The Vice President of Ghana, Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, has announced that Ghana is leading efforts at the United Nations to have the transatlantic slave trade formally recognised as one of the greatest crimes against humanity.
She made the remarks while serving as Guest of Honour at a citizenship ceremony organised by the Diaspora Affairs Office and the Ministry of the Interior, where about 150 members of the African diaspora were granted Ghanaian citizenship at the Accra International Conference Centre yesterday.
The Vice President emphasised that recognising the transatlantic slave trade would affirm global commitment to truth, remembrance and justice for people of African descent.
She also highlighted Ghana’s continued role as a place of reconnection for the diaspora, referencing historic sites such as Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle.
In his remarks, the Minister for Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, said that the ceremony represented the culmination of a legal and administrative process through which individuals with strong ties to Ghana have formally become citizens of the Republic.
He noted that through the Ministry of the Interior and its partner institutions, the Government of Ghana remains committed to ensuring that the process of acquiring citizenship is transparent, credible, and consistent with the laws of Ghana.
Addressing the ceremony, the Director of Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the President, Kofi Okyere-Darko said the occasion symbolises far more than the formal granting of nationality.
“What we mark today extends far beyond the granting of citizenship; it represents the restoration of a connection shaped by history carried across continents through generations and now meaningfully reaffirmed here in the land from which it first began,” he said.
Darko noted that while citizenship is often seen as a legal status, it also carries a deeper emotional and cultural significance.
He explained that many members of the African Diaspora have long felt a strong connection to the continent through ancestry and cultural heritage, making their decision to become Ghanaian citizens a full-circle moment.
“For many of you, the path that led here was guided by ancestry, by a cultural memory, by a persistence sense that somewhere on this continent that was where it all begun.
“Today that history comes full circle. Ghana is not welcoming strangers; Ghana is receiving family,” he said.
The ceremony was also attended by Minister for Tourism, Abla Dzifa Gomashie.
