Table Of Content

Alecia Dionne Hoffman Sabella Ogbobode Abidde Editors Human Trafficking in Africa New Paradigms, New Perspectives Human Trafficking in Africa Alecia Dionne Hoffman . Sabella Ogbobode Abidde Editors Human Trafficking in Africa New Paradigms, New Perspectives Editors Alecia Dionne Hoffman Sabella Ogbobode Abidde Department of History and Political Science Department of History and Political Science Alabama State University Alabama State University Montgomery, AL, USA Montgomery, AL, USA ISBN 978-3-030-82162-3 ISBN 978-3-030-82163-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82163-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland We dedicate this book to all the men, women, and children in Africa who have suffered and are still suffering from the indignity of being trafficked. And to those who are currently under bondage, may rescue come sooner than you expected. And may you heal and live a healthy life. Preface As colleagues, the idea of coauthoring or coediting a book has been in the pipeline for more than 5 years. We had, at various times, contemplated books on China’s role and place in Africa; US foreign policy in Africa; the economic and political conditions in select African countries; Africa’s role and place in the global system; and how the continent engages other regions of the Global South. As political scientists with a distinct focus on Africa, this collaborative work was just a matter of time and timing. However, it was not until early spring 2020 when, along with other colleagues, we met in my office to plan “future publications” that this book – Human Trafficking in Africa: New Perspectives, New Paradigms – was concretized. Our colleagues embarked on other book projects. Elisha Dung and Augustine Avwunudiogba, for instance, worked on Human Trafficking: Global History and Global Perspectives aiming to systematically examine human trafficking around the world; while Brenda Gill and George Danns worked on Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean: Comparative Assessment of Social Issues. What is next for us? Frankly, we do not know; however, we have begun preliminary discussions on the comparative assessment of George Walker Bush and Barack Obama’s foreign policy toward Africa. States and societies around the world face many challenges and problems, i.e., xenophobia, sea piracy, violence and terrorism, ecological problems, low-intensity conflicts, ethnonationalism, wars, forced migration and the many problems associ- ated with internal displacements, searing poverty in developing nations, and social issues such as racism, social inequality, and the excesses of governments. And more so in Africa, the aforelisted problems are compounded by poor leadership and frag- mented institutions. Also, religion and some aspects of the African culture and tradi- tion make things like forced marriages, juvenile marriage, domestic servitude, and the sale of body parts and organs acceptable or less frowned upon. While human trafficking is a global problem, conditions on the continent exacer- bate it (as many African governments do not have the resources, the manpower, the political will, and the commitment to fight it). Concomitantly, these same governments also lack the resources and manpower to address many of the political- economic problems and challenges they face. And even in places where they have vii viii Preface the resources and the manpower, they are diverted to other areas because, frankly, many governments do not consider human trafficking a high enough priority. Many of these governments forget, are indifferent, or seem not to know that human trafficking, in all its dimensions, demeans and dehumanizes their victims. But more than that, it abridges the human and civil rights of the captured, the controlled, and the violated. Traditionally, human traffickers have relied on culture, traditions, and poor economic and political conditions to lure many of their victims. Today, many of these traffickers are also taking advantage of technology, the media, and social media to perfect their illicit enterprise. Those who engage in these reprehensible acts – the perpetrators, supporters, and sympathizers – are committing transnational orga- nized crimes that affect women and children the most. The good news is that there are many national laws and conventions in place to fight this global scourge; but unfortunately, the number of victims keeps increasing every year. Fortunately, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) 2020 report, more traffickers are being brought to justice every year – globally, the number of people convicted per 100,000 population has nearly tripled since 2003. As brutal as human trafficking is in Africa, it is, for the most part, underre- ported – especially trafficking for body parts and organ removal which are done, not for medical transplantation, but for religious rites which are common in West Africa. The literature on this phenomenon is scant. Edited volumes have their peculiar challenges, namely late submission, request for multiple extension of due dates, ambiguous citations, and plagiarism. And of course, there are the contributors you never hear from again after their abstracts have been accepted. It is as if they just vanished into the thin air. Even so, we know the COVID-19 pandemic made research and writing and other activities that entail a lot of contemplation much more difficult to accomplish. Despite these challenges and difficulties, we are glad and proud that we can bring our dream to fruition. But more than that, we are glad that along with all the contributors, we were able to shed more light on a scourge that is violated and taken prisoners of many innocent souls. Montgomery, AL, USA Alecia Dionne Hoffman Sabella Ogbobode Abidde Acknowledgements No one writes a book of this nature without a world of debt to friends, family, and colleagues without whom the book would not have been possible. So, we thank you all for your love and understanding during the missed family functions while work- ing on this manuscript. We also would like to thank the anonymous reviewers who approved the proposal and the manuscript. Your praise and criticisms are equally appreciated. Thank you! Dr. Abidde would like to thank Elisha J. Dung, Paul Erhunmwunsee, and Augustine