Author(s)

Joshua Adebesi Omotosho¹, Eugene Kwarteng-Nantwi², Caleb O. Ogunkunle³, Stephen Doh Fia¹, Sylvia K. Ocansey¹, Sylvia Eyiah-Bediako¹, Pious Jojo Adu-Akoh⁴

¹Department of Guidance and Counselling, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
²Counselling Centre, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
³Department of Religions, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.
⁴Department of Education and Psychology, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.

The authors posit that Africans living on the continent of Africa and their counterparts in other parts of the world—especially the Americas and the Caribbean, need to rise together now and face the task of reconciliation and reconstruction that the continent needs so urgently. They see this task as the best antidote to emerging waves of colonialism that are fast avalanching on the African peoples living in Africa, particularly in the West African Sub-region. They call these waves new forms of colonialism or “neo-enslavement” and posit that they could be as cruel and dehumanizing as slave trade, more or less. They cite some vivid examples of those that are perpetrated in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. They also give cogent reasons why Africans living on the continent and those in diaspora must rise together and get reconciled now by forgiving one another regarding the slave trade, and reconstructing whatever has been damaged hitherto. They also make some recommendations on how this feat may be achieved practically, with implications for both counselling and religion.

African, Africans in Diaspora, Leadership, Neo-Colonialism, Reconciliation, Reconstruction, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Omotosho, J. A., Kwarteng-Nantwi, E., Ogunkunle, C. O., Fia, S. D., Ocansey, S. K., Eyiah-Bediako, S., & Adu-Akoh, P. J. (2025). Africans’ Reconciliation and Reconstruction: A Necessary Response to Emerging Neo-Enslavement and Its Threats to Human Dignity. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 13, 10-21. doi: 10.4236/jss.2025.133002.