External links
- Anti-slavery International: Slavery in Niger
- Ilguilas Weila's acceptance speech for the 2004 Anti-Slavery Award
- Traditional slavery in Niger
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Ilguilas Weila is an anti-slavery human rights activist in Niger. He is president of the anti-slavery organization Timidria.
Ilguilas Weila and five other people were arrested on 28 April 2005 accused of trying to falsely elicit money, two billion CFA francs, from foreign donors. Four were released shortly afterwards but Weila and Alassane Biga were freed on bail by a Niger court on 17 June. He denies any wrongdoing. A demonstration was held on 19 May through the capital Niamey in protest at his arrest.
The charges came after a ceremony, in March, to release 7,000 slaves in the northern part of Tillabéri Region was cancelled at the last minute by the government who maintains slavery does not exist. At least 43,000 people are thought to live in subjugation across Niger, which officially banned slavery in May 2004. The matter is liable to embarrass the Nigerien president Tandja Mamadou who currently heads the Economic Community of West African States.
Much of Weila's work is devoted to informing people of their rights under the new law which are unknown in much of Niger owing to poverty, low literacy and the inaccessibility of many areas. Timidria gives literacy classes to freed slaves and also money so they can start a new life. It is these funds, provided partly by London-based Anti-Slavery International, that Weila is alleged to have stolen. Anti-Slavery International has written an open letter denying these claims. The organization has attempted to highlight Ilguilas Weila's work outside of Niger and he received their Anti-Slavery Award in November 2004.
Weila has criticised the ingrained nature of slavery in the region and questioned the role of religion "Islam assisted in the indoctrination of slaves through the use of religion, by saying for example if you disobey your master, you will not access paradise, hence your paradise is in the hands of your master," though Islam says no muslim can be a slave.
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French Sudan was a French colonial territory in the Federation of French West Africa from around 1880 until 1959, when it joined the Mali Federation, and then in 1960, when it became the independent state of Mali. The colony was formally called French Sudan from 1890 until 1899 and then again from 1921 until 1958, and had a variety of different names over the course of its existence. The colony was initially established largely as a military project led by French troops, but in the mid-1890s it came under civilian administration.
Anti-Slavery International, founded as the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, is an international non-governmental organisation, registered charity and advocacy group, based in the United Kingdom. It is the world's oldest international human rights organisation, and works exclusively against slavery and related abuses.
Timidria is the name of an NGO for human rights in Niger, founded by Ilguilas Weila. Timidria is dedicated to the eradication of slavery in Niger.
Historically, slavery has been regulated, supported, or opposed on religious grounds.
Islamic views on slavery represent a complex and multifaceted body of Islamic thought, with various Islamic groups or thinkers espousing views on the matter which have been radically different throughout history. Slavery was a mainstay of life in pre-Islamic Arabia and surrounding lands. The Quran and the hadith address slavery extensively, assuming its existence as part of society but viewing it as an exceptional condition and restricting its scope. Early Islamic dogma forbade enslavement of free members of Islamic society, including non-Muslims (dhimmis), and set out to regulate and improve the conditions of human bondage. The sharīʿah regarded as legal slaves only those non-Muslims who were imprisoned or bought beyond the borders of Islamic rule, or the sons and daughters of slaves already in captivity. In later classical Islamic law, the topic of slavery is covered at great length. Slaves, be they Muslim or those of any other religion, were equal to their fellow practitioners in religious issues.
Slavery has been called "deeply rooted" in the structure of the northwestern African country of Mauritania, and "closely tied" to the ethnic composition of the country.
The continent of Africa is one of the regions most rife with contemporary slavery. Slavery in Africa has a long history, within Africa since before historical records, but intensifying with the trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean slave trade and again with the trans-Atlantic slave trade; the demand for slaves created an entire series of kingdoms which existed in a state of perpetual warfare in order to generate the prisoners of war necessary for the lucrative export of slaves. These patterns have persisted into the colonial period during the late 19th and early 20th century. Although the colonial authorities attempted to suppress slavery from about 1900, this had very limited success, and after decolonization, slavery continues in many parts of Africa despite being technically illegal.
According to the Republic of Niger's Constitution of 1999, most human rights, as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are upheld and protected. Despite these protections, concerns of both domestic and international human rights organizations have been raised over the behavior of the government, military, police forces, and over the continuation of traditional practices which contravene the 1999 constitution. Under French colonial rule (1900–1960) and from independence until 1992, citizens of Niger had few political rights, and lived under arbitrary government power. Although the situation has improved since the return to civilian rule, criticisms remain over the state of human rights in the country.
