Why Is Child Slavery So Normal In West Africa?

Child labor is a serious problem that affects children from third-world countries all over the world. These children are exploited by multinational corporations ,for their cheap labor all over the world. People, then buy products that come at a cheaper price, from these multinational corporations.These children are often overworked and treated unfairly. People need to stop buying items from countries that endorse child labor.

To further my argument I will use Ethiopia as a case study to show how globalization has provided the push for countries to acknowledge the problem of child labour and create actions to fix it. This paper will be divided as follows: firstly I will provide a brief background on child labour in the world; secondly I will provide the situation in Ethiopia; thirdly I will present the actions that the government has placed to combat child labour in accordance with my argument; lastly, I will give my recommendations regarding the implications of the actions of the Ethiopian government.

Human trafficking and child abuse are major problems along the west coast of Africa. Cocoa plantations are so notorious for the use of forced child labor (and forced adult labor) that U.S. Representative Eliot Engel and Senator Tom Harkin created a protocol to end child slavery and initiate labeling for products that are produced “slave free.” A joint committee was formed and called the International Cocoa Initiative, with the aim to have a

Many of the products that are used and consumed in the United States are made in other countries. One of the main reasons for multinational corporations to produce goods in countries other than the United States is the cost of production. It is far cheaper to produce goods such as blue jeans, paper goods, and plastic toys to name a few. In recent years the conditions in sweatshops in China, Japan, and elsewhere have garnered public outcry from Countries like the U.S. and most of Europe. The main contention, child labor in dangerous and horrid conditions. However one often overlooked example of child labor in sweatshop-like conditions exists were many people never thought. The chocolate we eat. “From 2013 to 2014 more than 1.1 million children in the Ivory Coast were engaged in the most common Worst Forms of Child Labor as recognized by the United Nations… up from 791,181 children from 2008 to 2009” (Berman, 2015). The benefactors of this child labor are huge multinational enterprises such as Nestle, Mars Inc., and The Hershey Co.

Today, there are more slaves on the planet than at any other point in history; an alarming statistic that has not gotten the popular media spotlight it needs. What’s worse is these slaves are still being sold as commodities and trafficked on the market for their labor and sexual exploitation. If modern slavery is more prominent now than ever before, it begs the question of what multinational organizations are doing to quell this borderless crime.

When a child was born of slave parentage, most slave owners would separate the child from the mother at a young age. Many were taken when they were as young as three, others stayed until they were seven. Some parents of slave children would even take the lives of their families, in order to spare the heartache of seperation. As stated in the article “Slave Family Life” by Digital History,” As a result of the sale or death of a father or mother, over a third of all slave children grew up in households from which one or both parents were absent.” The slave children would then be placed in the care of an older women who was not fit to work in the fields, and the mother would be sent away to a nearby farm. The slave owners believed that separating

Hershey has bought and produced tons of chocolate for over 50 years that has had the blood, sweat and tears of the not only the children on the Ivory Coast, but the adults as well. The way that Hershey has been able to sell to their consumers with very low prices on all their products is because they buy from the cocoa farms that have child slaves. Many of which were taken from their homes, sold or needed to provide for their families. They would come work for cocoa farmers and get paid little to nothing. Children who work on the Ivory Coast usually are between ages 12 and 16,

The African slave trade was devastating but many do not know how terrible it was. Twenty eight million people were taken from their homes and families, and more people killed (3). An estimated total loss from the slave trade is thirty million to two hundred million people (4). The worst effect would be the problems it caused for Africa’s children.

Secondly, many children do not receive a good education. Many children working in farms and mines do not attend school. According to the report, Child labor & Educational Disadvantage in sub- Saharan Africa one in every three children working is out of school. In total, 10 million children working are out of school (p.36). Most of them have worked since their early years and do not even consider having the option of going to school. Not investing in education, many countries in Africa are destined to live in poverty. Children are the next generation of professionals. As it is quoted by Greg Campbell that Alfred George, a worker for 12 years with the Environmental Foundation for Africa, says that children are the future of Sierra Leon. Everyone

Slavery in traditional African culture was a part of the West African "hierarchical structure since ancient times". In addition, they had war captives as slaves. Master who lived in the Islamic region were accountable for their slave’s religious well being. In non-Islamic region the children of slaves could obtain legal protection. In addition, slaves that severed in the royal courts often had power over free people and could also obtain property. Furthermore, slavery in West Africa was less oppressive than, in America. Most often slavery in in West African "societies function as a means of assimilation". However, in the sixteenth century gold mines, sliver mines, and sugar plantation produced a huge demand for labor. Traders imported slaves

Yapi (2005) highlights the problem of child slavery and its negative impacts on the society. This study raised questions on the extent of child slavery in our society. A child is considered slave if he is under the age of 18, receives extremely little or no pay, is controlled by violence or other threats, has no option to leave the situation, has no access to education or health care. There are more than 9 million child slaves in the world. The average price of a slave today is $80. One in every six children aged 5-17years worldwide is exploited by child labor. This phenomenon is more than 400 hundred years old. There are 27 million adult and child slaves in the world today; Latin America has the maximum percentage of these slaves (60.6%).

In 2015, an astounding 35.8 million people live in a condition of modern slavery. According to a report published by the Global Slavery Index 2014, most of these slaves are concentrated in South-East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and North Africa, which have 17.4, 5.6 and 2.2 million slaves, respectively.

“The Dark Side of Chocolate” is a documentary that explores the underlying issues prevalent in the cocoa trade. For most first world countries chocolate is seen as an accessible treat, however in third world countries, the production of cocoa creates social issues that must be eliminated. Cocoa trade is one of the largest industries in West African countries, but the issues that arise from such trade do more harm than good. The cocoa plantations are trafficking humans to work on their plantations. Furthermore, most instances suggest that these workers do not receive any compensation for their work and most importantly some of these slave laborers are children. Thus, the three issues that the cocoa companies routinely commit in exchange for lower costs are human trafficking, slave labor, and child labor. These companies are aware of such issues but refuse to actively combat them because they are better off financially. It can be argued that these issues can be mitigated through various social, governmental and political policies aimed at combating these problems. The three main issues will be addressed and the various stakeholders affected by these issues will be analyzed. Then this paper will look at the possible solutions to these issues, whereby through government, social or political means.

As a consumer you do bear some responsibility for the elimination of child labor becuase if you continue to buy from companies that use child labor the problem will not go away. Continuing to buy from companies that use child labor fuels it, then those companies turn around and use your money to buy cocoa beans from the suppliers that use child slaves. Knowing now that chocoalte that does not have the Fair Trade symbol most likely have been produced from child slave labor makes me want to be very careful when I am buying chocolate. The next time I go to buy chocolate I will be looking at the label to make sure it has the Fair Trade

In the United States, child labor and sweatshops are illegal, and society frowns upon any business that exploits children in the production of goods. Though most would say that they would not support a company that uses child labor to produce its goods, almost everyone has, in fact, knowingly or unknowingly, supported these businesses in one way or another. Children are involved in the production of many of the everyday goods we import from overseas, including the manufacturing of clothes, shoes, toys, and sporting equipment, the farming of cocoa, cotton, sugarcane, and bananas, and the mining of coal, diamonds, and gold (The U.S. Dept. of Labor). Often, we are blinded to this fact.