By Shipra Prakash
18 November 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Niger-born Hadijatou Mani’s nightmare began when she was just 12 years of age. She was sold for US $500 to 62-year-old El Hadj Souleymane Naroua, and for the next ten years, she was forced to carry out domestic and agricultural work. From the age of 13, she was repeatedly raped and consequently forced to bear three of Naroua’s children.
According to London-based Anti-Slavery International, slavery was abolished in Niger in 1960 when the country gained independence from French colonial rule. In 1999, it was prohibited, and then, in 2003, it was criminalized.
But despite this, slavery has persisted. Ilguilas Weila, head of local human rights group Timidria, said that since the banning of slavery, the situation in Niger had barely changed. Indeed, Anti-Slavery International and Timidria’s research – which involved more than 11,000 face-to-face interviews in six regions in Niger – put the minimum estimate of the number of people living in slavery at 43,000. The research also revealed appalling living conditions: slaves are given only minimal amounts of food and a place to sleep in return for their work, while the master chooses who a slave can marry and whether any of the slave’s children can go to school.
Anti-Slavery International says that Mani, now 24 years old, was freed from her master in 2005 – two years after the criminalization of slavery – and given a liberation certificate. However, when she wanted to marry another man, her master prevented the marriage by saying that he and Mani were married. Still, Mani was able to go through with the marriage as a local court ruled in her favor.
The local court’s ruling was short-lived because it was overturned on appeal, and Mani was sentenced to 6 months in prison for bigamy.
Undeterred, Mani brought her case to the Court of Justice of the West African regional body Economic Community of West African States. She told the court that she had been born as a slave and had been sold to Naroua – a friend of the master of her mother – against her mother’s wishes. They also heard her account of the sexual and physical violence and long, grueling working hours.
Mani won; the court announced that the Niger government was guilty of failing to protect a woman from slavery. Now, Mani is due to be paid the equivalent of US $19,750.
“I am very thankful for this decision. It was very difficult to challenge my former master and speak out when people see you nothing as a slave,” said Mani on the court’s ruling. “With this compensation I will be able to build a house, raise animals and farm land to support my family. I will be able to send my children to school so that they can have the education I was never allowed.”
One of the reasons Mani was sold into slavery was because of the lingering effects of history. Anti-Slavery International reports that in virtually all documented cases of slavery in Niger, the victims had ancestors who were enslaved many generations ago. For such individuals, their status as a slave is enacted as soon as they are born.
Although slavery in Niger has been criminalized, the government has failed to act on evidence that shows it still exists, even though it says it has done all it can to eradicate slavery. One government official reportedly told the United Nations committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in 2007 that “slavery does not exist in Niger.”
“Because the problem effects people on the bottom, there is no political will to give them freedom and more opportunities,” Paul Donohoe, Press Officer at Anti-Slavery International, told MediaGlobal.
A significant problem the government faces is that in rural areas, ‘custom’ takes precedence. This customary law is not the same as the law the government has passed on a national level, Donohoe said. Indeed, ‘custom’ has helped to keep slavery in Niger alive; Anti-Slavery International alleges that Niger’s courts have frequently been reluctant to implement national law over ‘custom.’
But the court ruling in Mani’s case provides evidence that slavery in Niger does exist, despite some government statements to the contrary. It may give other slaves in the region hope that their situation is not irreversible.