Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, speaking in New York this Tuesday, criticised the United States (US) administration for what he described as normalising \u200cthe erasure of Black history, warning such policies could have ripple effects elsewhere.<\/p>\n
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Since his return to power, US President Donald Trump has targeted US cultural and historical institutions, from museums to monuments to national parks, to remove what he calls “anti-American” ideology.<\/p>\n
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His declarations and executive orders have led to the dismantling of slavery exhibits, the restoration of Confederate statues and other moves that civil rights advocates say could reverse \u2060decades of social progress.<\/p>\n
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“These policies are becoming a template for other governments as well as some private institutions,” Mahama said, speaking at an event on slavery reparations at the United Nations (UN). “At the very least, they are slowly normalising the erasure.”<\/p>\n
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Mahama said that in the US, Black history courses were being removed from school curricula, institutions were being mandated to stop teaching the “truth of slavery, segregation and racism”, and books addressing these subjects were increasingly being banned.<\/p>\n
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The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
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Mahama, who last year announced a deal to accept West Africans deported by the US, previously criticised Trump for his false claims of \u200cwhite genocide \u2060and land seizures in South Africa, calling them an insult to all Africans.<\/p>\n
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Mahama is in New York to table a resolution at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday to recognise transatlantic slavery as the “gravest crime in the history of humankind” and calling for reparations.<\/p>\n
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The West African nation has been a leading advocate for reparations, a cause that has gained significant \u2060momentum in recent years, even as a growing backlash has emerged.<\/p>\n
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Several Western leaders have opposed even discussing the subject, with critics arguing today’s states and institutions should not be held responsible for historical wrongs.<\/p>\n
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The draft resolution, seen by Reuters<\/em>, urges member \u2060states to engage in dialogue on reparations, including issuing formal apologies, returning stolen artefacts, providing financial compensation, and ensuring guarantees of non-repetition.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The resolution has been backed by the nations of the African Union and the \u2060Caribbean Community, as well as countries like Brazil.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ghana’s Foreign Minister Samuel Ablakwa said the European Union (EU) and the US had already communicated they would not back the resolution.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The EU and US missions to the UN did not immediately reply to a request for comment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n –Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13731,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-29818","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama, speaking in New York this Tuesday, criticised the US administration","published_date":"2026-03-24 20:27:07","news_description":"Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama, speaking in New York this Tuesday, criticised the US administration","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29826,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29818\/revisions\/29826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=29818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}