Hardtalk

“The time has come for the international community to be honest, not to be hypocritical, not be selective, not engage in erasure, but to admit that the gravest crime against humanity took place and it took place on this continent. And that the time to repair what was broken, what undermines our collective humanity, what is a scar on our collective conscience, the time and the only way to repair that is now.”Aleem Maqbool speaks to Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, about his country leading a global campaign for reparations for the transatlantic slave trade. Earlier this year, the United Nations adopted an historic resolution that declared the transatlantic slave trade "the gravest crime against humanity", although every European nation chose to abstain in the vote. Meanwhile, the US was one of three countries to vote against.Between the 16th and 19th centuries, it’s estimated that around 12 million people were forcibly trafficked from Africa to European colonies in the Americas, although some