When we discuss slavery, the imagery conceived is usually that of Africans who lived in yester years, far gone by and were transported in extremely horrible conditions to the Americas and the Caribbeans to slave away in plantations. Well, the truth of the matter is that slavery exists in Africa till this day (2009) even as I am hitting my key board, putting this piece together.

The Trans Atlantic and Trans Sahara slave trade, may have become matters of the distant past. It is true that Abraham Lincoln has long abolished slavery in America and William Wilberforce has since succeeded in his noble struggle to ensure the abolition of the Slave trade in England. However, many communities around the world, especially in Africa are still keeping persons in ostracization and bondage as slaves. In many parts of Africa, children are born into slavery and the system keeps them bonded to the shackles of slavery, all the days of their lives. The question that begs for an answer is; What is the African Union and all the African governments and rulers, doing about this totally unacceptable state of affairs ?

In many African communities today, millions of men, women and children are forced to live as slaves. Usually, the arrangements that keep these brother Africans enslaved are known by various euphemistical verbal contraptions; however, slavery is slavery. Whenever persons are exploited and made to work without pay or work without alternative options, for just enough to exist ; such conditions without equivocation amounts to absolute slavery.

Pursuant to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1956 UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, were all prohibited.

As we all know, declarations are on a different divide from the real situation. For instance, African women and young girls are regularly sold into sexual slavery all over Europe, especially in Italy. These women and young girls are made to sacrifice their dignity, psychological, mental and physical health, while slaving away to repay the pimps who ferried them to Europe, under the guise, that they were taking these naive and helpless African females to Europe for a better life. Many of these women and girls do not even make it to Europe. Many are subjected to bestiality and other forms of degrading sado-masochist sexual abuses in Europe. Usually, these victims are subjected to this forced sexual slavery by their greedy and ignorant relatives, who view these enslaved persons as their passports to sudden riches. The worst culprits are the African governments whose citizens are on the receiving end of this modern day slavery; and who prefer to shed only crocodile tears as this ugly and monstrously evil occurrence is reducing Africa’s daughters to sub human existence. Then again, where is the African Union and African governments and rulers as a strong continental body and national governments that should bring much weight to bear, to help stop this hugely embarrassing evil.

The Conventions of the International Labour Organization, and the 1926 and 1956 Slavery Conventions, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are all against the abuse of Children, yet Children are abused with reckless abandon all over Africa.

Article 32 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), states:

"State Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development."

Convention 182 of the International Labor Organization (1999): addresses the Child Slavery issue. The major purpose of Convention 182 is the eradication of Child slavery cum labor. The Convention calls on all government to ratify the convention and tackle head on the problem of unjustified enslavement of children. The convention encourages governments to eradicate child labor cum slavery, as the practice dehumanizes man. However these conventions remain just conventions that are not known to those dubious Africans who choose to enslave and or sell and transport fellow Africans as slaves to foreign lands.

In several parts of Africa, children are forced to labor without pay as slaves. Some of these children are handed out by their parents to wealthier folks as house helps. The suppressive conditions in which these children exist, is simply slavery of the worst kind. Usually children are transported across countries to slave away as bonded servants in farms and homes all over West Africa, and the African Union and African governments, have no laws and enforcement mechanisms in place to stop this evil. The way children are used as servants in Africa is intolerably unacceptable. Children who work as domestic servants, are known to work round the clock without compensation. These children are beaten mercilessly at will. These children are treated worse than animals. Many crooks employ children to work in their firms, because it is easier to manipulate these children out of their wages. When children are employed, they are made to work without pay or are grossly under paid. These children are usually physically, mentally, psychologically, sexually and emotionally abused. The children are forced to work extremely long hours without pay and are forced to work under very dangerous conditions. What kind of government will allow her citizens, especially children to be enslaved at home and be transported to foreign lands as slaves. Many African Children are forced to work as soldiers and beggars. Virtually all these children, if they are lucky to survive their terribly traumatic childhood, will never have the opportunity to go to school and be properly educated. Thus their ability to acquire skills and have a secured adulthood is denied. Again, one is forced to ask, what is the African Union and Africa’s individual national governments and rulers doing about these abuses being visited upon Africa’s children ? When one considers the humiliation, bondage, untold suffering and human degradation these children are forced to endure, one then begin to wonder, why the African Union and African governments have not deemed it fit, to fight really hard and tough to eradicate this evil of child slavery and indeed every form of human slavery.

