Human Trafficking

A DNA study of a sample gathered from African Americans shows that their genetic origin in Africa accords closely to the documentary, historical record. It is estimated that 12.5 million Africans were transported to the Western Hemisphere between 1515 and 1865. The overwhelming majority were landed in the Caribbean and Latin America. Only an estimated 3 to 5 percent were disembarked in mainland North America.  However, the genetic study provides nuances to this historical record. For example, there is little documentary evidence of captives transported from what is now Nigeria to North America. However, the DNA sample of African-Americans participating in the survey showed an unexpectedly high percentage of origin from modern-day Nigeria.  The explanation might be that a significant number of slaves landing on the North American mainland came from the Caribbean, rather than directly from Africa. Some may have been trafficked through the English possessions in the Caribbean from Africa to North America. Others may have been enslaved on Caribbean plantations, and only later were they, or their children, trafficked to North America. If, in fact, a significant percentage of slaves trafficked to North America were of the second generation in the Western Hemisphere, that could in part account for the apparently longer life spans and higher reproductive rates of slaves in North America than in the Caribbean; they had already been exposed to – and acquired some immunity from – diseases common in the Western Hemisphere but rare or unknown in Africa.  

This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches to improve U.S. and global efforts to curb trafficking and modern slavery. This post was authored by Laura Gauer Bermudez, director of evidence and learning, April Stewart, senior evidence and learning associate, and Shannon Stewart, senior data scientist, and at the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS).

This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches to improve U.S. and global efforts to curb trafficking and modern slavery. This post was authored by Jeff Bond, associate director, Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS).

This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches to improve U.S. and global efforts to curb trafficking and modern slavery.

As the United States renews its commitment to protecting freedom and ending slavery—with its annual observation of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention this month, culminating on National Freedom Day on Feb. 1—it should address the many ways that human trafficking imperils global security.

Global refugee flows are currently at the highest levels in history. Many refugees are at risk of a human rights violation too often insufficiently addressed in security and conflict prevention efforts: human trafficking. 

As the world celebrates the power and potential of girls today, on the International Day of the Girl Child, we must also grapple with the significant obstacles that prevent girls from participating fully in society.

The Nigerian police recently rescued some three hundred men and boys, many of them chained, from a purported Islamic school in Kaduna, according to Reuters. Some of the victims said that their parents had brought them to the building thinking it was an Islamic school in the almajiri tradition, but there is apparently no indication that the building ever was, in fact, a school. What, then, was it? It does seem clear that those freed had been kept against their will and that some of the parents thought it was an almajiri school. One possibility might be that it was a holding center for some variety of trafficking in persons, a modern variant of the slave trade. It is said that between ten and twelve million children in northern Nigeria are enrolled in Islamic schools. These schools, called almajiri, focus on the study of Islam and vary in quality. Some follow a classic curriculum instilling a deep knowledge of the Koran and high Islamic culture. Others focus on memorization of the Koran in Arabic. Of the latter sort, some teach Arabic, others do not. Memorizing the Koran in Arabic with no knowledge of Arabic from a Western, secular perspective resembles memorizing nonsense syllables. But, within some currents of Islamic thinking, the memorizing of the Koran in Arabic is in and of itself a holy activity. Nevertheless, many in northern Nigeria have been concerned that the almajiri system, even at its best, fails to prepare students for the modern economy. Northern governors have proposed—and in some case, implemented—the introduction of modern elements into the almajiri curriculum, especially those traditionally congruent with Islam, such as mathematics. In southern Nigeria, there is concern that almajiri schools may be nurseries of jihadist, violent extremism. However, there is little evidence of links between, say, Boko Haram and almajiri schools.  The roots of the almajiri system are pre-colonial. During the slack time between harvest and planting, when there was no work for children and little food, families would send them into town to study with a mallam. For half the day, students would study; for the other half, students would pay the mallam and sustain themselves through begging. In effect, the system represented a small resource transfer from town to rural dwellers and was part of the rhythm of urban and rural life. The integral role of begging in the almajiri system reflected the importance within Islam of giving alms without the negative connotation it has in the West. However, with the explosive growth of the population, combined with stresses within the agricultural sector and the decline of manufacturing in urban areas, the classic almajiri system appears to be breaking down.  

A new report from the Women and Foreign Policy program, launched this week, highlights the security implications of human trafficking and offers recommendations to prevent human trafficking and advance U.S. security interests.

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani has written a sensitive essay, published in the Wall Street Journal, on the African role in the trans-Atlantic and trans-Saharan slave trade. She observes that the four-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of slaves in Virginia coincides with questions about guilt and responsibility and a debate in the United States about reparations to the descendants of slaves. She observes that this fraught debate is largely absent in Africa, even though Africans were deeply involved in the slave trade. Africans raided for slaves often in connivance with local chiefs and then acted as middlemen with European and Arab purchasers. She recounts stories of the ambivalence of at least some Africans about the role of their ancestors in the slave trade. She reports that Donald Duke, former governor of Calabar state and a good-government presidential candidate in the 2019 Nigerian elections, acknowledges that his ancestors participated in the slave trade. However, Duke says “I’m not ashamed of it because I personally wasn’t directly involved.” However, he does not want history to be forgotten. While governor, he established a museum of Calabar’s history has a slave-exporting hub. Others who are deeply embarrassed by their ancestors’ participation and try to hide it, and some still think they are paying a price for their ancestors’ sins, quoting the Book of Exodus that God is “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children…to the third and fourth generation.”  Nwaubani’s welcome report provides another dimension to the conversation about slavery, in Africa as well as in the United States. But, the subject is painful. Nwaubani recounts a conversation with a Tanzanian now living in the United States: “Because of the crimes, the pain, the humiliation that I saw them (descendants of slaves) suffer in the United States,” he avoided talking about his family’s role in slavery, instead highlighting Tanzanian music, architecture, and poetry. Though the histories are interlinked, former Governor Duke does not believe that Africa should play a role in the American reparations debate. After all, the focus of that debate is in on maltreatment and injustice in the United States—not Africa.

Human trafficking is more than a gross violation of human rights—it is also a security challenge. On World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, Jamille Bigio explores the security implications of human trafficking.