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During the celebration of the International Day of People of African Descent, the United Nations Committee against Racial Discrimination (CERD) called on states to implement comprehensive restorative justice, which combines compensation, restitution, rehabilitation and structural reforms to countries affected by slave trade. The committee also acknowledged that slavery is not just a thing of the past. Its effects continue to be felt in systemic inequality and racism.
There is no doubt that the transatlantic slave trade is regarded as the gravest crime against humanity. It can be blamed for the underdevelopment of Africa. For instance, the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database revealed that Portugal and Britain were the leading perpetrators, transporting 5.8 million and 3.1 million enslaved people, respectively. French, Spanish, and Dutch merchants similarly fuelled their empires with African captives. The United Kingdom and United States were not left out. To understand the necessity of reparations, the world must confront the human loss occasioned by slave trade.
For centuries, the transatlantic slave trade and subsequent colonialism systematically extracted wealth, resources, and human beings from Africa, leaving behind economic exploitations and psychological scars that persist till today.
To build a truly equitable global future, the modern international community must move beyond performative apologies and embrace tangible, structural accountability. For generations, mainstream historical narratives have treated the transatlantic slave trade as a dark, isolated chapter of the past – a closed book. However, the economic reality is that the modern global financial system was actively financed by this human tragedy. Major Western economies flourished because they possessed an unpaid workforce that produced highly lucrative commodities like sugar, tobacco, and cotton. The capital accumulated from this exploitation laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution. It also funded prestigious European and American institutions and built the infrastructure that today’s wealthy nations still enjoy.
Conversely, the African continent was drained of its human capital. Millions of young, able-bodied individuals were stolen from their communities, disrupting local governance, agriculture, and societal development for centuries. When formal slavery ended, it was quickly replaced by brutal colonial systems that continued the extraction of Africa’s natural wealth to enrich foreign metropoles. The contemporary economic disparity between the Global North and the Global South is not an accident of geography or culture. It is the direct, structural legacy of this multi-century extraction.
Critics of reparations frequently argue that modern generations should not bear the financial or moral burden of sins committed by their ancestors. They claim that because slavery ended over a century ago, the legal and financial trail has grown too cold to follow. However, this argument misunderstands the nature of generational wealth and systemic disadvantage. The wealth generated by enslaved labour did not vanish; it was passed down, reinvested, and used to secure institutional power.
Similarly, the poverty, disenfranchisement, and structural racism borne out of slavery did not disappear with its abolition. They morphed into discriminatory housing policies, unequal trade agreements, biased legal systems, and a global economic hierarchy that consistently undervalues African nations and their diaspora. The late Nigerian business mogul and politician, MKO Abiola, championed the reparation cause. But his efforts yielded little or no results. Now that the UN committee has made a fresh case for reparation and restorative justice, we hope that those concerned should take heed.
True reconciliation requires more than emotional rhetoric or solemn monuments. While formal apologies from the Catholic church, European monarchies and Western governments are a necessary first step, they cost nothing and change little for the millions still living under the shadow of historical inequality. True justice demands structural accountability. Reparations should not be viewed as a punitive measure or a simple cash handout designed to induce guilt.
Instead, they must be understood as an act of global correction – a strategic reinvestment into the communities and nations that were historically divested of their own wealth. Implementing reparations on a global scale is undeniably complex, but it is entirely feasible. A modern framework for reparations could take several forms. It could involve the outright cancellation of suffocating bilateral and multilateral debts that trap developing African nations in cycles of dependency. It could look like the unconditional return of stolen cultural artefacts and treasures currently housed in Western museums, which serve as physical reminders of colonial plunder. Furthermore, reparations could manifest as massive, sustained investments in Africa’s educational institutions, healthcare systems, green energy transitions, and technological infrastructure.
The UN committee vocal stance on this issue provides a critical platform for this conversation to move into international policy frameworks. It challenges the world to confront a basic moral truth – you cannot rob a house, profit from the stolen goods for centuries, and then expect the victims to compete fairly in the open market without any form of restitution. The path to a peaceful and cooperative global future cannot be paved over unacknowledged atrocities.
As far as some nations made their wealth through the uncompensated suffering of others, true global solidarity will remain an illusion without reparation. The international community stands at a historical crossroads. It can continue to ignore the structural rot at its foundation, or it can heed the UN committee’s call and embrace the moral necessity of reparations. There is urgent need for a just and equitable world.
