Image of Human trafficking: Commercial sexual exploitation and forced domestic labour in African literature

Arts, Media and Popular Culture

Human trafficking: Commercial sexual exploitation and forced domestic labour in African literature

Download PDF

Just like social occurrences such as human sacrifice and slavery enhanced retardation
of progress in Africa in the past, trafficking is another social occurrence addressed in
contemporary African literature that impedes progress and tarnishes the image of the
victims. Human trafficking is rampant in Africans and some part of the world in this 21st
century. This paper examines how Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s Trafficked (2008) and Chika
Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street (2009) highlight social occurrences and how they
contribute to the spread of girl trafficking in Africa. It also explores how both men and
women are partners in trafficking, forming trafficking networks that lure girls from Nigeria
to Europe and make huge profits from their misery. These pimps use ‘juju magic’ and rituals
as a threat to exert complete control over the girls and also to ensure their compliance. The
trafficked girls share their life experiences by telling their tales of woes exposing the shame
that accompanies the sex trade and the stigmatization they suffer in the society. Their
experiences are presented by the authors to highlight the trafficked girls’ pains, misery and
struggle for freedom in order to appeal to everybody in the society to fight against human
trafficking. The paper also examines how these exploited and depressed trafficked girls that
have lost their self-esteem can still live fulfilled lives if government agencies and nongovernmental
organizations come to their rescue.

Detail Information
Publication Information
: .,
Number of Pages
-
ISBN
-
Language
English
ISSN
-
Subject(s)
trafficking
Sex exploitation
Social occurrences
Sexual and domestic slavery
Commercial sex exploitation
Domestic labour
African literature
Description
-
Citation
Other Information
Type
Article
Part Of Series
-
DOI Identifier
-
Related Publications

No Related Publications available

Comments