Slavery reparation talks on the agenda under next Commonwealth leader – no matter who wins

Gambia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mamadou Tangara. (Sergei Ilnitsky/AFP)

African candidates for the Commonwealth secretary general post was debated on Wednesday.They all agree on the need to talk about reparations for slavery and colonisation.Reparations have the support of the Caribbean community.

The next decade of the Commonwealth could be dominated by reparations for slavery and colonisation, with the organisation headed by an African secretary general.

The grouping is due to be led by either career diplomat Joshua Setipa, 55, from Lesotho; The Gambia’s foreign affairs minister, Mamadou Tangara, 59; or Ghanaian foreign affairs and regional integration minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, 61, for at least five years and up to 10.

On Wednesday, they took part in a debate at London’s Chatham House themed The Future of the Commonwealth where they pitched their ideas and answered questions from the public.

This will likely be their most high-profile engagement ahead of an election in October at the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Apia, Samoa.

Africa last led the Commonwealth from 1990 to 2000, when Nigeria’s Emeka Anyaoku served. African countries make up a third of the 56 members of the organisation.

Reparative justice for Africa is a universal priority among the candidates.

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Botchwey was the first to support reparative justice on Wednesday, saying it could only work if there was political backing from member states.

“Whether or not the Commonwealth has a role to play will depend on the heads of government, who will give the secretary general her marching orders,” she said.

Botchwey’s Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence in 1957. The country’s coastline was one of the major hubs in the Transatlantic slave trade that saw more than 12 million slaves transported to the Americas.

From Lesotho, Setipa said the bloc had in the past dealt with other uncomfortable situations such as racism and dealing with reparations for slavery and colonisation under his watch would not be an issue.

“The Commonwealth has a long history of facilitating discussions around difficult issues. We have dealt with racism, which was even more divisive than this,” he added.

Setipa gave examples closer to home, in former apartheid South Africa and Zimbabwe which was under British rule until 1980.

Tangara from The Gambia shared the same views.

Under him he said, the Commonwealth would use its power to bring together parties for a specific purpose.

“The Commonwealth can use its convening power to facilitate the dialogue and make it happen.”

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The Gambia gained independence in 1965 as a constitutional monarchy within the British Commonwealth.

Shortly after that it became a republic with an elected president replacing the British monarch as head of state.

It also played an integral part in the Transatlantic slave trade from which the fictional  Kunta Kinte, a slave who fought back, came from. 

There is a Kunta Kinte village at the mouth of the Gambia River.

The reparations drive could have majority of support. Already, this has for some time been a topic of concern among some members of the Commonwealth, 12 of whom are part of a group known as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

CARICOM has 15 member states and five associates. 

The bloc forged ties with Africa and in 2021 there was the CARICOM-Africa Summit.The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

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