Africana Plus
No60 April 2004.2
International year 2004
Is slavery finally outlawed ?
Or is it still to be abolished ?
The United
Nations Organisation for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO)
has officially launched, on January 10th,
2004, the international year commemorating the fight against
slavery and its abolition. The ceremony was held on the
Ghana Coast, in one of the most active harbours in the Slave
Trade in the 19th century. The
idea was to underline that tragedy, since it coincides with the
centenary of the proclamation of the first Black State, Haiti.
But, in fact, slavery still needs to be abolished. It is
still alive on all continents. Niger, Sierra Leone, Sudan,
Mali, etc, are still involved in it, as well as Brazil.
During the next ten months, the institutions of the ONU member
states, the United Nations agencies, and the official
organisations, are urged to launch initiatives that will spread
the knowledge of the slavery phenomenon, and deepen the
consciousness of the citizens of the whole world of that tragic
experience too often forgotten. Slavery is a practice that
has marked human communities in many countries and at many epochs.
In Africa, slave trade was introduced by the Arabs, and partly
encouraged by African rivalries. In more than a thousand
years, from the 17th century on, some 17 million
Africans were captured and sold by Moslem slave traders. But
in the public mentality, the slave trade means mostly the trans-Atlantic
traffic, which, from the beginning of the 16th century
on, has meant the forced deportation of millions of blacks to
North and South America.
In 1888, at the apogee of this drama, Cardinal Lavigerie, the
founder of the Missionaries of Africa, was asked by Pope Leon 13th
to launch in Europe a vast campaign to end this "shameful
traffic." The Cardinal pointed out the horror or of
that drama in these words: "During the last quarter century,
more than twenty million humans have been victims of slavery and
have had horrible deaths … I have realized, through the
testimony of eye-witnesses that two million humans disappear this
way each year, … that is to say that five thousand Blacks
are massacred, kidnapped and sold each year, when you count the
victims from all Africa. It is the annihilation of a whole
continent!"
Between the 16th and the 17th centuries, it
is estimated that fifteen million Africans from Gabon, Ghana,
Togo, Ivory Coast, Benin and Nigeria have been ensnared like wild
animals and shipped to the Caribbean Islands, and from there to
South and Central America. A large proportion of them died
during the trip, while the survivors were destined to a life of
degradation and suffering. The ONU initiative for the year
2004 is meant to remind us of that human tragedy, by pointing out
that, unfortunately slavery has not completely disappeared yet.
"Antislavery International," an organisation that is
not Government sponsored, is watching over that phenomenon and
fighting all forms of oppression, and it warns us that, in many
cases, slave trading is still being done to this day under new
forms. It survives by the subjection of ethnic minorities
by the stronger groups, as is done in the Sudan. During the
last ten years, the Evangelical Association, "Christian
Solidarity International," (CSI,) which monitors that
phenomenon and fights all forms of slavery, has often warned that
this practice is surviving and finding new ways. It does so
by subjection and deprivation of civil rights for ethnic
minorities. It does so in the Sudan. Often, during
the last 10 years, CSI has spent thousands of dollars to liberate
Christian Sudanese animists from the North whom the Moslem
militia had kidnapped on behalf of the Central State. But
as soon as these were liberated, the militia caught them again,
as a way of making money. Worse still, in the Khartoum
markets they were selling children for a few dollars, and these
were sent to Thailand where they were trained as sex objects.
Recently, Thailand government mentioned that no less than 40,000
youngsters of 15 years of age, or less, were prisoners of that
kind. Or, if not prostituted in Thailand, those children
become children soldiers in Brazil. The increase in local
fighting there during the last 10 years gave rise to a new form
of slavery. According to the "Coalition to Stop the
Use of Child Soldiers," there are now some 300,000 of those
children-soldiers!
The number of slaves has never been as high as it is now. If
we believe the international bureau of labour (BIT), There exist
no less than one hundred and twenty million children condemned to
forced labour 7 days a week. When we add those exploited in
other ways, the total is close to 300 million. After a full
year studying this subject, the UNO is finally devoting a full
year to warn us about this, the worst plague of all.
Diamonds … In Sierra Leone, thousands of people dream
of finding some, so that they could live better. Bent down
along the 800 miles of "open mines" they only receive
food and a few essentials and sometimes tools. When they
find a diamond, they must pay the "boss" first, but are
not told the worth of the find. Those diamond seekers lodge
on their working strip. And they are carefully kept in debt
by the open mines' owner, who supplies all their needs at
exorbitant prices.
In Mali, South Africa, Niger and Haiti, children are often used
as servants. It is often one way of enticing them into
cities and to an education. But it is also a way to forced
labour. From outside the city, the difference between the
two is none too visible. In its last report on child
labour, the International Labour Bureau states, "In West and
Central Africa, lodging children in town families is the
traditional way of giving them a start in life. But today,
it has become the means of exploiting them. "Working
like a slave" is a well-known phrase, but the word "slave"
has a well-defined meaning that is not limited to poor working
conditions. The International Convention of 1926 on the
abolishment of slavery defines it thus, "The state or
condition of people over whom others claim ownership, or other
rights. In that type of relationship, the owner has rights
not only on their work but also on the person of the slave and
also sometimes on their children, as if they were property."