In many African communities men are forced to work as slaves for their wealthier neighbors. The system that helps to bring about the enslavement of men in many African communities is known as Bonded Labor. Bonded labor in effect means compulsory servitude. Bonded labor is usually achieved by a creditor giving out a soft loan to a neighbor, at such a very onerous interest rate, that the borrower cannot pay back the soft loan. The consequence, would be that the borrower and his wife and children and generations yet unborn will perpetually become enslaved to the lender as the soft loan’s interest, keeps compounding. Persons and families who are the victims of the practice of bonded labor, could work for every day in a year for all the years of their life and still never be able to repay the capital and full interest on the loan. Victims of bonded servitude, usually farm and labor for their masters and receive only enough food to barely keep them alive.

In the words of Justice PN Bhagwati, of the Indian Supreme Court," [Bonded laborers] are non-beings, exiles of civilization, living a life worse than that of animals, for the animals are at least free to roam about as they like… This system, under which one person can be bonded to provide labor for another for years and years until an alleged debt is supposed to be wiped out, which never seems to happen during the lifetime of the bonded laborer, is totally incompatible with the new egalitarian socio-economic order which we have promised to build…" The learned Judge very eloquently captured the very essence and soul of this dastardly and heinous evil

Another class of slaves are young women who are forced into early marriage and forced to remain in such marital servitude. These class of women are usually kept in such hostile and enslaving union by verbal intimidation, physical violence, oppression and other assorted forms of abuse. The stories of these women have never really been fully told. Such women can end up becoming just a number in a harem of tens of women. Such marriages are usually marriages only in name. The girls are usually forced into such marital servitude in as early as evil 12 or 13 years old. The indigent relatives of such bride victims are usually culprits in these forced marriages. Due to the inhuman condition, in which these women are kept, many live their entire lives terribly traumatized. Now, what are the African governments led by the African Union doing about these practices ?

What is very worrisome about the slavery still ravaging and decimating Africa up till this day, is the failure of Africa’s rulers and the African Union to identify poverty as the root cause of this modern day slavery and promptly initiate a comprehensive anti-poverty program to aggressively attack and stop the enslavement of African men, women, boys and girls any where and every where on the African continent. African governments have always operated like the government is only for the ruling class and the masses for themselves. The African Union exists only in the pages of newspapers as far as the everyday Africans on the streets are concerned. It is time for the African Union, African rulers and African governments to be refocused and come to grips with the fact that they exist for the people and must fight the ills that threatens and bedevils the African people.

According to Robert E. Lee "There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil". One of the programs, African governments must initiate to fight this monstrous moral and political evil known as slavery, is that Children all over Africa must be given the opportunity to enjoy free, qualitative and compulsory education from the primary to the tertiary level. Children must not be made to work to be able to fund their education. Women and youths must be assisted and trained freely to be equipped with skills to enable them function as responsible members of the society, who are able to cater and care for their families without the need to turn to crimes or become bonded servants.

African governments must endeavor to create gainful employment for their citizens. Governments in Africa must focus seriously and massively on the development of infrastructure and the maintenance of existing infrastructure to help attract investors, who would help create jobs for the people. Corruption must be fought to a tolerable minimum and where possible, completely wiped out, and laws updated to attract foreign and local investors to invest funds in Africa and help create jobs for Africans.

African governments must do everything necessary to eradicate slavery and the African Union must lead the offensive against slavery.