Reparations Must Help Address Africa’s Colonial Legacy, Says Ramaphosa

7 May 2026

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for meaningful reparatory justice for Africa, arguing that the lingering effects of colonialism and slavery continue to shape inequality, poverty and underdevelopment across the continent. In his latest letter to the nation marking Africa Month, Ramaphosa reflected on the enduring impact of colonial exploitation and the transcontinental slave trade, while urging former colonial powers to support Africa’s development through tangible measures of redress. “Even as we celebrate our continent’s vibrancy and dynamism, we are mindful of the legacy of Africa’s colonial past and how it continues to shape our continent’s fortunes,” he said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call for reparations for Africa comes at a moment when the world is finally beginning to acknowledge a truth that many Western powers have spent generations avoiding. The transatlantic slave trade and the colonial exploitation of Africa were not unfortunate chapters of history. They were organised systems of theft, violence and racial domination that helped build the modern global economy while devastating African societies in the process.

In March 2026, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution declaring the trafficking and enslavement of Africans “the gravest crime against humanity.” The resolution recognised the enduring consequences of slavery and called for reparatory justice, restitution and the return of looted cultural artefacts. It was supported by 123 countries. The United States, Israel and Argentina voted against it, while many European powers abstained. 

The resolution was significant not only because of its wording, but because it acknowledged something Africans have known for centuries: the wounds of slavery and colonialism did not end when chains were removed or flags lowered. Their consequences still shape the world today.

For centuries, millions of Africans were hunted, captured and sold as commodities. Families were torn apart. Entire regions were destabilised. Human beings were stripped of their names, languages, cultures and dignity to fuel plantations, industries and empires abroad. The profits generated from slavery financed banks, ports, railways, universities and corporations whose wealth still exists today.

Yet when slavery was abolished, justice never came.

In Britain and elsewhere, slave owners were compensated for the loss of what governments considered their “property.” The enslaved received nothing. No land. No compensation. No economic support. No restitution for generations of unpaid labour and suffering. The descendants of slave owners inherited wealth and opportunity, while the descendants of the enslaved inherited poverty, exclusion and systemic disadvantage.

The theft extended beyond human labour. Colonial powers carved up Africa for profit. Minerals, gold, diamonds and agricultural wealth were extracted on a massive scale while African economies were deliberately structured to remain dependent on Europe. Colonial administrations destroyed local industries, imposed artificial borders and used violence to suppress resistance.

Even Africa’s dead were not spared. Human remains and skulls were taken to European institutions in the name of racial science. Sacred cultural artefacts were looted and displayed in museums thousands of kilometres away from the communities they belonged to. Many remain there today.

What makes this history even more painful is the refusal by many former colonial powers to fully confront it. There have been carefully worded statements of regret, selective acknowledgements and symbolic gestures, but very few full and unequivocal apologies. The countries that benefited most from slavery and colonialism often resist the idea of reparations because acknowledging the scale of the crime would also mean acknowledging how much of their present wealth was built on African suffering.

The recent United Nations resolution directly challenged that silence. It recognised that the consequences of slavery continue through “racialized regimes of labour, property and capital” that still shape societies today. 

That reality is impossible to ignore.

The wealth gap between former colonial powers and many African nations did not emerge naturally. It was engineered over centuries. Africa’s underdevelopment was not accidental. It was manufactured through extraction, exploitation and deliberate economic suppression.

Generational wealth was stolen on a staggering scale. Millions of Africans who could have built businesses, owned land, accumulated assets and created prosperous communities instead died in chains or were trapped in systems designed to keep them impoverished. The economic and social consequences of that destruction continue to echo across generations.

Today, many African countries still battle debt crises, unemployment, underdeveloped infrastructure and unequal trade systems rooted in the colonial era. At the same time, many of the institutions enriched by slavery and empire continue to thrive.

Reparations are therefore not about guilt for modern generations. They are about accountability for systems whose effects remain alive in the present. They are about recognising that prosperity in parts of the West came at a catastrophic cost to Africa and its people.

The debate is no longer whether slavery and colonialism were crimes. The United Nations has now formally recognised the transatlantic slave trade as one of history’s gravest crimes against humanity. The real question is whether the world is prepared to move beyond symbolic acknowledgement toward meaningful justice.

Justice cannot come through words alone. It requires tangible measures: investment in African development, fairer trade, debt relief, technology transfer, educational partnerships and the return of stolen cultural heritage. It requires former colonial powers to stop treating reparations as an unreasonable demand and instead recognise them as part of a long overdue moral reckoning.

Africa is not asking for charity. It is demanding recognition for centuries of exploitation whose consequences continue to shape the lives of millions today.

TDS