How Human Trafficking Began.

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS: THE GENESIS

The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.

-       Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900)

Introduction

The trafficking in human beings is as old as mankind. Pre-historic account of human beings sold into slavery as a result of war, debt bondage, and other exploitative reasons abound. In Africa, slavery was practiced by the Africans years before the advent of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Slavery and the slave trade that followed thereafter were an integral part of African societies and states which supplied the Arab world with enslaved people for centuries, before the arrival of the Europeans.

An Overview of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.

The transatlantic slave trade was the trading, primarily of African people to the colonies of the then New World that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. While most people associate slavery with 18^th and 19^th century America, the truth is that the African slave trade started long before America became involved. The African slave trade inside Africa itself was common in Ghana and Nigeria in the 18^th century, where economic power depended largely on the selling of hand labourers to neighbouring estates. Slavery inside Africa was often not for life. Slaves had the option of buying their liberty, and were normally paid enough that they could do it over again after a certain number of years.

According to David Stannard’s American Holocaust, fifty per cent of African deaths occurred in Africa as a result of wars between native kingdoms, which produced the majority of slaves. The practice of enslaving enemy combatants and their villages was widespread throughout western and west central Africa, although wars were rarely started to procure slaves. The slave trade was largely a by-product of tribal and state warfare as a way of removing potential dissidents after victory or financing future wars. Tribes and nations would war over territories or other common causes, and the victors would punish their captives by selling them into slavery. Those slaves were either sold to other tribes, or to other nations.

However, it was the involvement of Arabians and Europeans that turned slavery into commerce and a wealth spinning venture. The kings of certain kingdoms in Africa made brisk business out of the trade. The transatlantic slave trade began around the mid fifteenth century when Portuguese interests in Africa moved away from the fabled deposits of gold to much more readily available commodity- slaves. And by the seventeenth century, the trade was in full swing, reaching a peak towards the end of the eighteenth century.

The demographic effects of the slave trade are some of the most controversial and debated issues. Records sampled from variegated statistics show that, more than ten million people were removed from Africa via slave trade and the effect this had on Africa is an important question for debate.

End of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade

In Britain, Portugal and some other parts of Europe, opposition developed against the slave trade. On the 28^th of October 1787, William Wilberforce wrote in his diary

“God Almighty has set before me two great objects,

the suppression of slave trade and the reformation of the society”.

For the rest of his life, William Wilberforce dedicated his life as a member of parliament to opposing the slave trade and working for the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire. It must be noted that, at that time, Britain was the worst transgressor- responsible for almost fifty per cent of slaves transported from Africa.

On the 22^nd February 1807, twenty years after he first began his struggle, and in the middle of Britain’s war with France, Wilberforce and his team were rewarded with victory. By an overwhelming 283 votes for to 16 against, the motion to abolish the slave trade was carried in the House of Commons.

Although slaves were not officially declared free in 1807, they were however, freed in 1833 when the slavery abolition Act was passed. The rest of Europe followed close behind. Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over fifty African rulers. The British campaign against the slave trade by other nations was, thus, an unprecedented foreign policy effort.

The State of Slavery Today

Is slavery extinct? Sadly, the answer to this question is a classical NO. According to Anti-Slavery International, over 27 million people around the world are slaves, and at least 200 million people exist in some form of bondage. Many people are surprised to learn that modern slavery is a thriving industry; because they associate the term ‘slavery’ with the triangular trade that once existed between Europe, Africa and America. Technically, slavery is globally banned, but people are still bought and sold in slave markets, and are also coerced to work through physical, mental and economic threats.

A slave is not merely someone who is treated as property which can be bought or sold. If someone is forced to work through threats and intimidation, he or she is a slave because, the work is not being undertaken with free will. An individual, who is also heavily controlled by his or her employer, whether physically, mentally, or financially, is also a slave. More so, restriction on a person’s freedom of movement can also be considered a form of slavery. This is because many slaves work in chains, or are not permitted to leave certain areas without reprisals.

There are different types of modern slavery today. This includes human trafficking, bonded labour, child labour, forced labour, and forced marriage.