• Urges African Union to confront historical injustice

The Foundation for Peace Professionals (PeacePro) has called on Arab nations, including Gulf countries, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, to acknowledge the historical involvement of their predecessor authorities, trading networks and institutions in the trans-Saharan slave trade and issue a formal apology to Black Africa.

PeacePro, in a statement by its Executive Director, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, said global conversations on slavery, historical injustice and reparations remain incomplete when the transatlantic slave trade receives considerable attention while the centuries long trafficking of Africans across the Sahara into North Africa and the wider Arab world receives comparatively limited recognition.

Hamzat noted that historical research identifies several North African and Arab societies as destinations and beneficiaries of the trade, with enslaved Africans transported through extensive commercial networks connecting sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa and beyond.

He also drew attention to the wider slave trading networks involving Gulf societies, particularly through the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, which contributed to the movement and exploitation of enslaved Africans.

Historical estimates indicate that approximately 4.82 million Africans were transported across the Sahara between 650 and 1600 AD. Historian Ralph Austen also estimated that approximately 1.5 million enslaved Africans were exported through trans-Saharan routes during the nineteenth century alone.

A separate estimate puts the number of Africans transported through the Red Sea and Indian Ocean routes between 800 and 1600 AD at approximately 2.4 million. PeacePro clarified that these figures concern different routes and should not be treated as one consolidated estimate.

According to Hamzat, the trans-Saharan slave trade operated for centuries through extensive commercial networks involving traders, political authorities and intermediaries across different societies. Its consequences included forced displacement, family separation, exploitation, sexual enslavement and other forms of human suffering.

PeacePro therefore called on relevant Arab governments to acknowledge the historical involvement of their predecessor institutions, issue formal apologies to Black Africa, open relevant historical archives and support independent investigations into the scale, routes, beneficiaries and consequences of the trade.

It further urged the African Union to give the trans-Saharan slave trade greater prominence in its historical justice and reparations agenda and engage the League of Arab States in a structured dialogue on historical acknowledgement, apology and reconciliation.

“Africa’s history of enslavement must be told in its entirety. The victims of the trans-Saharan slave trade deserve serious historical recognition, and the institutions connected to this history should be willing to acknowledge their part. Historical justice cannot be selective,” PeacePro stated.