Ghana, US mark historic joint Juneteenth commemoration at Christiansborg Castle

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President John Dramani Mahama joined heads of state, traditional leaders, members of the African diaspora and international delegates at Christiansborg Castle in Osu on Friday for what organisers described as the first Juneteenth commemoration held outside the United States.

The event served as the emotional centrepiece of the three-day Next Steps High-Level Consultative Conference on Reparatory Justice, which brought together leaders from Africa, the Caribbean and beyond to translate the landmark United Nations resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade a crime against humanity into concrete action.

A ceremonial return to sacred ground

The commemoration featured libation rites, wreath-laying ceremonies and a traditional durbar, with keynote addresses delivered by leading Pan-African voices, including Dr Julius Garvey, son of Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey, and Reverend Al Sharpton.

A powerful re-enactment depicting enslaved Africans on the brink of being forced across the Atlantic became the ceremony’s climactic moment, moving many descendants to tears.

“Seeing babies and young children — held in the arms of chained mothers — it was too realistic for me,” Gaynel Diana Curry, Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, told AFP. “And hearing the cries and groans coming from the dungeons… it really shook me”.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, standing among the castle’s slave dungeons, said “nothing had prepared her” for what she witnessed, describing it as “the raw reality of oppression”.

“Recognition creates responsibility”

President Mahama, speaking at the castle where enslaved Africans were once held before being shipped across the Atlantic, paid tribute to the millions who endured enslavement, displacement and the loss of identity — while honouring the resilience, courage and enduring spirit of their descendants.

He told the gathering that the Juneteenth commemoration celebrated slave descendants in the United States “for their resilience, for their survival, for their strength”.

The President emphasised that the pursuit of justice extends beyond reparations and the return of cultural artefacts, calling for a more equitable and inclusive global order that provides opportunity, dignity and fairness for all people.

Conference delivers sweeping outcomes

The conference, held under Mahama’s auspices in his capacity as African Union Champion for Reparations, culminated in a ten-page outcome document containing “far-reaching” decisions, according to Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

President Mahama announced the establishment of three high-level international panels designed to anchor the next phase of the reparatory justice effort:

· A Global Advisory Panel on Reparatory Justice, comprising current and former heads of state and government, to provide strategic direction and promote international dialogue
· An Expert Panel on the Restitution of Cultural Artefacts, to support the return of cultural properties, archives and sacred objects to their communities of origin
· A Global Legal Panel on Reparatory Justice, bringing together distinguished jurists to explore legal pathways grounded in international law and human dignity

Prime Minister Mottley unveiled an expanded reparations framework that builds upon the Caribbean Community’s Ten-Point Plan, extending its scope to include the impact of slavery on women and girls, Indigenous communities and countries facing climate-related vulnerabilities.

“Ghana is your home”

Reaffirming Ghana’s commitment to strengthening ties with the African diaspora, President Mahama highlighted the country’s policies that welcome people of African descent to reconnect with their ancestral homeland. Ghana recently launched an e-visa portal and abolished visa fees for all African passport holders.

“We envisage a future, which is not too far, of a time where all people of African descent can travel to Ghana without paying any visa fee as they reconnect with their ancestry,” the President had said during the portal’s launch last month.

At Christiansborg Castle, he delivered a direct message to the diaspora: “Ghana is your home. You are always welcome in the motherland.”

A defining moment

The conference brought together an esteemed gathering of leaders, including Namibia’s President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, Liberia’s President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, and France’s President Emmanuel Macron. Also in attendance were former President John Agyekum Kufuor, Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, and CARICOM Reparations Commission Chair Professor Sir Hilary Beckles.

“This is a defining moment in the centuries-long struggle for reparatory justice,” Professor Beckles told the gathering.

Foreign Minister Ablakwa declared: “We will achieve reparatory justice in our lifetime”.

President Mahama, reflecting on the transformation of a site of profound pain into one of remembrance and renewal, observed that Ghana was “transitioning from crime scene to sanctuary for healing and reparatory justice”.