Hello, everyone.
I welcome you to my blog and another wonderful edition of the Hive Learner's featured post. Human slavery and slave trade are as old as man. Sometimes I tend to wonder what it was like. Did humans really sell and buy fellow humans like we buy goats today? That period must have been one where many will wish they were not born in. Sometimes you go to the market to buy a goat, and the goat refuses to move or follow the new owner, and now the new owner has to drag the goat out and coerce them to follow them, leaning on their old master. Does that mean this is how it was during that era?
The slave trade era was one where humans were being traded for one reason or another; it can be for money, for fame, for favours and so on and so forth. An era where there were no human rights and humans saw fellow humans as animals and went as far as selling and even buying them without thinking about how the other person will feel and the scar that being a slave and being treated like one will leave on the other person. I have seen movies where slave trades were carried out, and from these movies you can deduce that during the slave trade era even animals were treated way better than slaves were treated. Slaves were treated worse than animals, which is not supposed to be so.
Thank God that level of slave trade was abolished because we now live in a modern world, but the truth is that slave trade was not completely abolished; instead, it has evolved and still exists. It's just that this time around it is called modern slavery, and the chains are there, though not seen, or should I say they are invisible. Today we don't buy and sell slaves anymore, but there are still numerous things that are happening in our world today that can also be seen as one being the master and another the slave; there won't be chains, but you cannot leave for fear of what they would do.
A few months ago there was news about police raiding a particular area and compound in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, and even Abia State, Nigeria, and it was discovered that young girls were kept captive in these areas and compounds; many of them have been trafficked to different countries, while those who were still there were to be moved too, but before they are moved, they are kept there, and men come there and force them to have sex with them. It felt like the entire community was aware of what was going on because even a girl that tried escaping and narrated her story after police raided the house and saved them said nobody wanted to help her, and even a bike man that agreed ended up taking her right back to her captors.
I have also heard stories of people, especially poor people, offering their children as a means of payment for debt they owe. Many kids don't get to enjoy their childhood like they're supposed to because they have to do as instructed by their masters and cannot leave until their parents' debts are paid off, and in most cases the debts their parents owe are ones that cannot be paid back, which means they have to work for their master for almost all their lives.
Slavery still happens to date. Just that this time around there are no chains, but you still cannot leave because your captors are holding you for one reason or the other and most of all are keeping a close eye on you.