African Union calls for global audit to quantify slavery era exploitation

The African Union (AU) on Thursday called for a “forensic global audit” to estimate revenues generated from the transatlantic slave trade and the value of unpaid wages for centuries of forced labour, saying such a study is critical to guiding reparations efforts.

“This audit would provide a critical foundation for understanding the scale of the exploitation and quantifying the financial dimensions of reparations,” the AU said in a statement on its official X (formerly Twitter) page. “It would also serve as a powerful tool for raising awareness about the true cost of these historical injustices.”

The call comes ahead of the 2025 International Year of Reparation and Remembrance, designated by the AU to honour the memory of enslaved Africans and their descendants, and to strengthen advocacy for reparations.

The union urged global institutions, governments, and historians to cooperate on the audit, which would seek to determine the appropriate level of reparations and support the long-standing African demand for justice for the transatlantic slave trade, which forcibly removed millions of people from the continent between the 16th and 19th centuries.

The AU has repeatedly highlighted the enduring social, economic, and cultural impacts of slavery, calling for “measures to repair the injustices and losses caused by the trafficking of our people.”