African leaders agreed on a framework to demand reparations for the transatlantic slave trade, as well as debt relief.
The agreement at a summit hosted in Ghana by President John Dramani Mahama and attended by the presidents of Liberia, Namibia, and Senegal comes on the heels of a UN declaration that the slave trade was a crime against humanity.
About 12 million Africans were forcefully taken to the Americas and enslaved for labor. Calls for reparations have increased in recent years, reaching a crescendo with the UN designation in March — though the US, UK and a host of other countries either rejected the claim or abstained from voting on it. A document issued at the Ghana event outlined a 19-point plan that includes debt relief, return of looted artefacts, and the establishment of a global reparations fund, the BBC reported.