Modern forms of the slave trade persist across Africa through child trafficking and kidnapping, Nobel laureate and Nigerian playwright Professor Wole Soyinka has warned.
Speaking at the Next Steps Conference on Reparatory Justice in Accra on Thursday, 18 June 2026, Soyinka argued that discussions on reparations must confront this ongoing exploitation.
“That sector which agitates me most, you have what I call the conglomeratives of perpetual iniquity,” he said. “I refer to the extant slave markets which still exist in this country, on this continent.”
Despite the formal abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, Soyinka stated that the abduction of school children for trafficking proves slavery has not been eradicated.
“I refer to the kidnapping of school children who were sent to these institutions of learning and who end up being kidnapped because there are ready markets for them,” he said.
“Ultimately, these victims, these kidnapped victims are being sent through special channels to the slave markets of this continent.”
Highlighting rescue efforts in Nigeria, Soyinka noted that authorities have chartered planes to retrieve citizens from regional trafficking networks, describing emotional scenes upon their return.
“If you make inquiries from Nigeria, where I come from, from the Department of the Diaspora, you will learn of even rescue planes, chartered planes, which have managed to retrieve nationals from the slave markets and brought them back to Nigeria,” he said.
“They arrive, unlike emotional returnees, their first action is a symbolic act of kneeling and kissing the ground from which they had been taken,” he said.
He expressed deep concern for the young people who remain vulnerable to these networks, reiterating warnings he delivered to the United Nations last year.
“But the most pernicious of these iniquities are the children, the youths, who till today have been kidnapped and sent to the slave markets to be shared by their kidnappers,” he said. “When I addressed the United Nations last year, I made a point of telling my audience that the slave trade is not over, but it is indeed very active. Even as I speak now, we have children, youths, school children, who are being held in forest fastnesses destined for the slave markets.”
Soyinka also criticised nations opposing reparatory justice, arguing that contemporary exploitation only strengthens the case for historical accountability.
“If ever there was a justification for this gathering, it is those of that mental state, a retrogressive understanding of history and of human relationships,” he said.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
