Is Ghana Africa’s New Soft Power Base?

This decade has been marked by a cat-race amongst sub-Saharan African countries, and particularly West African countries, to leave a mark for themselves on the international scene. However, only a few can match Ghana’s strides in this quest, as the country, ever so often, outpaces others in pursuit of a human-centred foreign policy. During his campaign, Ghana’s president, John Mahama, promised to ensure Ghana’s foreign policy is “pragmatic.” As any observer would note from its recent initiatives, Ghana has indeed put its nose to the grindstone of international diplomacy.  

Ghana’s most ambitious and vocal effort is on the issue of reparations. In 2022, at the Accra Summit I,  former president of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, championed a call for justice through reparations for the descendants of Africans subjected to slavery. About 12 million Africans were taken into slavery by European nations, where their labour formed a foundational pillar of the wealth and prosperity many European nations enjoy today. This advocacy produced the Accra Proclamations on Reparations, adopted in November 2023, which focuses on Africa’s reparation efforts and advocates for the creation of a reparation fund, a special envoy on reparations at the African Union (AU), a committee of experts on reparations, amongst other things. On March 17, 2026, Ghana, led by President Mahama, tabled a resolution before the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, advocating the motion for the declaration of the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity, seeking to advance justice and promote healing for affected communities. 

This resolution would be later adopted by the assembly, with 123 votes in favour of it and three notable votes against it from the United States, Israel, and Argentina. This resolution formally recognises the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and urges member states to contribute to a reparations fund and return looted artefacts. Undoubtedly, this resolution demonstrates the significance of Ghana’s efforts from a political, economic, and cultural perspective. While the emblems of racism still glow from time to time, those who directly endured slavery (or even its second-hand witness) are long gone. The obnubilation of the brutality of their experience is accentuated by temporal distance and the gradual erosion of historical study in educational curricula across many places that might otherwise preserve these horrendous realities. Ghana’s preoccupation does so much to remind us of the horrors of the transatlantic trade; to expose the extent to (or a glimpse of it) which European powers co-profited from it, and shows how its legacies reflect in the patterns of Africa’s impoverishment. 

Back at home, Ghana has made laudable diplomatic efforts in trying to reunite the estranged Alliance of Sahelian States (AES) with the rest of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Since the military takeover and the departure of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso from the ECOWAS community, most members of the community have taken a hard stance towards them, imposing sanctions to force a return to the community and a transition to democratic rule. Evidently, this approach put the AES and the ECOWAS communities at loggerheads. Ghana, however, has shown a more diplomatic approach, adopting an “outstretched hands” style towards the AES states. This approach seems very logical, considering the insecurity currently affecting the region. By extending a white flag to their regimes, concerted efforts can be implemented so that both governments, in spite of political divide, can work together toward curtailing the burgeoning spread of terrorism through the realms. 

In addition, Ghana’s diplomatic approach also involves taking a mediatory role in the ongoing dispute between ECOWAS and AES. The military regime has shown strong acceptance of Ghana’s Mahama. In March, he visited the three AES states with the intent of establishing a channel for discussion between ECOWAS and AES. While one cannot say for certain if these military regimes will detour to democracy any time soon, one can say President Mahama’s efforts have been meaningful, especially because the military regimes appear accommodating to President Mahama’s efforts to restore a forum for communication between both blocs. 

Ghana’s recent institutionalisation of climate action has greatly strengthened international posturing. In 2025, a role for the ‘Minister of State for Climate Change and Sustainability’ was established. This establishment gives national concern to climate-related issues. In January 2025, Ghana passed a new law on environment and climate issues; the Environment Protection Act, 2025. With this new law, Ghana gives force to provisions of the Paris Agreement and mainstreams climate issues. Through this act, the government pledges manpower (through the  Environmental Protection Authority) and financial resources to effectively discharge climate-related duties. The fact that the act espouses the Paris Agreement puts Ghana within the global climate conversation and makes it one of the leading African nations in this discourse. 

Ghana has also pitched itself within the global discussion on gender disparity. For example, in March 2026, during the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), Ghana’s delegation announced the country’s goal to achieve a 50/50 gender balance in leadership by 2030. This is an ongoing progression of Ghana’s Affirmative Action Bill, through which Ghana aims to increase the rate of women’s involvement in state-related roles from 30% to 50% by the year 2030. Considering gender discourse is a notable preoccupation of global discourse, Ghana’s Vision 2030 goal is important on both national and continental scales, as it shows other African countries the extent to which they can leave an impact on issues of global 

In 2019, she launched the ‘Year of Return’ campaign, making a convincing cultural case for Ghana’s place as a soft power in Africa. Towards commemorating the 400th anniversary of the transatlantic slave trade, Ghana marked 2019 as the ‘Year of Return.’ Speaking at Washington D.C in 2018, President Nana Akufo-Addo had made the announcement declaring 2019 as the Year of Return for Africans in diaspora, in order to recognise their “extraordinary achievements and contributions” and “commemorate their existence and their sacrifices.” With this, Ghana defined itself as a cultural home — and even a site of pilgrimage — for Africans in diaspora. Riding on the waves of the success of 2019’s Year of Return, Ghana extended the initiative into a ten-year campaign, 

Beyond the Return is designed to make Ghana a more consistent hub for diaspora tourism and for heritage exploration. As incentives, the Ghanaian government extended citizenship pathways, with over 1,000 African Americans benefiting as of March 2026 — including figures such as Stevie Wonder, Rita Marley, and IShowSpeed. Beyond citizenship, the initiative offers land grants, diaspora housing schemes, investment protections, and eased travel arrangements. The country ceremonially marked their cultural pilgrims with various activities like the Panafest, Afrochella, other December-themed fest and symbolic walks through the “Door of No Return.” As a result, diasporans and tourists gravitate towards Ghana as an ideal end-of-the-year destination.

Maya Angelou, in her fifth autobiography, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, published in 1986,  writes about the years she spent living and working in Ghana between 1962 and 1965. Writing about Ghana in her book, she observes that “while the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man’s humanity to man.” At the time of her stay, Ghana was a mere infant learning to totter on the long road of independence. Around the same time, many African nations still stumbled along that same path, and others in sub-Saharan Africa would not set foot on it until the “Year of Africa,”1960. Sixty-four years after Kwame Nkrumah became the president, and fourteen presidents after, a look at Ghana’s recent outings on the foreign plane offers a convincing case for Ghana’s continuation of that human-centred ethos.