Introduction
I’m writing this because it’s Black History Month. Slavery in all its various forms is, was and always has been a part of African culture and it wouldn’t be black history without it. If you’ve ever wondered why Caribbean nations aren’t asking Africa for reparations, it’s because they’re not stupid. African society has slavery down to a fine art, integrating it into culture, domestic, commercial, industrial, religious and military life. It wasn’t ashamed of slavery in the 19th century, was reluctant to give it up in the 20th century and still today, they keep pigmies as pets.
You might ask yourself what your country’s foreign aid budget is for. Here is a list of countries which we should not perhaps reward:
Slavery in the Sahel region (and to a lesser extent the Horn of Africa) exists along the racial and cultural boundary of Arabized Berbers in the north and darker Africans in the south. Slavery in the Sahel states of Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Sudan in particular, continues a centuries-old pattern of hereditary servitude. Other forms of traditional slavery exist in parts of Ghana, Benin, Togo and Nigeria. There are other, non-traditional forms of slavery in Africa today, mostly involving human trafficking and the enslavement of child soldiers and child labourers, e.g. human trafficking in Angola, and human trafficking of children from Togo, Benin and Nigeria to Gabon and Cameroon.
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 Liberia, Sierra Leone, northern Uganda, Congo, Niger and Mauritania. In Ghana, Togo, and Benin, a form of (forced) 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.
Wikipedia
In case you think I made all this up, or worse still, wrote it myself.
“Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were once commonplace in parts of Africa, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient and medieval world. When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Red Sea slave trade, and Indian Ocean slave trade began, many of the pre-existing local African slave systems began supplying captives for slave markets outside Africa. Slavery in contemporary Africa is still practised despite it being illegal.
In the relevant literature African slavery is categorized into indigenous slavery and export slavery, depending on whether or not slaves were traded beyond the continent. Slavery in historical Africa was practised in many different forms: Debt slavery, enslavement of war captives, military slavery, slavery for prostitution, and enslavement of criminals were all practised in various parts of Africa. Slavery for domestic and court purposes was widespread throughout Africa.
Forms of Slavery in Africa today
Chattel slavery is a specific servitude relationship where the slave is treated as the property of the owner. They can be bought and sold
Domestic service – Many slave relationships in Africa revolved around domestic slavery, where slaves would work primarily in the house of the master, but retain some freedoms.
Forced labour, which can be different from slavery, 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 Pygmy peoples are usually victims of their Bantu neighbours: “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.”
The trading of children has been reported in modern Nigeria and Benin. 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.
In April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 female students from Chibok, Borno. 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.
Pawnship, or Debt Bondage Slavery, involves the use of people as collateral to secure the repayment of debt. Slave labour is performed by the debtor, or a relative of the debtor (usually a child). Pawnship was a common form of collateral in West Africa and was a common practice throughout West Africa prior to European contact, including among the Akan people, the Ewe people, the Ga people, the Yoruba people, and the Edo people (in modified forms, it also existed among the Efik people, the Igbo people, the Ijaw people, and the Fon people).
Military slavery involved the acquisition and training of conscripted military units which would retain the identity of military slaves even after their service. Slave soldier groups would be run by a patron, who could be the head of a government or an independent warlord, and who would send his troops out for money and his own political interests.
Slaves for sacrifice – Human sacrifice was common in West African states up to and during the 19th century.
The Annual Customs of Dahomey were the most notorious example of human sacrifice of slaves, where 500 prisoners would be sacrificed. Sacrifices were carried out all along the West African coast and further inland. Sacrifices were common in the Benin Empire, in what is now Ghana, and in the small independent states in what is now southern Nigeria. In the Ashanti Region, human sacrifice was often combined with capital punishment.
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. 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.”
Slavery After World War II
“The ancient Red Sea slave trade, which transported enslaved Africans to the Arabian Peninsula across the Red Sea, continued until the 1960s. The annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the Hajj, was a big vehicle for enslavement. Muslim African Hajj pilgrims across the Sahara were duped or given low-cost travel expenses by tribal leaders; when they arrived at the East Coast, they were trafficked over the Red Sea in the dhows of the Red Sea slave trade or on small passenger planes, and discovered upon arrival in Saudi Arabia that they were to be sold on the slave market rather than to perform the Hajj.
