January, 2002

Slavery Returns to Africa

Khaled Hanafi Ali

Four decades after the independence of the countries of Africa, it seems that slavery, a phenomenon that devastated the continent in the 19th and 20th centuries, has returned.

Africa faces a number of problems and obstacles to development that have paved the way for the return of slavery. Civil war is one of the main problems, and has consumed huge economic and social budgets and resulted in the deaths of more than 6.5 million people. Infant mortality rates have reached unprecedented levels, school enrolment rates have decreased in most African countries, corruption is widespread, investment has slowed and military expenditure consumes most state resources.

Africa is shackled by foreign debts of almost $329 billion, which have increased poverty rates in most African countries. A recent list of the world's poorest countries includes 29 from Africa out of a total of 36. Economic deterioration has influenced traditional social values that used to fight the phenomenon of slavery. Slavery ranges from economic abuse, such as work with no return or the minimum possible to live, to sexual abuse, represented in the selling of children to rich families in Africa either for purposes of service or prostitution. The use of children in civil war is another form of slavery.

Children under 10 years of age are brought to work in the farms of Cote d'Ivoire from Mali, Togo, Burkina Faso and Benin. Traders buy children from their families for as little as $13 and the children are smuggled through borders to the cocoa farms in Abidjan where they work for 40 cents per day. According to the UNICEF 2000 report, 15,000 children from Mali work as slaves in the farms of Cote d'Ivoire. According to the Save Childhood Organisation, more than 300,000 children have been involved in slavery transactions in Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Togo in the past 10 years.

In Mauritania, although slavery was officially prohibited three times during the 20th century, the slave trade still thrives and there are an estimated 100,000 victims in the country. Estimates are also high in Sudan, where about 100,000 people in the south of the country have been used as slaves during its decade-old civil war.

The countries of Africa must now take serious measures if they are to put an end to this phenomenon. Priority should be given to development issues and the alleviation of poverty. African civic organisations shoulder a significant share of responsibility in facing the phenomenon. They should, for example, launch awareness programmes directed towards families which sell their offspring. To stop slavery and child abuse, firm legislation is needed to impose harsh sanctions against traders. Although most African countries signed an ILO charter for the eradication of child abuse, there are still many problems relating to its implementation that need to be solved. Legal shortcomings should also be rectified so that smugglers find no way to evade legal persecution for the smuggling of children.