Reparations for Africa?

We heard that Ghana is set to file a resolution at the United Nations on March 25, 2026, to have the transatlantic slave trade declared as one of the greatest crimes against humanity. President John Mahama has led the African Union's call for reparations, demanding that former colonial powers provide compensation for the injustices of slavery and colonialism. So, will the African slave raiders who captured and sold their fellow humans also be held to account? Or are we to ignore this part of the story?

Approximately 90% of Africans captured for the transatlantic slave trade were enslaved by fellow Africans—including rival states, kings, and traders—and sold to European buyers. Major powers driving this internal trade included the Kingdom of Dahomey, the Ashanti Empire, and the Oyo Empire, who often raided smaller societies for captives. Those actions were frequently fuelled by the European demand for labour, which encouraged kingdoms to secure goods like guns, textiles, and alcohol by providing captives. Coastal groups like the Efik and Ijaw in the Bight of Bonny, as well as individuals like Nwaubani Ogogo Oriaku, acted as middlemen, purchasing captives from the interior and selling them to Europeans at ports. Many Africans became rich from this trade.

My own ancestors in the Niger Delta engaged in selling captives from the hinterland to the Europeans, acting as middlemen. Why do we not include this part of the story in our conversations about this subject? Should Africans not also be taking responsibility for their complicity and for their own role in this trade? Why is "victim" the role we always want to enthusiastically embrace?

Manillas were a form of commodity money widely used as the principal currency by European traders to purchase enslaved Africans and other goods in West Africa from the 15th century onward. They were a crucial element of the transatlantic slave trade's economic system.

Manillas served as a traditional currency and metal bracelet in West Africa from the 15th to the 20th century and were primarily cast from copper, brass, and bronze. These open-ring, horseshoe-shaped items were often produced in Europe, notably in Birmingham, England, and traded for commodities and enslaved people.

Scientific analysis confirms that many of the famous Benin Bronzes were crafted by melting down millions of brass manillas. The artefacts are, arguably, the proceeds of the trade in human beings. There is a culpability for this heinous crime against humanity that we Africans have failed to acknowledge, choosing instead always to play the victim. The real victims of this crime were those who were enslaved, not those who captured them, enslaved them, and sold them.

Yes it is true that the Europeans themselves captured slaves. In the 15th century, Portuguese explorers often kidnapped West Africans directly from the coast to take back to Europe. European sailors and traders occasionally engaged in kidnapping individuals or conducted small raids along the coastline, as documented by formerly enslaved people like Olaudah Equiano, but high mortality rates from tropical diseases in the interior limited the ability of Europeans to travel inland to capture people themselves. Most enslaved people were captured by other Africans, particularly during wars, and sold at coastal forts operated by European nations like Britain, France, and Portugal.

While direct European raids happened, they were a smaller part of the overall, systematic, and brutal trade that saw 12–15 million Africans transported to the Americas. We Africans must face up to what actually happened and stop portraying ourselves wholly as victims. As a matter of fact, it is we Africans who now owe an apology to the descendants of those whom our ancestors so grievously harmed. This, I'm afraid, is the opposite of saying that 'reparations' are due to Africa, in particular, for the transatlantic slave trade, when many Africans were themselves enriched by it.

Reparations for colonialism is a different matter altogether, and with this I am in full agreement with its proponents; for the crimes against humanity committed during colonialism.

The manilla shown below with a horseshoe shape and flattened broad terminals, was known as the ‘Mkporo’ or ‘Okpoko’ manilla.

The word ‘okpoko’ is synonymous with ‘money’ or ‘brass’ in several West African languages like Efik and Ibibio. Manillas of copper and brass were the first true general-purpose currency known in West Africa, used for ordinary market purchases, bride price, payment of fines, compensation of diviners, and for the needs of the next world, as burial money.

Although used primarily for exchange in local agricultural and luxury products, the manillas also become a principle currency in the West African slave trade. The Portuguese, Dutch, French and British slave traders carried them to interior West Africa to procure slaves.

Accounts in the 15th-century state that a male slave could be bought for 12 to 15 manillas. But as demand for slaves grew, with growth of colonisation and plantations in the Americas and West Indies, inflation set in and the price of slaves went up to about 50 manillas in the 16th century.

A horseshoe-shaped brass ‘Manilla’ – pre-colonial money in West Africa