Slavery in Islamic societies has been described as a benevolent institution, and King Abd al Aziz Ibn Saud remarked to the British legation officer that West Africans lived like beasts, that they were much better off as slaves, and that if he had his way he would take all (West African) pilgrims as his slaves, raising them thus out of their depraved state and turning them into happy, prosperous and civilised beings.
After World War II, chattel slavery was formally abolished by law in almost the entire world, with the exception of the Arabian Peninsula and some parts of Africa. Chattel slavery was still legal in Saudi Arabia, in Yemen, in the Trucial States and in Oman, and slaves were supplied to the Arabian Peninsula via the Red Sea slave trade. Slavery in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates did not end until the 1960s and 1970s.
Colonial nations were mostly successful in their aim to abolish slavery, though slavery is still very active in Africa even though it has gradually moved to a wage economy. Independent nations attempting to westernize or impress Europe sometimes cultivated an image of slavery suppression, even as they, in the case of Egypt, hired European soldiers like Samuel White Baker’s expedition up the Nile. Slavery has never been eradicated in Africa, and it commonly appears in African states, such as Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, and Sudan, in places where law and order have collapsed.
In Mauritania alone, up to 600,000 men, women and children, or 20% of the population, are enslaved, many of them used as bonded labour. Slavery in Mauritania was finally criminalized in August 2007. During the Second Sudanese Civil War people were taken into slavery; estimates of abductions range from 14,000 to 200,000. In Niger, where the practice of slavery was outlawed in 2003, a study found that almost 8% of the population were still slaves.”
10 African countries with the highest levels of modern-day slavery
20 March 2024
According to the latest Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, approximately 50 million people in the world are considered modern-day slaves. These estimates, collected by the International Labour Organization (ILO), Walk Free, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), serve as the foundation for Walk Free’s flagship report, the Global Slavery Index (GSI), which presents national estimates of modern slavery for 160 countries.
Eritrea ranks number one on this list, and number 2 globally after North Korea.
With that said, here are the 10 African countries with the highest levels of modern-day slavery, based on prevalence rate.
Rank Country Prevalence rate
1. Eritrea 90.3
2. Mauritania 32.0
3. South Sudan 10.3
4. Republic of Congo 8.0
5. Equatorial Guinea 7.8
6. Nigeria 7.8
7. Gabon 7.6
8. Burundi 7.5
9. Côte d’Ivoire 7.3
10. Djibouti 7.1
Modern slavery is most prevalent in Africa, where 9.2 million live in servitude.
Source: The 2018 Modern Slavery Index
African Slavery by country
Slavery in 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.
Congo Debt bondage-like slavery is rife in parts of Congo. According to the Global Slavery Index,[44] approximately, over one million people are enslaved in the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In the Republic of Congo, where Pygmies are estimated to make up between 1.2% and 10% of the population, many Pygmies live as slaves to Bantu masters. The nation is deeply stratified between these two major ethnic groups. The Pygmy slaves belong from birth to their Bantu masters in a relationship that the Bantus call a time-honored tradition. Even though the Pygmies are responsible for much of the hunting, fishing and manual labour in jungle villages, Pygmies and Bantus alike say Pygmies are often paid at the master’s whim: in cigarettes, used clothing, or even nothing at all.[1] In 2022, after decades of facing these conditions and working to get legal protections for the Pygmies, a group of 45 indigenous organizations successfully petitioned the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government, and the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Indigenous Pygmy Peoples, the first legislation in the country that recognizes and safeguards the specific rights of the Indigenous pygmy peoples, was signed into law.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, during the Ituri Conflict, Ugandan backed rebel groups were accused by the UN of enslaving pygmies to prospect for minerals and forage for forest food, with those returning empty handed being killed and eaten.
