A human life, a soul and a person, a lifetime's backbreaking toil and anguish, for $500.
50 years ago, slavery was outlawed in the international community; however, in many parts of the world, the age-old traditions of the past continue unabated. The international community must take an implacable and unified stance against the trade in human lives for the horrors, like those revealed in the West African state of Niger, to be condemmed to a darkened past.
December, 1948, The Universal Decalaration of Human Rights, on slavery:
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
from the NYTimes:
Slavery is outlawed throughout Africa, but it persists in pockets of Niger, Mali, Mauritania and amid conflicts like the one in northern Uganda. Antislavery organizations estimate that 43,000 people are enslaved in Niger alone, where nomadic tribes like the Tuareg and Toubou have for centuries held members of other ethnic groups as slaves.
Ms. Mani’s experience was typical of the practice. She was born into a traditional slave class and sold to Souleymane Naroua when she was 12 for about $500.
Ms. Mani told court officials that Mr. Naroua had forced her to work his fields for a decade. She also claimed that he raped her repeatedly over the years.
