President John Dramani Mahama has acknowledged that the United States benefited significantly from slavery but says the country should not be held responsible for the transatlantic slave trade.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with TRT World on Friday, August 21, 2026, President Mahama explained that European powers were primarily responsible for transporting enslaved Africans to the Americas at a time when the United States was still a colony.
According to him, enslaved labour contributed significantly to the development of the United States, including the construction of its railway infrastructure.
“It built their railways, it did things for them and all that. But I don’t think that they should bear the guilt, in a certain sense, for it,” he said.
President Mahama was responding to questions about the United States’ decision to vote against a Ghana-backed United Nations resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade the greatest crime against humanity.
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The United States, Israel and Argentina were the only countries to vote against the resolution.
President Mahama said Ghana was not surprised by Washington’s position, noting that the US had previously indicated that it would not support the resolution.
He explained that the main argument advanced by the United States was that “you cannot create a hierarchy of crime.”
Although he expressed disappointment over the vote, President Mahama stressed that he does not hold the United States accountable for the transatlantic slave trade itself.
“I don’t hold the US accountable for slavery. Those slaves were brought there mostly by European powers. Because at that time, the US itself was a colony,” he said.
He, however, noted that slavery continued in the United States even after the country gained independence, eventually ending following the Civil War and the emancipation of enslaved people.
PAH/MA
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