Archives for 2026

“Maps shape our understanding of the world¹” The traditional Mercator projection enlarges regions farther from the equator, making Africa appear smaller relative to Europe and North America than it actually is. The Equal Earth projection preserves the relative areas of countries and continents, offering a more proportionate view of the globe.

On September 4, 2026, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Correct the Map resolution, encouraging governments, schools, and other institutions to use equal-area maps where accurate size comparisons matter.

This offers an opportunity to see Ota Benga’s homeland more clearly. The Democratic Republic of the Congo covers approximately 905,000 square miles (2.34 million square kilometers)—nearly 30% the total area of the 48 contiguous United States. It is Africa’s second-largest country.

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1. Robert Dussey, Togo’s foreign minister, quoted from UN tells the world: Stop making Africa look small | UN News. ↩︎

“Declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialized Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime against Humanity”

The Ghana-led resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 March 2026 recognizes the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and calls for reparatory justice.

The Ota Benga International Committee stands in solidarity with United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/80/250, recognizing the trafficking and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity. In honoring Ota Benga’s life and dignity, we affirm the resolution’s call for truth, remembrance, education, and reparatory justice. We support meaningful efforts to acknowledge historical wrongs, address their enduring consequences, and advance healing, reconciliation, and the dignity and human rights of Africans and people of African descent.

The opening five pages place the resolution within the UN’s established human rights framework, drawing on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international anti-slavery treaties, and earlier commitments to combat racism. They describe the trafficking and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as a centuries-long system of forced migration, exploitation, violence, and dehumanization involving governments, businesses, and institutions across continents. The text highlights how laws made Africans and their descendants inheritable property, with African women and girls subjected to sexual violence and forced reproduction. It also recognizes Africans’ sustained resistance, abolitionist struggles, and efforts to assert their dignity and rights.

The resolution argues that the consequences of slavery and colonialism remain visible in structural racism, economic inequality, underdevelopment, and marginalization affecting Africans and people of African descent worldwide. It affirms that these crimes should not be subject to statutory limitations and invokes principles of state responsibility and reparation, including restitution, compensation, and satisfaction. These pages establish truth, remembrance, education, and historical justice as essential foundations for reconciliation, while acknowledging African Union and Caribbean Community initiatives seeking reparations and racial healing.

In summary, statement calls on countries to engage in dialogue about formal apologies; restitution and compensation; rehabilitation; guarantees against repetition; and changes to laws, programmes, and services that address systemic racism. It also seeks the return of cultural objects and archives without charge, support for sustainable development, and cooperation with African and Caribbean reparatory initiatives.

In detail the resolution,

1. Unequivocally condemns the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans, slavery and the transatlantic slave trade as the most inhumane and enduring injustice against humanity;
2. Declares the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity;
3. Emphasizes the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity by reason of the definitive break in world history, scale, duration, systemic nature, brutality and enduring consequences that continue to structure the lives of all people through racialized regimes of labour, property and capital;
4. Recognizes that the trafficking of Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans constitute violations of jus cogens;
5. Reaffirms its collective recognition of the profound and lasting impacts of the abhorrent regimes of slavery and colonialism and the persistence of racial discrimination and neo-colonialism on Africans and people of African descent and how this continues to cause immense suffering, cultural disruption, economic exploitation, emotional trauma and unending discrimination endured by Africans and people of African descent throughout history;
6. Affirms the importance of addressing historical wrongs affecting Africans and people of African descent in a manner that promotes justice, human rights, dignity and healing, and emphasizes that claims for reparations represent a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs against Africans and people of African descent;
7. Notes that in various historical contexts, reparations and other forms of redress have been provided in respect of other grave crimes committed against particular groups, reflecting the principle under international law that international wrongful acts entail a duty of reparation, and notes with concern that no comprehensive reparatory framework has yet been realized for the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans, despite its scale, duration and enduring consequences;
8. Calls upon Member States, individually and collectively, to engage in inclusive, good-faith dialogue on reparatory justice, including a full and formal apology, measures of restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, guarantees of non-repetition and changes to laws, programmes and services to address racism and systemic discrimination;
9. Calls for the prompt and unhindered restitution of cultural properties, objets d’art, monuments, museum pieces, artefacts, manuscripts and documents, and national archives that are of spiritual, historical and cultural or other value to countries of origin without charge, and urges the strengthening of international cooperation on reparations for any damage done, recognizing that this leads to the promotion of national culture and the enjoyment of cultural rights by present and future generations;
10. Encourages Member States to support initiatives aimed at reparatory justice and sustainable development for affected peoples, including consideration of contributions to reparations-related programmes established by relevant regional organizations;
11. Requests the Secretary-General, in coordination with the United Nations system, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to strengthen coordination on remembrance, education, research and capacity-building related to the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans and its legacies;
12. Encourages Member States to make voluntary contributions to support coordination efforts within the United Nations system on remembrance, education, research and capacity-building related to the trafficking of enslaved Africans, racialized chattel enslavement of Africans and its enduring legacies, and also encourages Member States to cooperate with relevant initiatives of the African Union through capacity-building, technical training, and support for cultural diplomacy projects of mutual interest;
13. Invites the African Union, the Caribbean Community, the Organization of American States and other relevant regional and subregional organizations to collaborate with Member States and United Nations entities in developing frameworks for dialogue, cooperation and action on reparatory justice and reconciliation;
14. Encourages Member States to promote comprehensive educational programmes, memorialization initiatives and scholarly research on slavery, the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans and their consequences, including through curricula, museums, heritage sites and public awareness campaigns;
15. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its eighty-second session a report on the actions taken by States in implementation of the present resolution, including progress made in remembrance, education and dialogue on reparatory justice;
16. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its eighty-second session the item entitled “Commemoration of the abolition of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade” to consider the report of the Secretary-General.