Key facts
- Archbishop Sarah Mullally concluded her 10-day Africa tour in Cameroon, calling for peace and healing.
- The tour focused on the Church of England's historical ties to the slave trade and its 100 million pound reparations fund.
- Mullally visited Ghana and Cameroon, including the Cape Coast Castle, a former slave fort.
- She defended the church's reparations fund as an action of repentance and a commitment to supporting communities affected by the slave trade's legacy.
- The fund aims to address profits made from slave trading and the use of slave plantations by church missionaries.
- While facing criticism in the UK, the initiative is seen by some in Africa as a necessary acknowledgement and a step toward justice.
Archbishop Sarah Mullally concluded her 10-day tour of Africa in Yaounde, Cameroon, on August 4, issuing calls for peace and healing. The visit, her first to the continent since becoming Archbishop of Canterbury, focused on addressing the Church of England's historical involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and its commitment to a 100 million pound reparations fund.
During her time in Ghana, Mullally visited the Cape Coast Castle, a significant slave fort, where she defended the church's reparations fund as an act of repentance and a tangible commitment to communities impacted by the slave trade's legacy. The fund, announced in January 2023, follows an audit revealing that an 18th-century church endowment profited from slave trading and that church missionaries operated slave plantations in the Caribbean.
Mullally's visit to Cameroon, a nation grappling with armed conflict, also highlighted her message of peace. She praised interfaith peace-building partnerships and stressed the need for courage and commitment from all levels of society, particularly those in authority, to achieve genuine and inclusive dialogue.
The church's reparations initiative has drawn criticism in the UK, with some questioning the extent of complicity and the allocation of funds. However, in Africa, the effort is largely welcomed as a necessary acknowledgement. Theologians and religious leaders view it as a step toward justice and repair, emphasizing that the legacies of slavery and colonialism persist in structural injustices today. Some, like evangelist Adebayo Anthony Kehinde, consider the 100 million pound commitment insufficient, noting that an independent audit recommended over 1 billion pounds.