19 June 2026
Your Excellency,
Honor and respect.
As members of the global African family, we write at a moment of profound historical significance. Across the world, African descendants are commemorating Juneteenth—not merely as an American milestone, but as a symbol of humanity’s unfinished struggle against enslavement, racial hierarchy, colonial domination, and their enduring legacies.
We also stand within the twenty-fifth anniversary year of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA), one of the most important international frameworks recognizing the transatlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity. Simultaneously, we are during the Second International Decade for People of African Descent, a period that calls upon governments, traditional authorities, civil society, and international institutions to deepen their commitments to justice, recognition, and repair.
It is in this spirit that we express both appreciation and concern.
First, we wish to acknowledge your leadership and Ghana’s longstanding role in advancing the global reparations movement. The cause of reparatory justice did not begin with your administration, but your government has inherited a historic responsibility to help advance it. Many within the African diaspora have welcomed Ghana’s continued engagement with questions of return, belonging, citizenship, memory, and reparative justice.
Yet it is precisely because of the importance of this work that many in civil society are confused and troubled by the invitation extended to French President Emmanuel Macron to participate in high-level discussions concerning reparations and historical justice.
We do not raise this concern lightly.
France is not a neutral observer in the history under examination. France is a principal historical actor whose policies, institutions, military interventions, colonial structures, religious missions, economic arrangements, and diplomatic choices have profoundly shaped the lives of African peoples and African descendants throughout the world. For many descendants of the enslaved, colonized, and displaced, France’s presence at a reparation’s forum raises difficult questions regarding credibility, process, and symbolism. Among the concerns frequently cited by scholars, activists, traditional authorities, and descendants are:
- The promulgation and enforcement of the Code Noir, which legally regulated and normalized racial slavery within the French empire.
- France’s participation in and profit from the transatlantic trafficking of captive Africans.
- The extraction of wealth from French Caribbean colonies through slave labor.
- The indemnity imposed upon Haiti in 1825 after its successful revolution.
- The economic isolation and punishment of Haiti for asserting Black sovereignty.
- Colonial conquest and military occupation across West and Central Africa.
- Forced labor systems maintained throughout the colonial period.
- Cultural suppression and assimilation policies directed at African peoples.
- The expropriation of African lands and resources.
- The removal and retention of African cultural patrimony in French institutions.
- The deployment of African colonial troops under unequal conditions during European wars.
- The Thiaroye massacre and the treatment of African veterans seeking compensation and dignity.
- Nuclear testing in the Sahara with long-term consequences for African populations and environments.
- Post-colonial monetary structures associated with the CFA franc system and continuing debates concerning economic sovereignty.
- Support for authoritarian regimes during various phases of Françafrique.
- Counterinsurgency campaigns that include dropping napalm on Cameroonian civilians, and repeated military interventions that many Africans regard as limiting genuine political self-determination.
- Long-standing political and diplomatic practices perceived as preserving French influence over African governance.
- Allegations surrounding French political, military, and diplomatic conduct before and during the Rwandan genocide, which continue to generate intense debate and scrutiny.
- Persistent discrimination experienced by many people of African descent within France itself, including inequities in policing, representation, and social mobility.
- The repeated reluctance of successive French governments to fully embrace comprehensive reparatory frameworks for slavery, colonialism, and their enduring consequences.
Beyond direct actions, many Africans also remember periods of silence, selective diplomacy, strategic abstentions, and alliances that appeared to privilege geopolitical interests over African self-determination. These memories are not merely historical. They remain alive in contemporary debates concerning migration, citizenship, development, security cooperation, economic sovereignty, and cultural restitution.
For this reason, many within the Diaspora are struggling to understand the broader meaning of recent agreements between Ghana, France, and the European Union. Whether intentionally or not, France remains a symbolic representative of a wider European order whose relationship to Africa remains deeply contested.
We are aware of Ghana’s diligence in working with key experts to draft a roadmap for achieving meaningful reparations, and I am personally, honored to be among those who worked with Ghana’s Foreign Ministry on this matter. Against this backdrop, many members of the African Diaspora struggle to reconcile the prominent participation of France in a conference dedicated to reparations and historical justice. What are we to understand?
What vision of reparatory justice is being advanced? What role is envisioned for former colonial powers? What safeguards exist to ensure that those most affected by historical harms remain centered in the conversation? These questions arise not from hostility, but from commitment.
We seek light, not conflict. We seek clarity, not division. We seek confidence in a process whose moral authority depends upon the trust of African peoples worldwide.
There is an additional concern that requires candid discussion.
Across West Africa, a profound debate is unfolding regarding sovereignty, self-determination, and the unfinished project of decolonization. Whether one agrees with every policy adopted by the governments of the Alliance of Sahel States, there is no denying that they have become powerful symbols within a wider African conversation about political autonomy, economic independence, security cooperation, and the right of Africans to define their own futures without external tutelage.
Recent proposals reportedly advanced by French representatives—including initiatives centered on research, documentation, and memorialization—raise further concerns. While historical research has value, reparations cannot be reduced to the production of knowledge about harms that are already well documented. The descendants of the enslaved and colonized do not suffer from a lack of evidence. We suffer from a deficit of justice and a guarantee of non-occurrence.
For many within our communities, the suggestion that research centers should stand as a primary response to centuries of extraction, dispossession, racial slavery, colonial domination, economic exploitation, and cultural destruction risks appearing profoundly disconnected from the demands being articulated across Africa and its diaspora. Indeed, some perceive such proposals as an attempt to manage the reparations conversation rather than transform the conditions that gave rise to it.
