A £100 Million Penance: The Church of England’s Apology Tour in Ghana

The architectural hypocrisy of Cape Coast Castle is hard to ignore. For centuries, a prim Anglican chapel sat directly above the subterranean dungeons where enslaved Africans were held before being shipped across the Atlantic. It was at this 17th-century fortress—built by Swedish traders and occupied by the Danish and Dutch before the British seized it in 1664—that Dame Sarah Mullally, the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, stood to express her institutional lament for the Church of England’s role in transatlantic chattel slavery. She used the occasion to reaffirm the denomination's commitment to a controversial £100 million reparative justice fund.

Mullally’s appearance in Ghana forms part of a ten-day tour of West Africa, initiated by Archbishop Cyril Kobina Ben-Smith. Her itinerary is a masterclass in modern ecclesiastical diplomacy. Beyond inspecting the infamous "Door of No Return," she met with Ghanaian President John Mahama alongside her husband, Eamonn. In Accra, she delivered a sermon at a service officiated entirely by local female clergy. She also ventured to Kumasi, donning a special cassock lined with traditional kente cloth—a sartorial choice that delighted local palace chiefs.

The Church of England’s foray into historical restitution began three years ago under Mullally’s predecessor, Justin Welby. He formally apologised for the institution's habit of investing funds meant for poor clergy into the enslavement of Africans. The resulting £100 million initiative was designed to finance research and investment in affected communities.

Yet, the fund pleases virtually no one. Upon Mullally’s elevation in March as the first female head of the 492-year-old denomination, Conservative MPs suggested the vast sum might be better spent paying the wages of the church's current clergy. Activists, meanwhile, view the commitment as a mere down payment. An independent oversight group previously demanded the church increase its reparations to a staggering £1 billion, arguing the current amount barely scratches the surface of generational damage.

Undeterred, Mullally insisted that Christian repentance requires material action, justifying the financial package as necessary support for communities grappling with the legacy of slavery. Her tour intertwined this message of atonement with structural expansion. Capitalising on Ghana's recent surge in diaspora tourism—sparked by the government's 2019 Year of Return initiative—Mullally laid the foundation stone for a new church-run hostel for returning pilgrims. She also preached to over a thousand nurses in Mampong, commissioning a new campus clinic named in her honour.

Following her Ghanaian engagements, the archbishop departs for Cameroon, with stops in Yaoundé, Douala, Buea, and Limbe. She leaves behind a celebratory local mood, though not entirely devoid of scepticism. As Accra-based accountant Kenneth Mordzro noted, the British establishment could make a far simpler reparative gesture: returning the gold and artefacts looted during the 19th-century Anglo-Asante wars. Handing back tangible treasures, however, is perhaps a step too far for an institution that prefers to manage its own highly publicised funds.

Written by Andreas Hofer andreas.hofer@alpineweekly.com