Slavery in the 21 st century

By Alazar K.
Alazark2000@yahoo.com

In 6800 B.C. the world's first city grows up in Mesopotamia . With the ownership of land, and the beginnings of technology comes warfare in which enemies are captured and forced to work - slavery. In 2575 B.C. Egyptians send expeditions down the Nile River to capture slaves. Temple art celebrates the capture of slaves in battle. In 550 B.C. the mighty Greek city-state of Athens uses up to 30,000 slaves in the silver mines it controls. In 120 B.C. slaves are taken by the thousands in Roman military campaigns, some estimates put the population of Rome at more than half slave.

In 500 in England the native Britons are enslaved after invasion by Anglo-Saxons. c. 1000 Slavery is normal practice in England 's rural economy. In 1380 In the aftermath of the Black Plague, Europe 's slave trade revives to deal with the labor shortage. In 1550 Renaissance art is peopled with slaves displayed as objects of conspicuous consumption. This is very old history.

Two hundred years after the abolition of the slave trade by the UK Parliament in 1807, there are more slaves in the world than ever before; some estimate as many as 27 million. It is easier and cheaper to buy and sell humans today than it was at the height of the transatlantic slave trade; in the 1800s, slaves were precious commodities, now they can be traded for just a few British pounds.

Contemporary forms of slavery still exists in India , Mali , Burma , Ghana , Haiti and the UK . The last three make up the transatlantic "slave triangle". Haitians are rightly proud to be the first people to rid themselves of colonial slavery, but as many as 200,000 Haitian children labour as slaves in domestic service. In Ghana, a couple of hundred miles up the coast from the old colonial slave forts, hundreds of women remain enslaved in traditional fetish shrines, as trokosi , literally the "wives of the gods".

And in the UK and Ireland the practice of human trafficking, for sex and labour, appears to be growing annually. In Burma , thousands in particular ethnic minority groups are subjected to forced labour by the Burmese army, part of a brutal and deathly campaign. In India , there are more slaves than the combined total for the rest of the world.

Most slaves in India are victims of debt bondage; forced by poverty to take a financial advance from their employers, they are indebted before they even start working. Any subsequent work they do simply goes to paying off the debt, which due to interest, is almost impossible to do. After years of labour, and often violent abuse, rather than claiming a salary from their landlord, bonded labourers find themselves "owing" huge sums of money. When they die, this debt is simply passed onto the next generation. Here are some of the stories.

At the age of twelve, Sigren was sold into slavery for 2,000 rupees (about £25). A broker travelled with him from his home state in eastern India to hand him over to a landlord in Punjab . Promised an annual salary of 18,000 rupees (about £225), Sigren worked for almost four years before his landlord agreed to pay him anything. "I was not allowed to call home. My owner snatched the phone number", said Sigren. "When I complained about not getting paid, he called the police to beat me up."

Meetu Singh explained an even more sinister ploy used by the landlords. Meetu and sixteen other members of his village had filed court cases to free themselves from bondage. In response, the local landlords imposed a social boycott on them and their families. The boycott meant that no one would offer them alternative work, shops would not sell them goods, doctors would not offer them medicine, their cattle could not drink at the village pond and their children were barred from local schools.

Fearing retribution from the landlords, other Dalit families refused to unite against the boycott. "We have no power because we have no unity," explained Meetu. But when asked whether he regretted filing the case against his landlord, there was no hesitation in his reply, "we would hang ourselves before going back into bondage."

There they stand with bowed heads mute
Chronicling centuries of pain-drawn lines on their faces
Their shoulders bent forever under weary loads
Slow they move as long as they have life
And after - leave the legacy to their sons - for generations and generations.

- Rabindranath Tagore