Global Notebook 11/99
Seeking Justice for the Slave Trade
ACCRA — Calling itself the African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission, a group set up by the Organization of African Unity is demanding $777 trillion from Western Europe and the the Americas "in reparation for enslaving Africans while colonizing the continent." According to a declaration released in Ghana, the commission will use an international team of lawyers to collect the money.
Africa’s external debts would be wiped out as part of the package. The Accra Declaration argues that Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean grew rich off the slave trade, while Africa shriveled economically. Development was further hampered by colonization — another form of slavery.