Slavery report in modern Africa more
complicated than the media tells
By Jonathan Elendu
Special to
USAfricaonline.com
USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
This
week started with our continent, Africa, in the headlines. A few
weeks back, Africa was on the cover of TIME on the account of the
Aids epidemic in the motherland. Now it is a slave ship emanating
from Cotonu in Benin Republic and heading to God knows where. This is
another sad episode of notoriety which does no one any good. Sadly,
this is a story which even our journalists could not write or did not
know about.
I confess, I neither knew, nor heard, of child slavery when I lived in Nigeria. Since the story broke I have been searching for related stories and have come up with very little. The main reason for my search for more information on this is to know whether this is a new phenomenon or has been going on for long. Incidentally, African newspapers don't say much concerning this story.
I have asked myself and others a few questions on the child slavery issue: Could this be a misunderstanding of the extended family culture of Africans? Could the Western media be giving a wrong interpretation of a normal way of life in Africa, where children assist their mothers in domestic chores? Could Africans in 2001 AD be selling their fellow Africans for money? How can blacks in the Western world be angry for being sold into slavery centuries ago, if their kinsmen in the motherland are still carrying on with the practice?
What have the leaders of countries whose citizens engage in this inhuman practice done? Although I was raised in a middle-class home in the city of Aba, Nigeria, I know that life was not always rosy for us. I was less than two years old when the Nigerian civil war broke and we lost everything and had to survive by the grace of God. My mother and sisters told me how tough life was for us, as well as other Biafrans, and yet not once did my family or others consider selling any one of us as a way to survive.
What has happened in this period of relative peace that would motivate people to sell their own children? I am well aware of the practice of "employing" young people to help out in homes. I grew up with people like these in our home. They were not treated differently. They attended the same schools with us. They ate the same kind of food, and at the same time, with us. My mother introduced them as her children and treated them as such. Some of these people are living well today in many cities in Nigeria. When I started my TV show at Nigerian television, Aba, one of the producers that was assigned to me was one of those that grew up in our home. He treated me like a younger brother.
Could this be what is reported as child/slave labor by the Western press? The parents of the people who lived with us brought them to our home and pleaded with my mother to raise them. They may not have had the opportunity of getting an education and probably would have ended up in similar situation as their parents if my mother had not taken them in. I know that practices like these abound in Nigeria. I know that some children in this process are abused and used in inappropriate ways. But this is not a very common thing where I come from.
In Africa, raising a child is a collective exercise. The entire family, nuclear and extended, is involved. More affluent members of the family or community help the less fortunate ones by paying school fees, providing clothing and food for their children. Sometimes, the children go to live with them and it becomes their full responsibility to raise these children to become worthy members of the community. These children in turn take care of these people in their old age. This practice is as old as the continent. Traditionally, Africans see all children as being members of their family. Growing up I never knew the meaning of the word: cousin. I had brothers and sisters, irrespective of the fact that we had different fathers and mothers. The Benin Republic Ambassador to the United States, Cyrille Oguin, explained this practice on CNN this morning. I doubt that the CNN anchors, Leon Harris and Daryn Kagan, who conducted this interview, understood the man.
Sadly, from all indications, slavery is alive and well. This is not restricted to the continent of Africa alone. It is practiced also in Asia. Slavery was banned sometime in 1880. It took a few years for the ban to really take effect. Those who fought for the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century must be turning in their graves with the news that slavery is still continuing into the twenty-first century.
I believe poverty and unscrupulous individuals are the culprits behind this trade. Poor parents are promised a better future for their children by so-called "benevolent" men and women. The unsuspecting parents happily hand over their children to these criminals who, in turn, sell them as slaves to those who make them work in all kinds of places, including factories, hotels, cocoa farms, and even homes. Unfortunately, many of the girls are sold to brothels, that introduce them to the sex trade.
This problem of modern day slavery goes beyond poverty and unscrupulous individuals. It is also a problem of leadership in Africa. Leaders in Africa have, through their actions and inaction, impoverished the continent. The African continent is regarded as the poorest in the world yet no one can claim that the continent is not richly endowed in human and natural resources. The white man looted Africa to develop his own land and after he left the new African leaders continued the looting. Instead of developing his land with his loot, he took it to the white man's land and deposited in their banks. Hence, Switzerland and other parts of Europe with less natural resources than Africa have a higher GDP and per capita income than all the African countries put together. African loot is used by Europe and America to provide social amenities and to build infrastructures that Africans only read about or see on television.
