By Jessica Ann Mitchell Aiwuyor, Executive Director, National Black Cultural Information Trust, Inc. – March 27, 2026
The National Black Cultural Information Trust, Inc. applauds the leadership of Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama and his tabling of the resolution for the United Nations’ official recognition of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade as the “gravest crime against humanity.” It is critical that the world recognizes the depths of harm endured by Africans and African descendants around the world during and following the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Global Africa (the African continent and Diaspora) has never recovered from the enslavement, genocide, and erasure of our elders and ancestors.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the United States of America voted “no” on the resolution to officially recognize the Transatlantic Slave Trade as the “gravest crime against humanity.” However, the United States’ “no” vote is not representative of the wants and needs of people of African descent in America. African Americans have consistently supported and advanced the case for reparations for communities harmed by chattel slavery, Jim Crow (the U.S. apartheid system), and modern-day systemic racism that continues to subjugate and disempower our communities.
Likewise, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) issued a statement praising the UN General Assembly for adopting a resolution supporting reparations. Pressley rightly noted that, “The fight for reparative justice demands both moral clarity and transformational change—and this UN resolution marks an essential step in recognizing the inhumane enslavement of our African ancestors and addressing the systemic oppression of Black people. This resolution signifies international solidarity and a united conviction to build a more just world, accounting for and confronting the impact of slavery that has burdened generations of Black folks. Our movement for reparations—like my legislation, H.R. 40—is a pathway toward truth, reconciliation, and accountability for the deep, structural injustices that continue to ravage Black communities.”
Africans and African descendants worldwide have been working in their respective nations, locally and nationally, to ensure reparative justice for their communities. Additionally, we have been working in tandem with international partners (our relatives from across the globe) to learn from each other and support policies and initiatives that are reparative for our various communities.
In 2025, the Global Circle for Reparations and Healing, with support from the Ghanaian government and the African Union, hosted a convening of reparations activists titled the “Centering Healing for Africans and the Global African Diaspora in the Context of the African Union Theme of the Year for 2025 on Reparations.” The National Black Cultural Information Trust was among the attendees, gaining insights and providing additional perspectives on the movement’s reparative goals and needs. Much of the convening was led by Dr. Ron Daniels, founder of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century and Convener of the National African American Reparations Commission, Dr. Joy DeGruy author of The Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome and Dr. Cheryl Grills, former California Reparations Task Force Member and President’s Professor and Full Professor in the Department of Psychological Science, Loyola Marymount University.
In the, Declaration as a Final Outcome Document of the Accra Summit II on Centering Healing for Africa and the Global African Diaspora in the Context of the African Union Theme of the Year for 2025, it was noted that “the need for Global Africa to define the terms of Rehabilitation and suggest as a starting point that Rehabilitation for the African world must be framed as healing. A working definition of healing may be “the process of crafting, implementing, combining and coordinating varied holistic African-centered treatments and measures designed to eliminate the debilitating legacy of centuries of crimes against African humanity.”
Consequently, the UN’s resolution on the Transatlantic Slave Trade is a pivotal moment on the road to repair. This historic realization and acknowledgement is meant to frame continued advocacy around repair and reparations as mechanisms for collective healing from the harms and vestiges of slavery and to usher in the creation of a new world structure in which African lives and humanity are no longer preyed upon as the world’s labor and extraction source, but are instead cultivated, centered, rehabilitated, and uplifted for current and future generations. These are not metaphorical goals; they are aligned with material repair, investment, and an overall improvement in the standard of living for African people on the continent and African descendants globally. We look forward to utilizing the collective energy and resources surrounding this resolution to continue building national and international support for reparations.