Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Types of Forced Labour and Slavery-Like Abuse Occurring in Africa Today. A Preliminary Classification |
Author: | Dottridge, Mike |
Year: | 2005 |
Periodical: | Cahiers d'études africaines |
Volume: | 45 |
Issue: | 179-180 |
Pages: | 689-712 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Africa Subsaharan Africa |
Subjects: | forced labour Labor and Employment Law, Human Rights and Violence |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.4000/etudesafricaines.5572 |
Abstract: | The International Labour Organization (ILO) has over time redefined the term 'forced labour' to refer to everything which the League of Nations meant by slavery in the 1920s, as well as other abuse which the United Nations subsequently defined as 'servile status' in the 1950s. Various ways in which people are forced or coerced into working for others in sub-Sahara Africa today, including some linked to historical slavery, are examined in this article. They are categorized according to the types of coercion used and the circumstances in which people enter situations in which they are forced to work for others. Recognising that the idea that involuntary work constitutes an abuse is difficult to apply in a region where both wives and children routinely have no choice but to work for the head of their household, the article categorizes cases in three separate tables. Table 1 identifies nine types of coercion used to force people to work for someone other than a member of their own family. Table 2 lists eight ways in which people in Africa enter situations in which they are forced to work for others. Table 3 categorizes the various forms of abusive exploitation reported to be occurring in Africa into eight categories and is followed by examples of some of these. Finally, the article reviews the terminology used by international organizations for describing these situations and observes that in most of Africa members of the public are not sure what practices should or should not be tolerated. Bibliogr., ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |