• About
  • Activism/Initiatives
  • Contact Us
  • Mission Statement

~ A Blog of the African Diaspora

Category Archives: Mauritania

Byts and Bytes

30 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by asabagna in Africa, AFRICOM, AfroSpear, AfroSphere, Black Issues, Mauritania, Slavery

≈ Leave a comment

  1. Two Classes, Divided by “I Do”
  2. The Morehouse Male Initiative: Black Male Statistics
  3. Obama’s Scramble for Africa
  4. Mauritania: Slavery’s Last Stronghold
  5. Echwalu Photography

Modern Day Slavery in West Africa

12 Wednesday Mar 2008

Posted by asabagna in Africa, African-Americans, Arabs, Black History, Economics, Education, Ghana, Islam, Life, Mauritania, News, Slavery, Sudan

≈ 15 Comments

In 1998 when I was planning my pilgrimage to West Africa, I was warned against visiting Mauritania. It was explained to me that slavery against the “Black” African population was still practised there by the “White” Arabs and I could therefore put my self at risk. The fear was not so much my abduction and enslavement, but certainly blatant discrimination in a hostile environment where I would have no protection by (or from) the law. Needless to say, I avoided Mauritania.

I subsequently read a book by Samuel Cotton entitled: “Silent Terror: A Journey into Contemporary African Slavery”. Published in 1999, it highlighted his research into the dynamics of modern day slavery in Mauritania and Sudan. I recently read “Slave: My True Story” by Mende Nazer, a horrifying autobiography of her 1993 abduction and enslavement in Sudan at age 12, and her flight to freedom 7 years later while working for a Sudanese diplomat in London England.

I have also read a number of articles on the issue of child slavery in West Africa today. While the system of slavery in Mauritania and Sudan is based primarily on historical and traditional social systems, the phenomenon of child slavery in West African countries is based on poverty. Parents sell their children into slavery for a few dollars and false promises that they will only be working part-time, taken care of and sent to school. It’s ironic that I had visited Ghana during my pilgrimage and toured a number of the slave castles along the coast. I even visited the slave castle in the Kormance Region, where it is very likely that my ancestor(s) were housed before being shipped off to Jamaica as slaves. Today, Ghana is one of the West African countries that has a serious problem with child slavery.

I would like to share an indepth report from last month on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation website (CBC.ca), concerning this issues of modern day slavery and child trafficking in West Africa. The link is here. There are links to the 3 articles penned by David Gutnick which discusses these topics in detail. You will also find links to previous CBC articles and other resource materials about modern day slavery.

Here is a another link to a case study and other articles by the BBC World Service pertaining to Article 4 of the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Freedom From Slavery”.

The challenge now becomes: “now that we know, what are we going to do or can do about it?”  Suggestions are welcomed.

Select language then Translate

Subscribe via Email

Subscribe to Afro Spear by Email

Subscribe via Feed

Subscribe in a reader

Recent Posts

  • U.S. District Court Judge Carlton W. Reeves Sentencing Speech to Convicted White Racist Murderers
  • Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!
  • Cornel West on BBC HARDtalk
  • The Whiteness Project
  • Cornel West: “President Obama Doesn’t Belong on Any Shirt with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X”

Recent Comments

productreview on Caster Semenya determined to b…
Dawnatilla TheHun on “Why don’t Dictato…
Briana on Stuff Black People Like…
David Rohrig on When Will America Take Respons…
Mama Ayaba on Dr. Frances Cress Welsing: 12…

AfroSphere

  • Abagond
  • Africa is a country
  • Africa on the blog
  • Africa Portal
  • African Arguments
  • African Executive
  • African Hip Hop
  • AfriClassical Blog
  • Afropean
  • Another Way To View
  • Black Agenda Report
  • Black and Christian
  • Black Women of Brazil
  • Blog Africa
  • Breaking Brown
  • Brotha Wolf
  • ByBlacks – Canadian Black Experience
  • Colorlines
  • Daraja
  • Echwalu Photography
  • Electronic Village
  • Ewuare X. Osayande
  • Field Negro
  • Free Thinking Unabii
  • Global Voices Online
  • Hip Hop Republican
  • Kudzu, Mon Amour
  • Let’s Be Clear
  • Mind of Malaka
  • MsAfropolitan
  • Nana Kofi Acquah
  • NewBlackMan
  • Our Legaci
  • Outhouse Negroes
  • Pambazuka News Blogs
  • Poefrika
  • Project 21
  • Repeating Islands
  • Shawn James
  • Tafari
  • The Blackman Can
  • The Gentlemen's Standard
  • The Intersection of Madness and Reality
  • The Old Black Church
  • The Root Magazine
  • The Silver People Chronicle
  • This is Africa
  • This Is Your Conscience
  • Uhuru News

Site Meter

  • Site Meter

Afrospear Think Tank Blog

Afrospear Think Tank Blog

Copyright & Licence

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Archives

  • February 2015
  • December 2014
  • October 2014
  • August 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007

  • Follow Following
    • afrospear.wordpress.com
    • Join 177 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • afrospear.wordpress.com
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar