As there is a growing discourse on reparations, the Kwabre East legislator, Honourable Onyinah-Acheampong Akwasi Gyamfi has joined the growing continental debate on reparations, calling it a “good call” but insisting that there will be the urgent for African countries to first fix their own governance and resource management before demanding compensation from former colonial masters.
The remarks come amid renewed global discussions on redress for the transatlantic slave trade and colonial exploitation.
The Kwabre East vocal lawmaker pointed to France as a starting point, citing its assimilation policy in West Africa.
“France with their policy of assimilation they were able to… influence the Africans that they colonized. You talk of the Ivory Coast, Burkina Fas,Bennin, and all those places that they colonized. So if they are talking about reparation then they should start from their own backyard,” he urged.
Striking a differece, the legislator said France, having “managed their relationship better” with former colonies than Britain has with Commonwealth states, urged for what he termed,“setting an example to present the right stage for others to follow.”
Using France’s national football team to highlight African influence abroad he noted“If you even go to the France national team now… almost all the players in about eighty percent of the players had African descent. Right. So they should walk the talk and then ensure that they don’t clandestinely take from Africa and pretend they are giving back,” he said.
Referencing the 2018 World Cup-winning squad which was solely African team underpinned his call for colonial powers to match words with action.
While demanding reparations, the lawmaker stressed the need for Africa to take responsibility indicating,“They took Africa’s human capital. They took our resources. They took everything. And then it left us even though I also have to say after they left they things in our hands and we still had huge accumulation of resources that we are currently exploiting but have we been able to take full advantage of it?,” Hon. Onyina-Acheampong quizzed.
He bemoaned the destructive tenants of corruption which had hung on the neck of Africans as an albatross eroding the full potentials.
He rather believes that the question should not be about compensation but rather how the object of the reparations will be managed.
“They can give you all the money that you… all the reparation that you want now. How are you going to manage this? Because currently what you have how are you managing it?… The most important question now is not really about them giving us reparations. It’s about if we get it or when we get these things how are we going to manage? We can get the whole world but if we are not able to manage we will lose it,” he warned.
He dismissed the idea that money alone could heal historical wounds stressing,”Nothing can compensate for the kind of damage that they have caused us,” he said.
“Pointing to “the psychological, emotional damage… the sense that we get the self-esteem in our minds when some people see white people then they begin to have that inferiority complex” that has persisted for generations.
His comments add to pressure on African leaders to present a unified reparations agenda while tackling corruption and value-addition at home.
The MP strongly thinks the debate is shifting from moral demands to practical questions of reparations frameworks, trust funds, and how compensation would be administered to avoid repeating aid-management failures.
The Kwabre East MP concluded that self-reflection must accompany external demands: “Even as we are pointing fingers at them we should now look at ourselves since we began to govern ourselves. Have we been fair to ourselves as a country?,”he asked.
By Prosper Kwaku Selassy Agbitor
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