Sema Fonkem 28 March 2026

The gullibility of Africans has once more been tested, but this time around, no average African in his or her right mind is applauding the United Nations’ declaration that slavery is the gravest crime against humanity.

The resolution adopted this week by 123 countries and opposed by the United States, Argentina, and Israel will make no difference except that organisations such as the United Nations and Human Rights Watch will continue to be relevant in Africa, with full access to war-torn zones and endless data collection

The United Nations may have backed the proclamation, but it lacks the authority to compel countries such as France, the United States, Portugal, Germany, and the United Kingdom to give reparations to African states that have been harmed by slavery.

Every African who has been informed about slavery understands the destructive influence it continues to have on African society.

The low point of it all is how the western media promotes stories and videos about the declaration as if it is some good news. For several decades, African countries have sought reparations from nations like as Great Britain and the United States of America, but no success.

Except for the western media and collaborating nations such as Ghana, no one else in Africa is congratulating the United Nations for this gesture. The Ghanaian government will embrace any opportunity to continue pushing its citizenship offer to black Americans.

It is a shame that the United Nations must implore its member states implicated of this horrible crime of slavery to apologise to African countries whose citizens were abducted and packed like sardines in slave ships.

The sad reality about this issue is that the slave owners have been compensated by United Kingdom and French government for loss of property following the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833.

United Kingdom, France, the United States, and Russia are power UN Security Council Members who have benefited from Transatlantic slaver, and it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for UN to prioritise a push for these nations to provide reparations.

Coming from Cameroon, a country that was a major hub of transatlantic slavery, I can attest that the average Cameroonian confronting everyday challenges is unconcerned with reparations. The concept of compensation is a political rather than a human rights issue.

If you didn’t know better, you’d believe Antonio Guterres’ statement on slavery was copied from Louis Farrakhan, the American religious leader and head of the Nation of Islam.