Slavery in Niger
Following independence, many of the major slave holders became prominent political leaders in both the multiparty democracy period and the military dictatorship (1974 until 1991), and so the problem of slavery was largely ignored.
In 2003, with pressure from the anti-slavery organization Timidria, Niger passed the first law in Western Africa that criminalized slavery as a specific crime.
Slavery existed throughout what is today Niger and the region played a pivotal role in the trans-Saharan slave trade for many centuries.
However, since political leaders often were slave-holders, they presented a significant hurdle for French authorities when they colonized the area and in post-independence Niger.
[1] Much of the east of present-day Niger was involved in a significant part of the trans-Saharan slave trade with a route starting in Kano and traveling through the rugged Aïr Mountains.
[2] The Bornu Empire centered along this route became a prominent participant in the Trans-Saharan slave trade prior to the Fulani jihad (1804–1808) to the east and the movement of Tuareg into the Aïr region in the 1800s.
Damagaram was successful because it built a large, mobile army able to protect trade routes and because they made alliances with the Tuareg leaders who had now become the primary power in the Aïr Mountains.
[1] In Northern Niger, in the present regions of Tahoua and Agadez, there are no signs of large-scale indigenous practices of slavery before the Tuareg entered the area in the 1800s.
Because of the rugged terrain with severe drought effects, and because of their participation in the trans-Saharan trade, the Tuareg used a form of slavery where communities of slaves would tend animals and do limited agriculture and would be allowed to move freely around an area.
French administrators would take credit for abolishing slavery by simply ignoring its continued existence or claiming that the bonds were voluntary.
During World War I, in order to meet quotas of troops to the French army, traditional chiefs supplied slaves to the colonial administration.
[1] In urban areas and settled communities with a strong French administrative presence, slavery and forced servitude were gradually ended, but in the rest of the country the practices remained active.
[1] Chattel slavery involves the direct ownership of an individual and there are limited examples of slave buying still occurring in Niger in the early 21st century.
The French directives of 1905 and 1920, which were part of the Nigerien legal corpus after independence, pertained solely to the slave trade and did not stop domestic servitude or hereditary slavery.
[1] With this legislation, Niger was the first country in West Africa to pass a law specifically pertaining to slavery and creating a criminal penalty for the offense.
The government initially co-sponsored a prominent event in which Arissal Ag Amdagu, a Tuareg chief in Inates, Tillabéri Department would free 7,000 of his slaves.
According to Jeroen Beirnauer who is the head of ITUC's Forced Labor Project, the case set "a regional standard in international human rights law.
"[19] The basis for the case was that in 1996, 12-year-old Hadijatou Mani Koraou, who had been born into slavery in a Tuareg community, was sold for US$400 to 46-year-old El Hadj Souleymane Naroua as his "fifth wife" under the wahaya custom.
[22] While the case was pending, Mani remarried and Naroua responded by filing a criminal complaint and getting her and her new husband convicted of bigamy (with a sentence of six months in prison).
[8][22] Niger's main argument was that the case was inadmissible to the ECOWAS court because domestic options had not been exhausted for remedying the situation.
"[19][23] The main social movement dedicated to the issue of slavery and post-slave discrimination in Niger is Timidria, a non-governmental organization founded by Ilguilas Weila and other intellectuals on 15 May 1991.
