Sarah, Betty, Doll, Nan - just a few of the names commonly given to enslaved African women during the transatlantic slave trade. We know they suffered unspeakable sexual violence, but now that history is finally getting the spotlight it deserves. Last month, Ghana hosted an 'historic' reparations conference where the Caribbean Community (Caricom) presented its updated 10-point plan for reparative justice. Billed as Next Steps, the event was the first major gathering since the landmark UN resolution in March declaring the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity. It concluded with the adoption of a global framework for reparatory justice, including calls for formal apologies, fair compensation and debt relief. What was particularly striking was the specific demand for compensation for gender-based violence, placing the issue front and centre in the global campaign for repair and redress. Ghana’s president, John Mahama, said 'the historical experiences of women and girls cannot remain footnotes in the global narrative.'

Professor Olivette Otele, a historian at SOAS University of London, told us this move has been a long time coming. 'As somebody who has been working on this history for several decades, I am very happy,' she said. Of the 20 million Africans forcibly transported across the Atlantic, about 30% were women, and 1.2 million experienced sexual violence, according to Caricom’s plan. A 2023 Brattle report on reparations for transatlantic chattel slavery said it was 'reasonable to assume that 100% of enslaved women over the age of 10 were subjected to sexual abuse by enslavers.' Otele notes that under the doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem ('that which is born follows the womb'), codified in 1662 in Virginia, enslaved women were legally property. 'Women were currency, they could be bought, exchanged. They were a reproductive tool being impregnated to extract more enslaved people, more labour, more profit.'

The legacies of that history continue today, Otele says, in misogynoir - the term coined by Moya Bailey for prejudice and sexism directed at Black women - and the adultification of young Black girls. 'I think this will open the debate on gender-based violence,' Otele said, adding that just as the grooming of white working-class girls is finally being discussed, the experiences of Black girls should also be acknowledged. 'We never talk about the grooming of young Black girls. They are at the bottom of the social ladder like young white girls, yet their stories are ignored.'

But it’s also important to remember Black women in resistance - freedom fighters like Queen Nzinga of Ndongo (now Angola), Solitude of Guadeloupe, Nanny of the Maroons in Jamaica, and Nanny Grigg in Barbados. 'Women were always at the forefront of resistance and Black liberation,' Otele said. 'They were working in the houses so would have information about what was happening in the master’s house.' Historians including Hilary Beckles, Barbara Bush, Verene Shepherd and Stella Dadzie have shed light on this forgotten history, but there’s more to be done. 'For a long time it’s been said they would be too partial,' Otele said of Black women historians. 'But there are a handful of Black women coming up who are working on this history who are now mid-career. I hope this will open the door.'