This is a very interesting question. The issue is that there has been no general national acknowledgment and repentance for the crimes committed against enslaved Africans by the European nations at the centre of the Atlantic slave trade; or by the nations who were and continue to be the beneficiaries.

Is it possible for me an individual to forgive a nation for its crimes, no I don’t believe this is possible because a nation is not an individual and so there is no personal and individual focus for my forgiveness. I can forgive a nation if that nation is asking for forgiveness just as Germany recently has with Namibia.

Regarding the consequences of a nation’s actions. For an individual there are consequences for crimes based on the laws of the nation in which the crime is committed. Which laws can be enacted against a nation that commits crimes against another nation or people group? I don’t think there are laws that can be consistently applied. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) as far a I can tell has never been retroactively applied against a nation. If the nations complicit in the definition, application and perpetration of systemic and institutional racism were tried and sentenced under this convention this would be a start towards receiving justice.