Slavery reparations: Why Ghana is leading the demand for compensation - BBC News

Ghana has become Africa's leading voice in telling the world that Western nations owe reparations

Image source, Ernest Ankomah / Getty ImagesImage caption, Ghana's international summit on slavery reparations held in June included a re-enactment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, performed for delegates at the former slave trading post Christiansborg Castle in Accra

This year has seen a dramatic change in tone in the global conversation about the transatlantic slave trade.

The demand for formal apologies, debt relief and financial compensation from nations and institutions that benefited from slavery has become increasingly forceful.

In March, a resolution was passed at the United Nations recognising slavery as "the greatest crime against humanity" - though the United States voted against the resolution and every European nation abstained from the vote.

The UK, which alongside Portugal dominated the transatlantic slave trade, has consistently rejected the idea of paying reparations, which is perhaps unsurprising given estimates of what Britain "owes" in damages to nations affected run into many trillions of pounds.