believe it is never going to happen.

“What we need today as Africans is good leadership, good governance, leadership that will serve the people, that will have the welfare of the whole nation at heart. Not leadership that comes in to serve themselves,” he said in a TV3 interview on Monday.

He added that even if Africa gets reparations, it will be when it is united, and its demands come from a position of strength and not in its current state.

The publisher also said that African leaders must be wary of the presence of the Chinese on the continent. According to him, the Chinese are only in Africa to rob the continent of its natural resources.

Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at the opening of a four-day summit with members of the diaspora in August 2022, made a case for why Africa deserved reparation for the slave trade.

He said the effect of the slave trade was being felt today as a result of the drain it had on the population and development of the continent. He insisted that calls for reparation for the slave trade were long overdue.

“Reparations for Africa and the African Diaspora are long overdue. Predictably, the question of reparation becomes a debate only when it comes to Africa and Africans. We believe the calls for reparations for Africa are just,” President Akufo-Addo said.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II has reopened the reparation debate in many African countries. Some have said the Britain monarchy must return all the historic artefacts they took from African countries and also repay the African Continent for the resources, both human and material, it used to develop the United Kingdom during the eras of slavery and colonialism.

•ghanaweb.com