President John Dramani Mahama has placed Ghana and the African continent at the center of a global conversation on reparative justice and diaspora engagement, delivering a landmark address at the Diaspora Summit 2025 in Accra.
Speaking not only as Ghana’s president but as a historian and student of Africa’s collective past, Mahama traced centuries of shared history and called for a conscious reclamation of culture, history, and economic justice across the continent and its global diaspora.
“Let me ask you a question, not as President, but as a student of history. Have you ever wondered why the story of Ghana never included the story of the diaspora?” President Mahama asked, challenging conventional narratives that mark Ghana’s history with the 1821 formation of the British Gold Coast Colony.
According to President Mahama, such an approach is incomplete. Ghana’s story predates colonialism, and the transatlantic slave trade must be acknowledged as an integral part of the nation’s narrative.
Between the 16th and 19th centuries, nearly 13 million Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic, with over two million perishing due to disease, starvation, and shipwrecks. “Some chose to end it all by jumping overboard. The Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic became graveyards of our ancestors,”President Mahama said, emphasizing Ghana’s role as a key transit point in this tragic history.
According to him, Ghana contains over seventy slave forts and castles, many intact, while others lie in ruins, adding that captives from across West Africa were marched to these coastal forts, confined in dungeons, and shipped overseas, making their fates as much part of Ghana’s history as those who remained on its soil under colonial subjugation.
President Mahama highlighted the early incursions of the Portuguese, who initially sought gold, copper, ivory, and spices before moving to human extraction. The Volta River, whose name means “to return,” reflected the limits of Portuguese exploration.
President Mahama noted the cruel irony: “Even as our people were being enslaved, their captors memorialized their own safe return by lending a river its name.” The President stressed that understanding history requires identifying whose voices were suppressed.
“By finding and owning the stories of our past, the ones that have been suppressed, we are able to truly know ourselves. And with that knowledge comes the power to write ourselves truthfully into the future of humanity.”
President John Dramani Mahama
Historical Reclamation
This historical reclamation was central to the summit, framing it as a key moment for restorative action and collective empowerment. Welcoming distinguished guests, including HE Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, President and Chairman of the Council of the Republic of Togo, traditional leaders, government officials, and African diaspora representatives, President Mahama emphasized unity.
“Welcome home. This is your home,” he said, referencing the artificial colonial borders that have historically divided African communities. He urged attendees to transcend these divisions, insisting that unity between Africans and their diaspora is essential for collective progress.
President Mahama also highlighted enduring cultural ties between Africa and its diaspora. From music and dance to language and cuisine, African identity persists globally, disclosing that the Gula Gitche people of the United States still count using Fulani words, while the Yoruba language continues in Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Dishes such as American gumbo and Brazilian caruru bear a striking resemblance to Ghanaian okra stew, reflecting Africa’s enduring cultural influence. President Mahama stressed that cultural transmission and education are critical in preserving these connections, citing Kweku Ananse folktales and traditional call-and-response songs as examples.
Invoking the legacy of Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, President Mahama emphasized Pan-African unity. “I am not African because I was born in Africa, but because Africa was born in me,” he quoted Nkrumah, underscoring the need to link Ghana’s independence to the liberation of the entire continent.
He recalled Nkrumah’s experiences in the United States, where he faced Jim Crow laws, and noted the influence of Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Alliance on his vision for African unity. The Black Star on Ghana’s flag remains a symbol of that enduring aspiration.
Reparative Justice
Addressing reparative justice, President Mahama stressed that Africa continues to grapple with the legacies of slavery, colonialism, genocide, and apartheid. He reiterated his calls for legal, institutional, and international mechanisms to implement reparations, including debt cancellation, monetary compensation, the return of stolen artifacts, and transformative economic reforms.
President Mahama emphasized that reparations must address both material loss and intergenerational trauma. “Traumas from yesteryears, coupled with traumas of today, impact the health and well-being of our children. We must heal,” he said, citing studies in epigenetics that demonstrate how trauma can be transmitted across generations.
The President challenged Africans and their diaspora to reclaim the narrative and harness the power of unity. Quoting Ghanaian-British writer Michela Cole, he said, “We can put fear of the future in front of us to block us, or put it behind us to drive us forward.”
President Mahama reinforced that the future is African and that Africans, united with their diaspora, have the power to transform the circumstances shaped by historical injustice.
Concluding his address, President Mahama officially opened the summit, emphasizing collective responsibility, cultural reclamation, and the pursuit of justice. “The future is upon us, and the future is African. With a united Africa and diaspora, there is nothing we cannot achieve,” he said, urging intentional unity and proactive engagement in shaping Africa’s destiny.
The Diaspora Summit 2025 thus began under the banner of historical reflection, cultural reclamation, and shared vision for reparative justice, with President Mahama calling on Africans on the continent and across the world to take ownership of their story and its future.
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