The Ghanaian National Reconciliation Commission: Reparation in a Global Age

Abstract

The year 2007 marked the 50th anniversary of Ghanaian independence as well as the 200th anniversary of Britain's abolition of slavery. In this year, the rhetoric of human suffering and compensation settled heavily upon the shores of the West African nation that was both the front-runner of African independence and a major point in the transatlantic slave trade. By June 2007, Ghana's government had paid reparations to the victims of 40 years of national suffering. In the same year, President, J.A. Kufuor, publicly resisted the argument that the British government should pay reparations for the transatlantic slave trade with the argument that some Africans also benefited from the trade. Earlier that same year, Ghana's Ministry of Tourism and Diasporean Relations publicly apologized for Ghana's role in the transatlantic slave trade in an effort to increase pilgrimage tourism to Ghana among Africans in the diaspora. In one year, Ghana was thrice the site of the logic of reparations, in different forms and to diverse ends. This paper explores Ghana's recent experience with reparations in order to understand the possibilities and limitations that accompany the globalization of human rights discourse in sub-Saharan Africa.