Avwunudiogba for their kindness and encouragement. These are good people, good friends, and brilliant colleagues. Thanks! Dr. Hoffman would like to thank her colleagues in the Department of History and Political Science and Southern University-Shreveport. A special thanks to Derryn Moten, Bertis English, and Sharron Herron-Williams. I am appreciative of their support and grateful for their prayers while completing this project. Also, thank you to my mother who called, and just said, “you guys will get it together.” Also, our collective gratitude to the seventeen contributors who were generous with their time, resources, and efforts, which resulted in abstracts and the chapters to this volume. We can never thank you enough. We appreciate you! We are also grateful – very grateful – to four amazing professionals: Lorraine Klimowich, Maria David, Faith Su, and Susan Westendorf. You are always there for us, ever patient and ever attentive. Thank you, thank you, and thank you so very much! Alecia Dionne Hoffman, PhD Sabella Ogbobode Abidde, PhD ix Introduction According to the United States Department of State 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report,1 there are approximately 28,156 victims of trafficking on the African continent in 2018. As startling as this figure may be, it could be a “conservative estimate” according to the Global Slavery Index,2 which reports much higher numbers. Human trafficking, along with terrorism, drug trafficking, social and economic inequality, political violence, and racial inequality are some of the vexing social issues of our time. Nevertheless, trafficking in humans is not just a disconcerting social issue; it affects other areas of our individual and collective lives. While there is the tendency to think of it as a phenomenon with origins in recent decades, available evidence suggests that trafficking in humans has been around for much of human history. The trading of Africans, continentally and globally, began at the end of the sev- enth century with the rise of Islam and in the fifteenth century with the Atlantic slave trade. With much consternation throughout Europe and later in the Americas, the practice of selling Africans was finally deemed inhumane and illegal, first by individual countries and regions and later internationally. Although the practice is shunned internationally, it persists today under the cloak and guise of migration, smuggling, and through chat-room advertisements offering young women as domestic help for a price. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to examine the contemporary practice of human trafficking on the African continent. In pursuant of this goal, we investigate this scourge from the broader international perspective, regional, and from a country-specific context. History highlights the innumerable events of civilizations that pre-date the dawn of modern nation states’ trading and selling of humans, both for legal and nefarious purposes. However, this is not a phenomenon that can be cast into the annals of history, for it has been a continual practice that is a scourge on the 1 “2019 Trafficking in Persons Report - United States Department of State.” U.S. Department of State. May 10, 2019. Accessed January 30, 2021. https://www.state.gov/ reports/2019-trafficking-in-persons-report/ 2 “Global Slavery Index.” Global Slavery Index. June 2018. Accessed January 30, 2021. https:// www.globalslaveryindex.org/ xi xii Introduction most fundamental rights that protect all human beings—that all men are created equal. This important tenet, that all men are created equal, echoed by early African thinkers such as Zara Yacob and Anton Wilhelm Amo, predates the writings of some well-known liberal philosophers of Western thought such as John Locke, Immanuel Kant, and David Hume. Human trafficking is a nuanced phenomenon shrouded in various practices such as child soldiers, arranged and forced marriages, and even cultural traditions. It also takes on more profound characteristics such as kidnapping, forced prostitution, and modern-day slavery. Human trafficking is defined by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons, utilizing the threat of use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or a position of vulner- ability or of giving or receiving payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for exploitation.”3 This definition is broad enough to cover even the most nuanced type of practice that involves the trading or selling of humans and the extralegal removal of body parts and human organs for sale. With an internationally accepted definition of human trafficking available, many countries in Africa have instituted policies to mitigate the illicit sale of humans. In addition, the African Union (AU) instituted continent-wide policies such as The Ouagadougou Action Plan to Combat the Trafficking in Human Beings in 2006. However, there are issues with the implementation, follow-through, and commitment of member states. Human Trafficking in Africa: New Perspectives, New Paradigms examines human trafficking from three dimensions: the theoretical and legal challenges of trafficking; regional and nation-state perspectives; and child soldiers and female victims of human trafficking. In terms of theorization, this volume does not lend itself to using a single or an encompassing framework that illuminates the entire strata of human trafficking. Rather, where applicable, contributors have applied suitable theories to their chapters where theories are required. Human trafficking is not just a sociological issue, and it borders on human rights, human relations, national and international security, and economics. Central to this volume are seven key issues: 1. The theoretical paradigms that explain human trafficking on the continent 2. The effectiveness of governments and institutions combating human trafficking 3. The legal framework/protocols currently in place and whether they have been effective 4. The domestic legislation and how effective they are in combating this human scourge 5. The economic and human cost of human trafficking on the victims and the larger society 3 “Human-Trafficking.” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Accessed March 30, 2021. https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/human-trafficking.html