Africa Action: Activism for Africa Since 1953
Reparations
Today’s massive global inequalities are the direct result of centuries of global apartheid. Africa’s place as the poorest region in the world, now ground-zero of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, is the consequence of a history of oppression, exploitation, discrimination and racism that dates back to the slave trade, and continues today.
Reparations are an essential first step to acknowledging and correcting this history and its lingering consequences.
The call for reparations for Africans and African descendants is based on historical and moral arguments. Africa’s fate has been determined by patterns of subjugation and exploitation that began with the slave trade and continued through the colonial and neo-colonial eras. These patterns are now perpetuated in the international policies and policy-making processes controlled by the U.S. and other rich countries. The U.S. is historically the greatest beneficiary of global apartheid, and it is the richest country in the history of the world as a result. There is a clear and unique moral, economic and historical debt owed to Africa and its descendants for this history of exploitation and racism, and for its deadly and persistent effects.
The call for reparations is also supported in international law. It is recognized in international law that those who commit crimes against humanity – the mass enslavement of Africans being acknowledged as such – must make restitution. There are, in fact, many examples in recent history of reparations being paid at the international, national and individual level. The reparations paid by Germany for the Holocaust, and by the U.S. government to Japanese Americans, are just two examples of such a precedent.
Reparations for Africans and African descendants must begin with an acknowledgment that the slave trade and colonialism represented crimes against humanity whose consequences continue to shape the world today, and that an apology is required from those governments that legitimized and benefited from these injustices.
Beyond this, compensation is necessary. There is an obligation on the part of the world’s rich countries to support efforts to address the structural inequalities that have resulted from an international economic system built on slavery and colonialism.
As Africa now faces the worst health crisis in human history, the U.S. and other rich countries should support African efforts to defeat HIV/AIDS and poverty. This should be seen as an obligation, and not charity. This is an essential first step to reversing the severe impoverishment of African people that has resulted from historical and contemporary international racism and economic exploitation. Reparations should be seen as a positive step toward addressing the consequences of centuries of global apartheid.
