Human Trafficking in Sudan - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The legacies of slavery and colonialism can help to understand the current civil war and political violence as well as human trafficking. However, the emphasis in this paper will be on human trafficking and slavery. The foundation of slavery in Sudan has its roots in frontier war zones of eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.1
One important aspect in the slavery of Sudan as well as Muslim society is that the slave will be treated as part of the family or a member of it. However, the descendents of a slave are slaves until they are freed by their master. Hence, the abolition of slavery in the West did not affect the situation in Sudan and Arab as well as African leaders of Central Sudan encouraged human trafficking on the premise of Sharia or Islamic law and encouraged the enslavement of non-Muslims. As a result non Muslims from Brazil were sent to Central Sudan that witnessed the human trafficking as the slaves from communities of Arab traders and Islamicized local leaders were sold in Central African markets. The human trafficking developed on the name of religion as the leaders started selling the people who did not embrace Islam. As it is clear that the rulers have the privilege of using the religion for their materialistic needs, the ruling group has monopolized Sudan's slave trade and that resulted in slaves being an important export commodity. As the slave ownership with the help of farming helped the merchant class to be wealthy, the leading merchants established the slave establishments. The girl slaves from the slave family were forced to do prostitution and have sent their part of the earnings to their master. The beneficiaries of the earnings of those prostitute slaves were known for their nobility and that resulted in economic development of a particular class by exploiting the slave population. In addition to that, the exploitation of slaves resulted in mobilization of labor on a large scale. The mobilization accompanied the appropriation of products of slaves. However, even in the context of mobilization, the small-scale household labor force characteristic indigenous non-Muslim societies were not eliminated. Instead to that the labor force has turned into a component of a multifaceted system of forced labor that developed the production in plantations. As mentioned earlier as the slavery is a result of war zones in the previous centuries, the territorial conquest resulted in acquisition of slaves. As enslavement and state expansion happened simultaneously, that resulted in cultural differences between different groups and developed political variations among social groups. The establishment of Funji Kingdom resulted in Islamization of Northern and Central Sudan that resulted in enslavement of non Muslims. 2
The enslavement of people enabled the people in Sudan to buy women in most states of Sudan and it is not impossible to buy a pretty girl or a boy as a slave according to your desire. The slavery in Sudan changed it into a source country for men, women and children who are trafficked for the purposes of labor as well as sexual exploitation. The slavery in Sudan has helped other Arabian countries to enjoy the fruits and labors of it. As the ...Download file to see next pagesRead More