TITLE:
Africans’ Reconciliation and Reconstruction: A Necessary Response to Emerging Neo-Enslavement and Its Threats to Human Dignity
AUTHORS:
Joshua Adebesi Omotosho, Eugene Kwarteng-Nantwi, Caleb O. Ogunkunle, Stephen Doh Fia, Sylvia K. Ocansey, Sylvia Eyiah-Bediako, Pious Jojo Adu-Akoh
KEYWORDS:
African, Africans in Diaspora, Leadership, Neo-Colonialism, Reconciliation, Reconstruction, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.13 No.3,
March
7,
2025
ABSTRACT: The authors posit that Africans living on the continent of Africa and their counterparts in other parts of the world—especially the Americas and the Caribbean, need to rise together now and face the task of reconciliation and reconstruction that the continent needs so urgently. They see this task as the best antidote to emerging waves of colonialism that are fast avalanching on the African peoples living in Africa, particularly in the West African Sub-region. They call these waves new forms of colonialism or “neo-enslavement” and posit that they could be as cruel and dehumanizing as slave trade, more or less. They cite some vivid examples of those that are perpetrated in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. They also give cogent reasons why Africans living on the continent and those in diaspora must rise together and get reconciled now by forgiving one another regarding the slave trade, and reconstructing whatever has been damaged hitherto. They also make some recommendations on how this feat may be achieved practically, with implications for both counselling and religion.