Slavery is, in the strictest sense of the term, any system in which principles of property law are applied to people, allowing individuals to own, buy and sell fellow individuals as a form of property. It could also be an institution or social practice of owning human beings as property, especially for use as forced laborers.
Slavery could come in form of:-
1. Bonded Labour
2. Forced Labour
3. Forced Marriage
4. Child Slavery/ Labour
5. Human Trafficking.
Modern Day Slavery.
Slavery did not end with its abolition in the 19th century. Slavery continues today and harms people in every country of the world including Nigeria - Women forced into prostitution, people forced to work on farms, domestic works and factories.
A person is said to be in slavery if:
- Forced to work - Through coercion or mental/ physical threat.
- Owned or controlled by an "employer" through mental/ physical abuse or the threat to abuse.
- Dehumanized - Treated as a commodity or bought and sold as "property".
- Physically constrained or have restrictions placed on their freedom of movement.
As much as everyone condemns this act in Libya and any other part of the world today, i would love to draw our attention to other forms of slavery practiced right under our nose here in Nigeria. The form of slavery falls under "Bonded" or "forced" labour.
Under every normal circumstance, the job of a domestic worker should not spell slavery or subjugation of any kind but in most Nigerian homes today, domestic workers are more or less slaves who work from dawn to dawn earning little or nothing more than filthy rags and fear engrossed on their faces and actions. Unlike in the past when families go to their villages to get domestic workers, people now go as far as neighboring countries like Ghana, Togo and Benin Republic to import young girls as domestic workers all in the name of giving them a better life and opportunity but at the end of the day, they end up as slaves, maltreated, molested, rapped and robbed off their livelihood.
"At age 10, Titi was taken from her family in the Republic of Benin, and brought to Nigeria to become a domestic help to a family of six. Now aged 12, Titi neither knows her surname, nor heritage. The young child works round the clock cooking, cleaning, washing and scrubbing.Upon leaving their homes, most of these victims are promised better lives, education and all sorts of goodies but on getting to their places of work, they begin to experience the opposite. Their masters/ mistresses even go as far as excommunicating them from the outside world, inflicting fear and pain in the lives of their victims, these victims also loose contact with their families and loved ones; faced with various kind of harsh conditions, they resort to fate or eventually elope.
In a recent article titled ‘A day in the life of a … house girl,’ Nigerian novelist, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani tells the story of a twelve year old domestic help named Titi. The story is a detailed example of the typical life of most child domestic workers in Africa, only this time, the subject is in a slightly better environment".
Tsiga local government area of Katsina State, a Northern Christian community is another place where some Nigerians go shopping for domestic workers/ slaves.
The system/ practice of slavery in every sense of it is illegal and inhuman, it must be condemned on every level and at every point; be it in a corporate, social or domestic setting. Until we begin to draw the attention of the general public to this aspect of slavery that we take for granted and put a stop to it through every means possible, the idea that slave trade and slavery has been abolished will be nothing but an illusion.
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