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Traditional
Slavery in Niger
Slave
woman in Niger
Traditional
still slavery exists in many parts of the world.
This page deals with traditional slavery in the
République du Niger in West Africa. These slaves are
owned by the Tuareg, who are nomads.
The
slaves work herding animals, in small scale agriculture
and in domestic labor. Slave children are usually
separated from their parents while quite young in order
to sever the bond between parent and child. The
slaves are beaten and, if they are female, they are
raped. Sometimes male slaves are castrated by
their masters.
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The
precise number of slaves in Niger is
uncertain. One estimate states that there
are 43,000 slaves. Another estimate states
there are as many as 870,000 slaves.
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The
same, or very similar, traditional institutions of
slavery, exist in Chad, Mali and Mauritania.
Slavery
was abolished on paper in what is now Niger by the
French Republic when Niger was a French colony.
Niger retained those French laws when it gained full
independence from the French Republic in 1960. In
May 2003 the National Assembly passed a law prohibiting
slavery and imposing a heavy fine. However, the
government of the Republic has been reluctant to enforce
the law.
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This
month, a chief in the Inates district —
Tuareg Aristal — announced
that he intended to manumit 7,000 of his slaves
because, as he said, slavery was “incompatible
with the Koran”. The
Koran is the holy book of Islam and is regarded
as the word of God by Muslims throughout the
world. |
Representatives
of the government of the Republic were invited to the
ceremony of manumission. However, they declined to
accept the invitation on the grounds that, as the
government of the Republic asserts, slavery does not
exist in Niger.
This
is not as surprising as it seems. Foreign
governments frequently announce in public that there are
no slave in their jurisdictions, but the Society and
others can easily find them!
A
different form of slavery — in this
instance, a non-traditional form of slavery — exists in
the goldmines in Niger, where children work in terrible
conditions.
Other
forms of traditional slavery exist in parts of Ghana,
Benin, Togo, Nigeria and Somalia.
In
addition to these, slave traders traffic children from
Togo, Benin and Nigeria into non-traditional forms of
slavery in Gabon and Cameroon.
The
material in this report is based on an interview by the Society's
Secretary-General broadcast on the ABC on March 9, 2005
at 9.30 pm.
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Links
to other pages dealing with this issue:
Current
campaigns
Links
to other pages dealing with slavery in West Africa:
West
African slave trade
Traditional
slavery in West Africa
Links
to other pages dealing with slavery:
Does
slavery still exist?
What
is slavery?
Child
slavery in South Asia
Hierodulic
servitude in South Asia
Odalisques
Rescuing
slaves
Slavery
Convention 1926
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