President John Dramani Mahama has laid wreath at the African Burial Ground National Monument in Lower Manhattan, New York City, paying tribute to the nearly 20,000 Africans buried on the grounds and reaffirming that the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade must never be repeated.
The ceremony took place on Tuesday, ahead of Ghana’s tabling of a landmark resolution at the United Nations the following day.
President Mahama reflected on the suffering endured by the victims of the slave trade, saying the experience was one that had been physically inflicted on its victims.
“It is a narrative that was, quite literally, branded, carved, burned, and beaten into the bones of people, human beings, including our ancestors who are buried here,” he said.
“We lay down this wreath to honour the memories of the nearly 20,000 Africans who are buried on these grounds, some of whom were free but most of whom were enslaved,” he added.
He extended the tribute beyond those buried at the site to the wider human cost of the slave trade.
“We lay down this wreath in remembrance of all the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, the men, women, and children who were taken from their lives and from those who loved them to be enslaved in a foreign land,” President Mahama said.
He added that the remembrance equally covered the mothers, fathers, grandparents and children whose lives were forever altered after their parents, children, siblings were stolen from them and their communities.
The wreath-laying was attended by New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani, African Union Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development H.E. Amma Twum-Amoah, Chair of the CARICOM Group H.E. Dr. Niel Nadesh Parsan, Ghana’s Ambassador to Washington D.C. Victor Smith, Minister for Foreign Affairs Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and Minister for Government Communications Felix Kwakye Ofosu, among other dignitaries.