President John Dramani Mahama has welcomed UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s acknowledgement of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, but is demanding a formal apology and a structured international dialogue on reparatory justice.
In a statement released on Sunday, November 1, 2026, by the Presidency, President Mahama, in his capacity as the African Union Champion on Reparations and Chair of the Global Advisory Panel on Reparatory Justice, described the UK Prime Minister's statement as a bold and honest reckoning with the UK's legacy of slavery and colonialism.
The statement follows the UK's openness to a formal apology and came after the landmark adoption of a Ghana-led UN Resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade and racialised chattel enslavement as the gravest crime against humanity.
"We consider this a watershed moment and a refreshing contribution to the growing international consensus on reparatory justice," the statement said.
President Mahama noted that Ghana speaks from a place of deep memory, being home to the highest number of slave castles and forts in the world, including Cape Coast, Elmina, and Christiansborg, where millions were stripped of their humanity and shipped across the Atlantic. While acknowledging that a formal apology cannot undo the profound injustices of the past, he stressed that it signals a crucial departure from past denial and opens the path toward genuine healing.
The President endorsed a structured, good-faith dialogue involving the African Union, CARICOM, the African diaspora, and the countries that were part of the system of chattel enslavement.
He outlined a five-point framework for the dialogue, encompassing a formal apology, a coordinated international commitment to dismantle systemic racism and Afrophobia, targeted investments in education, science, youth empowerment, climate resilience and healthcare, the restitution of stolen cultural heritage, and strategic development partnerships to address structural poverty and inequitable global economic architectures.
"We recognise, as our partners do, that our perspectives on reparatory justice may not be identical. There are clearly areas of strong disagreement, but such differences must not deter us from the shared objective," the statement added.
The government commended Prime Minister Burnham and Foreign Secretary Ed Milliband for their moral leadership, stating that confronting historical truth is an act of statesmanship.
"We have waited too long for this day; let our generation of leaders be remembered for our courage to confront the past honestly and seek the healing and repair that will put this dark chapter of human history behind us and guarantee non-repetition," the statement read.