Ethiopia Remote studies conducted in Dire Dawa, Shashemene, 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.
In Ethiopia, children are trafficked into prostitution, to provide cheap or unpaid labour, and to work as domestic servants or beggars. 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.
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. In this instance, the woman does not gain the title of “wife”. In parts of Ghana, Togo, and Benin, shrine slavery persists, despite being illegal in Ghana since 1998. This system of slavery is sometimes called trokosi (in Ghana), or voodoosi in Togo and Benin, or ritual servitude. Young virgin girls are given as slaves in traditional shrines and are used sexually by the priests, in addition to providing free labour for the shrine.
Mali Slavery continues to exist in Mali in all ethnic groups of the country but particularly among the Tuareg communities. The French formally abolished slavery in 1905, but many slaves remained with their masters until 1946 when large emancipation activism occurred. The first government of independent Mali tried to end slavery, but these efforts were undermined with the military dictatorship from 1968 until 1991. Slavery persists today with thousands of people still held in servitude.
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. In addition, with the 2012 Tuareg Rebellion, there are reports of ex-slaves being recaptured by their former masters.
Slavery by descent and the resulting violence perpetrated by so-called ‘nobles’ or ‘masters’ against people born into slavery persisted in Mali, UN experts said today, urging authorities to adopt legislation to criminalise slavery in the country without delay.
The experts said descent-based slavery was also widespread in the central and northern regions of the country, including Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal. According to Mali’s National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH), there is no data on the number of victims of slavery by descent in the country. However, some organisations estimate that at least 800,000 people are considered to be born into slavery, of whom around 200,000 live under the direct control of their “masters.”
Mauritania According to the Global Security Index Mauritania has one of the highest rates of vulnerability to slavery, ranking at number 4 in the region. A system exists now by which Arab Muslims—the bidanes—own black slaves, the haratines. An estimated 90,000 Mauritanians remain essentially enslaved. The ruling bidanes (the name means literally white-skinned people) are descendants of the Sanhaja Berbers and Beni Hassan Arab tribes who emigrated to northwest Africa and present-day Western Sahara and Mauritania during the Middle Ages. According to some estimates, up to 600,000 Mauritanians, or 20% of the population, are still enslaved, many of them used as bonded labour. Slavery in Mauritania was criminalized in August 2007. In Mauritania, despite slave ownership having been banned by law in 1981, hereditary slavery continues.
An estimated 10% to 20% of Mauritania’s 3.4 million people are enslaved — in “real slavery,” according to the United Nations’ special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Gulnara Shahinian. If that’s not unbelievable enough, consider that Mauritania was the last country in the world to abolish slavery. That happened in 1981, nearly 120 years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States. It wasn’t until five years ago, in 2007, that Mauritania passed a law that criminalized the act of owning another person. So far, only one case has been successfully prosecuted.
Niger Niger continues to have significant problems with three forms of contemporary slavery: hereditary slavery, what Anti-Slavery International terms “passive slavery”, and servile marriages called wahaya. Because of the continued problem of slavery and pressure from the Timidria organization, Niger became the first country in Western Africa to pass a law specifically criminalizing slavery.Despite the law, slavery persists throughout the different ethnic groups of the country, women are particularly vulnerable, and a 2002 census confirmed the existence of 43,000 slaves and estimated that the total population could be over 870,000 people.[87] In a landmark case in 2008, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice found the government of Niger responsible for continuing a woman’s slave status as part of a wahaya marriage and awarded her US$21,500.
Sudan Sudan has seen a resurgence of slavery since 1983, associated with the Second Sudanese Civil War. Estimates of abductions range from 14,000 to 200,000 people.
In Sudan, animist and Christian captives in the civil war are often enslaved, and female prisoners are often used sexually, with their Muslim captors claiming that Islamic law grants them permission. According to CBS News, slaves have been sold for $50 per person. In 2001, CNN reported that the Bush administration was under pressure from Congress, including conservative Christians concerned about religious oppression and slavery, to address issues involved in the Sudanese conflict.
