Slavery Abolished

[MrsTrellisfromNorthWales]

Around 7,000 people living as slaves in Niger will be told today that they are free for the first time in their lives, as the government begins to enforce a law banning the practice of slavery.

 

The government is expected to hold a ceremony in the western Niger town of Tillaberi, on the edge of the Sahara, to explain the law to people who have spent their whole lives as the property of their masters.

 

The chief of the In Ates region will free all slaves in the area under his control, where entrenched slavery means 95 % of the population are owned and controlled by the other 5%.

 

The announcement marks the first major push by the government to publicise an anti-slavery law passed in May 2004. At least 43,000 people live as part of an established slave class in across Niger, according to a study carried out in 2003 by Niger anti-slavery organisation Timidria in collaboration with Anti-Slavery International.

 

Slaves in Niger are generally born into an established slave class that works without pay for masters who control every aspect of their lives. Babies are taken from their mothers to prevent bonds being formed in families, and sexual assault and rape are widespread. Slaves are given as gifts or inherited among the slave-owning class.

 

Those held in bondage have little access to radio and are largely illiterate, so few realise that the law says they can leave their masters if they wish. For many, a lack of economic prospects may mean life does not change very much even once they have been officially freed.

 

"This is the first step towards their full emancipation," said Romana Cacchioli of Anti-Slavery International. "Slaves are considered animals and have been treated as such."

 

Ms Cacchioli said that the full implications of freedom would probably not be apparent to people who have lived all their lives in bondage, and that a major programme of civil education and humanitarian assistance would be necessary to engage the huge slave class as full and equal citizens.

 

"We need to explain to them what being a citizen means. Masters no longer have control over their lives, masters cannot make them work for no pay, masters cannot control who they marry or take their children away," she said.

 

Niger is one of the world's poorest countries, with an average life expectancy of just 42 years and over 60% of the population living in poverty. Freed slaves will face a stark lack of resources, as masters still own the animals, equipment and agricultural resources on which the largely agrarian economy depends.

 

The Niger government does not have the resources to back up the criminalisation of slavery, Ms Cacchioli said, and she hoped that the French and British governments, along with international aid agencies, would provide much-needed assistance to set up schools, provide access to clean water, and provide livestock and seeds to freed slaves.

 

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said the British government had no involvement in Niger's attempts to free its slave population, though it had engaged in talks with Niger on debt relief.

 

Despite the challenges they face, Ms Cacchioli said the reaction from freed slaves she had spoken to was overwhelmingly hopeful.

 

The younger generation would probably take greater immediate advantage of the situation, and there was a lot of anger among young male slaves in particular, she said, adding that the courts in Niger were already hearing cases of slaves fighting for freedom from masters who refused to acknowledge the new law.

 

"We would rather work through mediation, but if there are masters who refuse to release slaves then we will not hesitate to use the courts," she said.

[P.K.]

The slaves of the Sahara desert saw their hopes for freedom dashed yesterday after the planned liberation of 7,000 of their number was suddenly cancelled.

 

A mass freeing of slaves would have taken place at a ceremony in the West African state of Niger, but it was called off when none of the event's intended beneficiaries turned up.

 

A Touareg chief, Arisal Amagh, had originally agreed to free all the slaves held in the Ates area, near Niger's western border with Mali, in the presence of both government ministers and Timidria, an anti-slavery group. But the hoped for spectacle degenerated into farce when none of the 7,000 made it to the event.

 

Timidria accused the authorities of sabotaging the event. "The slaves and their masters have been scared by the government and it's for that reason that no slaves are present," said Weila Ilglas, leader of Timidria. But a spokesman for the interior ministry denied the charge and said the government had threatened no one.

 

Niger banned slavery as recently as May 2003. Yet human rights groups say that about 43,000 of the country's citizens are still held as chattels and unpaid labourers, mainly by Tuareg nomads roaming the fringe of the Sahara.

 

Niger straddles the ancient caravan routes, used by slaves for millennia as they were taken from West Africa across the Sahara to lives of servitude in Arabia.

 

Under French colonial rule, Niger's slave markets were closed. But France declined to stamp out the ownership of slaves, preferring to classify them as "voluntary labourers".

 

In practice, slavery is still widespread.

 

According to the custom of centuries, it is passed down the generations, with children born into slavery and the ownership of their parents' master.