The year 1807, when the British Parliament outlawed the slave trade within the Empire, was not the end of the transatlantic slave trade or the exploitation of some 12.5 million Africans. Rather, it marked the beginning of another little-known chapter in the hell of forced labor and the legal maneuvers endured by the more than 200,000 people rescued — according to the most conservative estimates — by the Royal Navy or other naval patrols between 1807 and 1880 before finally gaining their freedom.

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Ghana is promoting a resolution at the United Nations, with the support of the 55 member states of the African Union (AU), to declare “the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized slavery of Africans” as the “most serious crime against humanity.” This action, which has been described as an “unprecedented” initiative by legal experts and reparations specialists, comes at a time of re-examination of the colonial past and abuses committed by the West in various parts of the Global South. In Africa, at least 12.5 million people were victims of trafficking and slavery over a period of 300 years.

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