'Ghana was the crime scene' - the country leading the demand for slavery reparations

Yet, within Ghana itself, the conversation around African complicity is far more nuanced, and for some traditional leaders, acknowledging the past is a vital prerequisite part of healing.King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, the Ga Mantse, leader of Ghana's Ga people, recently took the step of publicly apologising for his ancestors' involvement in the slave trade."I think that the transatlantic slave trade was the greatest crime against humanity, and ancestors also took part as players in that trade," says the king.The Ga people became middlemen who traded with Europeans. They sold gold, ivory and ultimately enslaved Africans, often those captured in local conflicts, in exchange for the manufactured goods brought mainly by the British and Dutch, including textiles, alcohol and guns.But the king felt he needed to say sorry not just for his own people's complicity, but the complicity of other Africans too."I stand on the same point of apologising on behalf of all traditional authorities and my ancestors and forebears for the part they also played in the slavery of our brothers and sisters."It has affected lives and societies up to now, and to be able to go forward, you have to look at your pas...