In the past, slavery was usually the result of war or of
colonisation; today it is often the result of having incurred
debts that one cannot pay back.
Being a slave means confiscation of personal identity papers,
being held in one's working place, with no outside contacts
especially with one's family, and in working conditions that are
contrary to human dignity. Added to that, there is
sometimes the cultural isolation resulting from the use of a
foreign tongue and physical violence to the slave. There
are traces of that even in Quebec. According to Louise
Dionne, the Director of the association for family help, add to
that the confiscation of identity papers, blackmail on threat of
expulsion, and isolation by forbidding the use of the telephone.
Certain categories of people are particularly vulnerable,
especially people in domestic and agricultural service, workers
in textiles and public restaurants, where migrants with little
schooling and small salaries are mostly found.
The many shapes of modern slavery also target home service,
business world and sexual abuse. Modern slavery is mostly
led by professional strangers looking for low priced or free
service. The new "boat people" are led by
criminals who steal their money from them and pack them in ships
bound for Europe. That new type of slavery will probably
increase in Europe, according to Max Henri Blois.
And then, there is the domestic slavery. According to a
report to the European Council, "more than four million
women are sold each year." Their passport is taken
away when they arrive, thus making it impossible for them to
return home. Their work, lasting fifteen or twenty hours a
day, is hardly ever paid to them. And very often they are
submitted to physical or psychological violence. Very few
of those victims dare report it to authorities for fear of the
consequences. Often these women know they are heading for
prostitution, but they do not know how dreadful it will be.
Another type of slavery is that seen in unlawful factories
run by conscienceless people who want a free labour force.
The Commemorative Year that was opened by UNESCO in Ghana on
January 10th was motivated by the conviction that
"to make the memory permanent, to prevent its being
forgotten, to bring back a memory long hidden or unknown and to
give it back the place that should be its own in the memory of
men, this is a fitting answer to our duty to remember,"
according to the words of Koichiro Matsumura, the Director of
UNESCO. He wanted thus to fight against all
contemporary forms of slavery. But this is most difficult
on account of a strong opposition.
A celebration of "purifying our memory" already took
place on October 5th, 2003, on the Gore island that
was the starting point of slaves towards America. It was
part of the 13th Plenary Assembly of the symposium of
Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SCEAM), a
celebration that blasted modern abuses as well. Its
President, Mgr Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, gave a speech then,
during a solemn Eucharist. He condemned modern slaveries,
talking primarily to African Leaders, "We condemn it and we
invite you, the Leaders of this country, to condemn all the
forms of slavery that constitute the deportation of our daughters
for prostitution, sexual tourism, the selling of children,
the forced enrolment of our children in fratricidal wars, and the
wasting of the treasures of our underground. We condemn as
well, and we invite you to condemn, all forms of discrimination
based on races, tribes and regions, which dangerously threaten
our cities."
Already, in February 1992, Pope John-Paul II, came in person to
Goré, to ask pardon for the crime against humanity that was the
forced emigration of African peoples towards America, their
enslavement, the unsanitary conditions on the ships carrying them
there." On his way back from Dakar, the Pope stopped
on Goré Island and stayed at the "slaves' house,"
where he said, "During a long period of African history,
black men, women and children were forcibly brought to this small
island, separated from family and tribe, and sold like
merchandise. It can be said that this island remains in
people's minds and hearts as the black diaspora. These men,
women and children were the victims of a shameful enterprise that
involved even baptized people who betrayed their faith. How
can we forget that immense suffering imposed against all
elementary human rights? It is fitting that we now confess
in humility and truth that horrendous sin against humanity, and
against our God."
According to Francis Kpatinde, of the magazine L'Intelligent, (31
December 2003,) "If some few western countries and the
Vatican have apologized to black people for the slave trade, no
Arab nation, so far, has shown, to this day, the same disposition
towards the millions of offspring of those slaves in Yemen,
Arabia, India, China or elsewhere. This is a pity, as the
majority of Arabs, today, are mostly Africans.
Sylvia Brunel, the ex-president of ONG (action against hunger,)
asks, in a special issue of "L'Histoire," (October 2003,)
"Does the West have to apologize for the trade in ebony?"
No, says she with many arguments, that trade was not the monopoly
of the West, the demographic and economical impact has been
exaggerated. If financial retribution is considered, to
whom should it be paid? Many Africans have been enriched by
that trade. The opinion of the magazine is that it is less
important to confess past sins than to avoid present abuses.
Maybe, but doing the one does not reduce the need for the other.
Michel
Fortin, W.F.