UN General Assembly: Soyinka Decries Modern-day Slavery in Africa 

Yinka Olatunbosun 

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has condemned modern-day slavery in Africa and beyond. 

He made the remark in his keynote address at the official plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. 

The global gathering is the United Nations’ annual ceremony in observance of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, with the theme: ‘Acknowledge the past. Repair the present. Build a future of dignity and justice.’

Soyinka, in reference to current realities in Africa and the spiritual configuration therein, observed that the business of slave markets is far from over.

He declared: “Extant slave markets endure in notable parts of the world, including, most ironically, within the resource centre itself – the African continent. Establishing this for Doubting Thomases is easy though – we can lead you to them, physically.  Often more difficult to establish, however, is the condition itself that constitutes slavery. Yet we must address it. We must, since one is fed by, and feeds on the other, creating a vicious cycle.  The agent of that condition can be an individual, a community, a class, a race, or a religion.”

He further described slavery as “ownership”, while reflecting on the incidence of the missing Chibok girls in Nigeria, Soyinka drew the parallel between extreme religious beliefs and slavery.

“When, for instance, 279 school pupils, all female, are kidnapped from within a supposed sanctuary of learning, taken into a forest, divided up among their captors and scattered to all corners of the world, we need no instruction in conceiving their fate. Captives of an undeclared war, subject to commodity negotiations, bound to the whims and caprices of successive intermediaries and owners, their fate is to succumb to sexual duties, even where underage. These are the twenty-first century horrors that spice the humdrum fare of daily existence,” he said.

For Soyinka, religion has been weaponized against many Africans to promote slavery.

“The self-acclaimed world religions worked hand in hand with militarism for the promotion of the lucrative trade on the African continent, as did the instrumentality of laws and edicts,” he added.

Other speakers invited include UN Secretary-General António Guterres; President of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, Philemon Yang of Cameroon; Permanent Representatives of all 193 UN Members States; and a dynamic youth speaker. 

Past keynote speakers included Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of The New York Times’ 1619 Project (2022); Lisa M. Coleman, a member of New York University’s senior leadership (2021); and the Trinidadian mixed media artist Christopher Cozier (2019).