Racism in Africa is multi-faceted and dates back several centuries.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Niger:
The Ikelan are a caste within Tuareg society, who were at one time slaves or servile communities. While the Ikelan now speak the same language as the Tuareg nobles and share many customs, they are of assimilated Nilotic origin rather than of Berber heritage like the ethnic Tuareg. They also often live in communities separated from other castes.
Garba Lompo is a Nigerien politician who was Minister of Justice in the government of Niger from May 2009 to February 2010. He was previously the President of the National Commission on Human Rights and Fundamental Liberties.
The National Commission on Human Rights and Fundamental Liberties in the West African state of Niger is a national human rights institution charged with investigating breaches of human rights law and advising the Government of Niger on human rights issues. It is a member of the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions and is accredited at the United Nations through the International Co-ordinating Committee of NHRIs.
Niger is a source, transit, and destination country for children and women subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. Caste-based slavery practices, rooted in ancestral master-slave relationships, continue primarily in the northern part of the country. Children are trafficked within Niger for forced begging by religious instructors known as marabouts; forced labor in gold mines, agriculture, and stone quarries; as well as for involuntary domestic servitude and forced prostitution. The ILO estimates at least 10,000 children work in gold mines in Niger, many of whom may be forced to work. Nigerien children, primarily girls, are also subjected to commercial sexual exploitation along the border with Nigeria, particularly in the towns of Birni N'Konni and Zinder along the main highway, and boys are trafficked to Nigeria and Mali for forced begging and manual labor. There were reports Nigerien girls entered into "false marriages" with citizens of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates: upon arrival in these countries, the girls are often forced into involuntary domestic servitude. Child marriage was a problem, especially in rural areas, and may have contributed to conditions of human trafficking. Niger is a transit country for women and children from Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Togo en route to Northern Africa and Western Europe; some may be subjected to forced labor in Niger as domestic servants, forced laborers in mines and on farms, and as mechanics and welders. To a lesser extent, Nigerien women and children are sometimes trafficked from Niger to North Africa the Middle East, and Europe for involuntary domestic servitude and forced commercial sexual exploitation."
Christian Solidarity International (CSI) is a Christian human rights NGO that is "committed to defending religious liberty, helping victims of religious repression, victimized children, and victims of disaster." It is based in Switzerland, with affiliates in the United States, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, South Korea, and the Netherlands.
Charles Turner Torrey was a leading American abolitionist. Although largely lost to historians until recently, Torrey pushed the abolitionist movement to more political and aggressive strategies, including setting up one of the first highly organized lines for the Underground Railroad and personally freeing approximately 400 slaves. Torrey also worked closely with free blacks, thus becoming one of the first to consider them partners. John Brown cited Torrey as one of the three abolitionists he looked to as models for his own efforts.
Slavery in Mali exists today, with as many as 200,000 people held in direct servitude to a master. Since 2006, a movement called Temedt has been active in Mali struggling against the persistence of slavery and the discrimination associated with ex-slaves. There were reports that in the Tuareg Rebellion of 2012, ex-slaves were recaptured by their former masters.
Slavery in Niger involves a number of different practices which have been practiced in the Sahel region for many centuries and which persist to this day. The Bornu Empire in the eastern part of Niger was an active part of the trans-Saharan slave trade for hundreds of years. Other ethnic groups in the country similarly had a history of slavery, although this varied and in some places slavery was largely limited to the political and economic elite. When the French took control of the area they largely ignored the problem and only actively banned the trade in slaves but not the practices of slavery. Following independence, many of the major slave holders became prominent political leaders in both the multiparty democracy period and the military dictatorship, and so the problem of slavery was largely ignored. In 2003, with pressure from the anti-slavery organization Timidria, Niger passed the first law in Western Africa that criminalized slavery as a specific crime. Despite this, slavery persists throughout the different ethnic groups in the country, women are particularly vulnerable, and a 2002 census confirmed the existence of 43,000 slaves and estimated that the total population could be over 870,000 people. The landmark Mani v. Niger case was one of the first instances where a person won a judgement against the government of Niger in an international court for sanctioning her slave status in official decisions.
Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid is a Mauritanian politician and advocate for the abolition of slavery. He was listed as one of "10 People Who Changed the World You Might Not Have Heard Of" by PeaceLinkLive in 2014, and by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People". He has also been called the "Mauritanian Nelson Mandela" by online news organisation Middleeasteye.net.
Quasi-state-level jihadist groups, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, have captured and enslaved women and children, often for sexual slavery. In 2014 in particular, both groups organised mass kidnappings of large numbers of girls and younger women.