Slavery in contemporary Africa

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The continent of

perpetual warfare in order to generate the prisoners of war necessary for the lucrative export of slaves.[5] These patterns persisted into the colonial period during the late 19th and early 20th century.[6] Although the colonial authorities attempted to suppress slavery from about 1900, this had very limited success, and after decolonization, slavery continues in many parts of Africa despite being technically illegal.[7]

Slavery in the

Modern day slavery in Africa according to the Anti-Slavery Society includes exploitation of subjugate populations even when their condition is not technically called "slavery":[13][14][15]

Although this exploitation is often not called slavery, the conditions are the same. People are sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay and are at the mercy of their "employers".

— Antislavery Society, What is Modern Slavery?

Forced labor in Sub-Saharan Africa[16] is estimated at 660,000.[17] This includes people involved in the illegal diamond mines of Sierra Leone and Liberia, which is also a direct result of the civil wars in these regions.[18] In 2017, the International Labour Office estimated that 7 in every 1,000 people in Africa are victims of slavery.[19]

Types of contemporary slavery

Hereditary slavery and corporate child labor in Africa

Sex trade

While institutional slavery has been banned worldwide, there are numerous reports of female sex slaves in areas without an effective government control, such as Sudan and

religious prostitution known as trokosi ("ritual servitude") forcibly keeps thousands of girls and women in traditional shrines as "wives of the gods", where priests perform the sexual function in place of the gods.[26]

Forced labour

Forced labor, which can be different from slavery,[27] is defined as any work or services which people are forced to do against their will under the threat of some form of punishment. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the indigenous people are usually victims of their Bantu neighbors, who have replaced the positions once held by Arabs and Europeans.[18][28]

We must work for the Bantu masters. We cannot refuse to do so because we are likely to be beaten or be victims of insults and threats. Even though we agree to work all day in the fields, we are still asked to work even more, for example, to fetch firewood or go hunting. Most of the time, they pay us in kind, a worn loincloth for 10 workdays. We cannot refuse because we do not have a choice.

— Antislavery Society, Interview with an indigenous man in the Congo

Child slave trade

The trading of children has been reported in modern Nigeria and Benin.[29] The children are kidnapped or purchased for $20–70 each by slavers in poorer states, such as Benin and Togo, and sold into slavery in sex dens or as unpaid domestic servants for $350 each in wealthier oil-rich states, such as Nigeria and Gabon.[30][31][32]

In April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 female students from Chibok, Borno.[33] More than 50 of them soon escaped, but the remainder have not been released. Instead, the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, who has a reward of $7 million offered by the United States Department of State since June 2013 for information leading to his capture, announced his intention of selling them into slavery.[34]

Ritual slavery

Ritual servitude (Trokosi) is a practice in Ghana, Togo, and Benin where traditional religious shrines take human beings, usually young virgin girls, in payment for services, or in religious atonement for alleged misdeeds of a family member—almost always a female.[35][unreliable source?] In Ghana and in Togo, it is practiced by the Ewe people in the Volta Region, and in Benin, it is practiced by the Fon.[36]

Slavery by country

Chad

The practice of slavery in Chad, as in the Sahel states in general, is an entrenched phenomenon with a long history, going back to the trans-Saharan slave trade in the Sahelian kingdoms, and it continues today. As elsewhere in Central and West Africa, the situation reflects an ethnic, racial and religious rift.

Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs[40][41] reports children being sold to Arab herdsmen in Chad by their parents due to poverty.[42]

Congo

Debt bondage-like slavery is rife in parts of Congo.[43] According to the Global Slavery Index,[44] approximately, over one million people are enslaved in the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.[45]

Ethiopia

Mahider Bitew, Children's Rights and Protection expert at the

Awassa, and three other towns of the country indicate that the problem of child trafficking is very serious. According to a 2003 study, about one thousand children were trafficked via Dire Dawa to countries of the Middle East. The majority of those children were girls, most of whom were forced to be prostitutes after leaving the country. The International Labour Organization has identified prostitution as the worst form of child labor.[48]

In Ethiopia, children are trafficked into prostitution, to provide cheap or unpaid labor, and to work as domestic servants or beggars.[49] The ages of these children are usually between 10 and 18, and their trafficking is from the country to urban centers and from cities to the country.[50] Boys are often expected to work in activities such as herding cattle in rural areas and in the weaving industry in Addis Ababa and other major towns. Girls are expected to take responsibilities for domestic chores, childcare, and looking after the sick, and to work as prostitutes.[51][52]

Ghana, Togo, Benin

In parts of Ghana among the Ewe people, a family may be punished for an offense by having to turn over a virgin female to serve as a sex slave within the offended family.[53] In this instance, the woman does not gain the title of "wife".[54][55] In parts of Ghana, Togo, and Benin, shrine slavery persists, despite being illegal in Ghana since 1998.[56] This system of slavery is sometimes called trokosi (in Ghana), or voodoosi in Togo and Benin, or ritual servitude.[57][58] Young virgin girls are given as slaves in traditional shrines and are used sexually by the priests, in addition to providing free labor for the shrine.[59][26]

Many Chinese prostitutes are trafficked to Ghana to service expatriate communities in the country, the Enslavement Protection Alliance-West Africa (EPAWA) investigations reveal.[60] The Accra-based non-governmental organization told Citi Newsroom that victims are recruited under the guise of working as restaurant assistants. They are then confined and forced to provide sexual services.[61]

Madagascar

Domestic servitude and forced labor are a continuing problem and increasing as a result of exacerbated poverty in Madagascar, according to a 2012 mission by the United Nations Special Rapporteur for contemporary forms of slavery.[62] The UN Special Rapporteur identified children as particularly vulnerable and was particularly concerned about the enslavement of youth in mining and sexual exploitation or servile marriages.[63]

Mali

Slavery continues to exist in Mali in all ethnic groups of the country but particularly among the

Temedt (which won the 2012 Anti-Slavery International[67] award) has been pressuring the government for ending slavery in the country.[68][69]

Although the Malian government denies that slavery continues,

National Geographic writer Kira Salak claimed in 2002 that slavery was quite conspicuous and that she herself bought and then freed two slaves in Timbuktu.[70] In addition, with the 2012 Tuareg Rebellion,[71] there are reports of ex-slaves being recaptured by their former masters.[69]

Mauritania