International relations expert and lecturer Dr Julius Kattah has characterised as “ridiculous” any attempts to shift the primary blame for the transatlantic slave trade onto Africans.
While acknowledging that some Africans may have played a role in these activities, Dr Kattah emphasised that the key architects were the foreign powers who invaded the sub-region, enslaved citizens, and plundered Africa’s cultural heritage and natural resources.
This discussion follows a significant diplomatic milestone at the United Nations General Assembly.
Last week, the Assembly adopted a landmark resolution tabled by President John Dramani Mahama, with 123 member states voting in favour of reparations for the transatlantic slave trade.
The motion called for renewed international commitment to reparative justice for African nations and the descendants of enslaved people.
Structured dialogue among UN member states to address the lasting social, economic, and cultural impacts of slavery and concrete actions to rectify the historical injustices documented in global history.
Despite this diplomatic success, some critics argued that President Mahama should have explicitly acknowledged the role Africans played in the trade.
Dr Kattah, however, maintains that the focus must remain on the colonial masters.
He argued that while our forefathers participated, it was the colonial powers who leveraged their advanced knowledge and specific agendas to drive the trade.
Speaking on the programme As It Is in Ghana via Rainbow Radio 87.5FM (Ghana) and 92.4FM (UK), Dr Kattah stated that colonial masters exploited the perceived lack of technical “know-how” among the local population to mask the long-term implications of their actions.
He asserted that because the colonial powers fully understood the consequences of their actions, their conduct constituted a historical “contempt”.
The lecturer further argued that African forefathers lacked the formal education required to foresee the devastating, continent-wide implications of the slave trade. For this reason, he believes the colonial masters must bear the entirety of the blame.
“The colonial masters had the capacity to lord over our people and take our people away… And they also took our valuables away, our cultural valuables away in addition to the human beings. Sadly, on the way, some died on the way. In my opinion, I will accept that our forefathers knew what would happen thereafter, and I disagree with those saying that we supported what the Europeans had done to us. I agree with the aspect where we had no capacity and technical know-how to identify the damages that this would have done to us.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana