Nobel laureate and renowned Nigerian playwright Professor Wole Soyinka has called for reparatory justice efforts to move beyond financial compensation and symbolic gestures.
He argued that the deeper challenge is the restoration of humanity, dignity, and identity damaged by slavery.
Speaking at the opening of the Next Steps Conference on Reparatory Justice in Accra on Thursday, June 18, 2026, Prof. Soyinka said the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade continues to affect the psychological and cultural well-being of people of African descent and must be addressed as part of any meaningful reparations agenda.
“As that any means that enable us to recover the re-humanization collectively, even of memory, not just of the present, but even of memory is essential to the development, collective development of those who’ve been traumatized as a people by this iniquitous commodity in human beings,” he said.
Prof. Soyinka urged governments, institutions, and advocates to pursue a more dynamic approach to reparatory justice, one that extends beyond commemorative events and economic discussions.
“Let us move mentally and practically towards the dynamizing of the commemoratives which exist,” he said. “We have to move now beyond just the performances, the discussions, the rhetoric, even the economic aspects of a retrieval of an egalitarian relationship between them and us.”
The Nobel laureate argued that slavery’s impact was not limited to economic exploitation but also altered how affected communities perceive themselves and their place in the world.
“We have to recognize the fact that even our mental conditioning is involved and in the diaspora in particular,” he said.
Prof. Soyinka described the African diaspora as a critical component of the reparatory justice movement, stressing that efforts to reconnect descendants of enslaved Africans with the continent carry significance beyond symbolism.
According to him, initiatives such as the Door of Return represent opportunities to reclaim values and identities that were distorted or erased by the experience of slavery.
“It is a return to certain values, certain human values, which were distorted or simply totally wiped out of our collective appreciation of a reality of the world we inhabit,” he said.
Prof. Soyinka’s remarks came as political leaders, scholars, activists, and representatives of the African diaspora gathered in Ghana for the Next Steps Conference on Reparatory Justice, a forum aimed at advancing global conversations on reparations and addressing the enduring consequences of the transatlantic slave trade.
He argued that true reparatory justice must seek not only historical recognition and economic redress but also the restoration of the humanity and dignity of people whose lives and identities were shaped by the legacy of enslavement.