This perception becomes even more difficult to ignore when viewed alongside ongoing debates about French influence on the continent, the future of African sovereignty movements, and the determination of many African peoples to redefine their relationships with former colonial power on fundamentally new terms. While President Macron mentioned Ayiti/Haiti in his remarks, we note the grave juxtaposition of his presence with the absence of any official representative of the Haitian Republic speaking at the event. It is therefore reasonable for Africans and Afro-descendants to ask whether France’s participation advances the objectives of reparatory justice or inadvertently dilutes them. These concerns are not directed solely toward France. They are directed toward the integrity of the process itself.
Because Ghana occupies a position of extraordinary moral authority within the global African imagination, the decisions made by your government resonate far beyond national borders. They shape perceptions throughout Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and North America.
For that reason, we respectfully request an additional closed-door formal consultation between representatives of your government, traditional authorities, reparations scholars, civil society organizations, and representatives of the global African diaspora. Such a consultation would provide an opportunity to clarify the strategic objectives of this conference, explain the rationale behind France’s participation, address concerns regarding sovereignty and reparatory justice, and strengthen confidence in Ghana’s leadership at this critical historical juncture.
The reparations movement requires transparency. It requires trust. Above all, it requires confidence that African and Afro-descendant peoples remain the primary authors of our own liberation.
We seek that confidence. We seek that clarity. And we seek it in partnership with Ghana.
The present moment demands coherence between governments, traditional authorities, civil society organizations, scholars, faith communities, youth leaders, and diaspora constituencies. As repatriation initiatives expand and increasing numbers of descendants reconnect with the continent, social cohesion becomes a strategic necessity.
Traditional leaders have a particularly important role to play in nurturing this cohesion. The success of reparatory justice depends not only upon state institutions but also upon the cultural, spiritual, and communal structures that sustain African societies. This responsibility is even more urgent amid growing tensions and visible fractures within Black political solidarity globally, including recent developments that have raised concerns among many observers in South Africa and throughout the Diaspora.
At such a moment, we believe there must be space for African peoples to deliberate among themselves with dignity and cultural privacy. The development of a coherent reparations’ agenda requires honest internal consultation before external validation.
Many therefore fear that France’s presence risks overshadowing a historic gathering that should primarily amplify African and Afro-descendant voices. Whether intended or not, it creates the appearance of permitting a principal historical actor to help shape the terms of judgment regarding its own historical conduct. Such perceptions risk weakening Ghana’s credibility among precisely those communities whose confidence is essential for the long-term success of the reparation’s movement.
Your Excellency, we recognize the complexity of leadership. We recognize diplomacy often requires engagement with states whose histories are contested. We recognize that bridges must sometimes be built where wounds remain open.
Yet leadership also requires transparency. Therefore, we respectfully request greater clarity regarding the rationale, objectives, and anticipated outcomes of France’s participation in these proceedings. We ask not as adversaries, but as partners.
We ask not to undermine Ghana’s leadership, but to strengthen it. We ask because reparations are not merely financial claims. They concern memory, dignity, sovereignty, truth, healing, and the future of the global African family. History is watching. The descendants of the enslaved are watching. The descendants of the colonized are watching. And future generations will ask whether this moment advanced justice or merely managed it.
May Ghana continue to lead with courage, wisdom, and transparency.
Respectfully,
Her Royal Majesty Queen Mother Rev. Dr. Dòwòti DÉSIR, Sa Majesté La Reine Mére de la Diaspora Africaine Sêmevo, Kpodjito of The Royal Palace of the Africa Diaspora, USA, secretariat@royalpalace.co.site, www.queenmotherdowotidesir.org
His Royal Highness Prince N’IGANDA KAMOLE, Representative of the Bashinjahavu-Bashaho, President of the Movement for the Cultural Renaissance of Africa
His Excellency Mr. Raymond Alcide JOSEPH, Former Haitian Ambassador to the United States, Co-Founder of Haiti-Observateur
Mme. Marie E. LEMY, PhD, MPH, Independent Scholar
Dr. Marilyn SÉPHOCLE, PhD, MBA, MIPP, President of the Women Ambassadors Foundation
Mr. Fritz DESHOMMES, Membre du Comité National Haitien des Restitutions et Réparations
Ms. Marie AUGUSTIN, Member of Civil Society and International Educationalist
Ms. Adrienne Bambou DIAGNE, African Diplomatic Academy, VP Global Urban Cultural Community California. Traditional Leader of the Lebu Nation, Gorèe Island and Dakar
Mr. Joseph McCALLA, Executive Director, Haitian American Foundation for Democracy
Ms. Myriam TAYLOR, Co-Founder and Vice-President of MUXIMA BIO BV/Humanity Pact Alliance
Ms. Modi NTAMBWE, Human rights defender for the African Diaspora
Ms. Jeanne HENRIQUEZ, Fundashon Museo Tula, Curacao
Mme. Gbedia Hortense DODO, PhD, President, Back to Kama Movement
Mr. Carl-Henry CADET, Economist, Journalist & Researcher on Global Justice and Development
Ms. Mirlande BUTLER, MSW, PhD in Public Administration – Eritaj Foundation Inc./OCOS
Dr. Michael F. WRIGHT, PhD, JD. Author, Scholar, Ordained Alashe
Mr. Femi AKINBI, Founder, One Flag, One Africa
Mr. Michel-Ange FERDINAND, MD, Founder and CEO, Operation Grace for Haiti
On behalf of concerned members of African civil society, traditional leadership, and the global African Diaspora.
Photo Credit: Martial “Longma” Davis