Accra, May 23, GNA – Slave Market Festival (SLAMARFEST) has been launched in Accra to advocate amends and compensation for Africans.
SLAMARFEST is a festival celebrated annually to emancipate Africans from mental bondage, African slave trade history and its effects on the African continents.
The slave trade was a dehumanising and painful period for Africans and is believed to have impacted on the African continent.
Mr Isaac Wereckoh Ampem, Founder of Slave Market Festival, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra said, the slave trade was a painful act and a dehumanising treatment that forefathers who were captured as slaves were subjected to, leading to most Africans believing in white supremacy.
He said most Africans had been brainwashed in several ways such as language, dressing, dancing, eating, and thinking, “our education and Christianity has made Africans not to excel in any developmental projects even when we try to”, he added.
He said forebears worked hard in the development of the western world, by working in their plantations and fields, therefore, Africans needed reparation and compensation for their efforts.
He called on African leaders to have a dialogue and push for compensation to allow Africans hail from ills caused by colonial masters.
He said African leaders must set up an enquiry body to ensure the westerners paid for their dehumanising acts on Africans. “The beneficiaries themselves know they gained a lot from Africans therefore when Africans make the efforts, they will pay for their debts.
“Africans were not slaves but were enslaved and the scars of the slave trade continued to live in the memory of many Africans.” “So, never again should we allow a handful of people to come to our land and seize the people and turn them into slaves,” he said.
Mr Ampem said the compensation could be done in the form of funds or developing Africa without any prejudices.
He said the compensation was long overdue, however, it was never too late to demand returns from the whites.
The Founder said Ghana was the main point of African slave trade, which made Ghana a leading country to push for the reparations and compensation.
GNA