Reparation: Why structured framework to heal the atrocities of Trans-Atlantic Slave Era matters- Egbagbe 

…Anchors plans on ‘Recognition, Repentance, Restitution, Reparations, and Restoration’

As the calls for reparation to address decades of slavery and inhuman treatments mented out to Africans gather global attention, Joshua Egbagbe, has called for a “structured framework of healing for the atrocities of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Era.”

This is just as he has also urged Africans to unite for the big push towards the actualisation of the reparation plans, as part of the Africa Day 2026, on the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity

To actualise the vision, he said he has convened a Congress of reputable people to drive the vision for the actualisation of the reparation for African

Egbagbe, a Russian-trained medical doctor and  entrepreneur with strong bias for housing finance consultancy and Overseer of Abba Father Assembly, Jos, stated this, while briefing Journalists in Abuja on the occasion of the ” African Reparation Day”, on Monday, in Abuja.

He recalled that the impetus for forming the Congress ” is rooted in direct human experience”

According to him, ” I  visited Gorée Island in Senegal with my  Senegalese wife, Mrs. Mama Ndiaye Egbagbe — a Foundation Member of the Congress. “I shed tears at the Door of No Return,”

“Those tears are part of the founding spirit of this work.”

” On Africa Day 2026, the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity,  an apostolic Congress convened from Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria, is issuing a formal Proclamation addressed to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV and co-recipients worldwide, calling for a structured framework of healing for the atrocities of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Era.

He stated that the Congress named “5Rs Restoration Congress for the Healing of the African Slave Era Atrocities”, and its framework, “aligns with and complements the historic work being championed by H.E. President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana as African Union Champion for Reparatory Justice.”

According to him, the 5Rs stand for ” Recognition, Repentance, Restitution, Reparations, and Restoration

” It will be recalled that on the 25th of March,  2026, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/80/L.48, declaring the Trans-Atlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity and naming the Vatican’s Papal Bull Dum Diversas of AD 1452 by name in its operative text.

“The resolution was championed by President Mahama and co-sponsored by Nigeria and 52 other nations, adopted by 123 votes. The African Union has designated 2026–2036 as its Decade of Action on Reparations”

He stated that the  5Rs Congress responds to this historic convergence with a faith-inspired, apostolic, and morally grounded voice that adds the theological and psycho-spiritual dimension that diplomatic and legal instruments alone cannot supply.

“The 5Rs Apostolic Proclamation traces the institutional culpability of five Papal Bulls issued between 1452 and 1514 under four successive Popes, which provided written ecclesiastical authorisation for seven European nations — Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Great Britain, and France — to engage in the illicit trade of African souls, lands, and minerals over approximately five centuries”

The Proclamation also called on the Holy See to formally ” abrogate all five Papal Bulls; on European governments to issue formal Parliamentary Acts of Repentance; and on African governments, traditional rulers, and the African Church to engage in a mutually honest process of recognition and repentance.

He also declared that the”Congress’s 5Rs framework is anchored in “Psalm 51 — King David’s prayer of repentance — mapped as a five-movement journey: from Recognition of the wrong spirit, through Repentance sealed by a Covenant of Compassionate and Servant-Style Accountable Leadership.

“Through restitution of identifiable cultural assets and a proposed Jubilee-like debt relief component, reparations via a structured African rural marshall plan, to restoration of right international relationships grounded in genuine equality.”

“The 5Rs Restoration Congress is an open, faith-inspired civil society and research Congress.

The foundation members includes distinguished scholars, maritime experts, financial professionals, journalists, faith leaders, and technology executives drawn from Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Tanzania, and African Americans in the United States.

“The Congress is at pains to emphasise that its work complements — and does not compete with — the primary reparatory justice work of President Mahama and the African Union.

“We add the apostolic and theological voice that legal and diplomatic instruments alone cannot supply,” says Joshua Egbagbe,  the Congress’s Convener.

“Where the AU has established frameworks, this Congress defers to those frameworks.”

“On this Africa Day, the 5Rs Restoration Congress offers its proclamation with the conviction that the AU’s founding vision of a free, dignified, and prosperous Africa cannot be fully realised without honest reckoning with the deepest wound in Africa’s modern history.

Speaking further on the goals of the Congress, he noted that ” It  intends to formally dispatch its Proclamation to all official recipients ahead of the African Union’s Accra Post-Adoption Framework summit scheduled for June 17–19, 2026 in Accra, Ghana.”