African leaders see themselves as maximum rulers. They ride on the shoulders of the people to power and forget them as soon as they are sworn into office. Today, Africa has the unenviable position of the most corrupt continent in the world. Mobutu Sese Seko, Idi Amin, Sani Abacha, Kerekou, Ibrahim Babangida, Charles Taylor, Samuel Doe, Abdusalami Abubakar, Umaru Dikko, and many more living and dead, are reputed to have billions of dollars stashed away in foreign lands yet, with the exception of Umaru Dikko, all these men were public servants from very early age until the time they died or were forced out of government.
Some of the individuals listed above are dead, yet their deeds are being suffered by the living while their offspring live in unimaginable splendor. I know Nigerians whose homes would be the envy of some of the richest people in Europe and America. Yet, only a few feet from these palaces, one is confronted by abject poverty. Ibrahim Babangida's country home is located on a five mile square, and is equipped with every amenity he had at Aso Rock, which is the official residence of the Nigerian President. Yet this man enlisted in the Army as a teenager and stayed there until he was forced out of office as the President of Nigeria.
Our continent is ravaged by AIDS. Our people are selling their children to put food on the table and second hand clothes on their backs, yet, not one of the so-called leaders have articulated a way out. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) has shown ineptitude in our time of need. Instead they beg foreign donors for assistance. Yet we have a former Nigerian head of State paying money to a university in America to have lectures instituted in his honor.
Whatever happened to the maxim: Charity begins at home? In the primitive days, intertribal wars led to the perpetuation of slavery. Today, civil wars caused by greed have made our continent the number one "exporter" of refugees. This has become a problem for the entire world community and yet our leaders are not ashamed to raise their heads with pride.
One wonders if they care what their guests from Europe and America think of them when they show off their ill-gotten wealth in the midst of squalor? This problem of slavery has been perpetuated by the entire global community. People who invest in businesses that employ child or slave labor are guilty of slavery as accessories. Those who use products or wear sweatshirts made by child laborers are reaping the benefits of slavery and must hold themselves accountable for this crime. In the same vein, banks and financial institutions that invest and manage funds stolen from Africa by unscrupulous people are also guilty of robbing the continent, through association.
Democracy in Africa has been a mockery. May be we are not ripe for it. A prominent economist once said that the Nigerian economy defies all known economic principles. Maybe our political system has taken the same route. Dictators cart away our resources and put nothing back. Politicians have not done better. They guzzle our wealth like it is about to go out of fashion. To make ends meet, our people are begging and selling their own children.
Yet again, I must ask the international community for assistance.
World leaders should stop hobnobbing with African leaders who are
corrupt or run corrupt administrations. They should commit to helping
Africa recover her stolen wealth stashed away in banks in Europe and
America. Aid to African countries must be tied to some proof of
transparency and performance. It is time for the Western governments
to side with the people instead of big business and politicians. The
saying "Show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are" must also
apply to them as well.
Elendu is a columnist for USAfricaonline.com and
NigeriaCentral.com. Readers reaction to this viewpoint will be
published.
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Since 1958, Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" set a standard of artistic excellence, and more. By Douglas Killam  THE
FIRST
BLACK AFRICAN
POPE?
To our Brother Cardinal
Arinze: May your pastoral lineage endure!'Kwanzaa's relevance to be measured in daily efforts of people of African descent.' 
Should Africa debates begin and end at
The
New York Times and
The
Washington Post?
Nigeria at 40: punish financial thuggery, build domestic infrastructure A trial of two cities and struggle for justice. By Jack E. White, Time magazine columnist for USAfricaonline.com Johnnie Cochran will soon learn that defending Abacha's loot is not as simple as his O.J Simpson's case. By Chido Nwangwu COMMUNITY
INTERESTWhy the revisionist forces of racist oppression in South Africa should not be allowed to intimidate Ron and Charlayne Gault. Church bombed in Sudan: How 3 American missionaries miraculously escaped death. USAfricaonline.com Special and Exclusive report by Elise Glading MUSICThe sultry and smoking voice of Nigerian-born international singer Sade Adu, simply known as Sade, is already rocking the world, again, with her latest album |
In
a special report soon after after the history-making
nomination, 
in Obasanjo is abusing 
CONTINENTAL
AGENDA
he
said that "Africa will not be an area of priority" in his
presidency has been questioned by
USAfricaonline.com Publisher Chido
Nwangwu. He added that Bush's "pre-election position was
neither validated by the economic exchanges nor
geo-strategic interests of our two continents." These views
were stated during an interview CNN's anchor Bernard Shaw
and senior analyst Jeff Greenfield had with Mr. Nwangwu on
Saturday November 18, 2000 during a special edition of
'Inside Politics 2000.'