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X-post: H-NET List for the History of Slavery <H-SLAVERY@H-NET.MSU.EDU> Sent: Mon 4/25/2005 3:50 PM Economist -- March 12, 2005, p. 49. "Unbroken Yokes" Niger decides not to free its slaves UNTIL recently, slavery was illegal in Niger, but there was no penalty for owning slaves. In other words, it was considered a less serious crime than say, parking on a double yellow line in London. Last May, a law threatening slave-owners with up to 30 years in jail came into force. Even this did not free many of the 43,000 or more slaves that Anti-Slavery International (ASI), a pressure group, estimates live in Niger. But one slave-master, a Tuareg chief called Arissal Ag Amdague, said last year that he would free all 7,000 of the human chattels that he and his clansmen owned. The release was to take place amid great fanfare in the desert region of Tillaberi on March 5th. The ceremony was supposed to set an example, not only to slave-owners in Niger, but also to the governments of other Saharan nations where slavery is widespread, such as Mauritania, Mali, Chad and Sudan. But it did not go as planned. No slaves were freed. Chief Ag Amdague and the slave-masters under his jurisdiction stood up one after another and publicly denied owning any slaves at all, despite their earlier written statements to the contrary. "We are pretty depressed," said David Ould, deputy director of ASI. It seems that the government of Niger had a change of heart. A week before the planned release, according to ASI, its representatives toured the region warning slave-owners that they would be punished not for owning slaves, but for publicly releasing them. Officials appear to be stupid enough to imagine that if they deny a problem they had previously acknowledged, they will avoid bad publicity. Niger has a long tradition of slavery. Among some nomadic tribes, a majority of people are slaves. They are born into servitude and can be bought, sold, given away or inherited. They are forced to toil without pay for as many years as they are physically able, while their masters do nothing, except perhaps stand up while slaves move their tent into the shade. Some escape. Azara, a 25-year-old woman, managed to slip away and, after 24 hours running through the desert, hitched a lift with a passing car. "It was my first time to see such a vehicle," she says, "It was wonderful." Her parents and grandparents were slaves, and two of her sisters still are. But her son and daughter, both born after her master tied her legs to a bed and raped her, are now free. Source: http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3747193 Wannan wasik'ar i-mel ce daga H-Hausa, inda za'a cigaba da hira game da harshe da al'adu da tarihi da sauran lamura na Hausawa da mak'wabtansu.
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