Blog

24
Jun

“Under the Radar: Descent-based Slavery as a Form of Contemporary Slavery”, article in “The Republic”

MARIE RODET, BAKARY CAMARA, MARIE-CHRISTINE DELEIGNE AND LOTTE PELCKMANSJUNE 7, 2021JUNE/JULY 2021 Examining the links between descent-based slavery and contemporary slavery in West Africa helps us to find the missing link to understanding the conditions under which slavery and slavery-like practices keep persisting despite abolitions and international anti-slavery legislation.  Descent-based slavery and its legacies continue to prevail in many West African communities. This form

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24
Jun

SlaFMig project on Instagram and TikTok!

You can now follow us on Instagram and TikTok as well as on our Facebook and Twitter feeds. Follow us on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/slafmig_emifo/ Follow us on TikTok : https://www.tiktok.com/@emifo2

24
Jun

Newsletter #3, Introduction

Dear SLAFMIG followers,  We present you hereby our third newsletter, with exciting new formats and projects. We also want to share with you the positive vibe – or maybe just our naïve hope? – concerning the eventuality of a law criminalizing descent-based slavery. We start to believe that thanks to our project but also due to attention and conferences and

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22
Jun

SlaFMig survey team in Mambiri conducting socio-economic survey

Between 4 and 9 April 2021, a team of SlaFMig investigators consisting of Mamadou Sène Cissé, Binta Coulibaly, Drissa Mariko, Assa Waly Diakité and Aissata Sylla carried out a census of all the households in Mambiri (Kita Region) in preparation for the individual survey to be conducted in July among 400 people in the village (200 men and 200 women).

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16
Jun

Awareness-Raising Sketch For The Eradication Of Descent-Based Slavery

Our SlaFMig action research programme has just released a new descent-based slavery awareness-raising video (available in French and Bambara), which also broadcasts this month on ORTM (Mali’s national TV channel). Click here to view the video in French: Click here to view the video in Bambara:

4
May

“The fight against descent-based slavery in Mali”, Article in Africa Is A Country (March 2021)

Slavery existed in the Sahel before the Transatlantic Slave Trade and endured beyond its abolitions. To this day. On September 1, 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, four anti-slavery activists were murdered in western Mali for their work against descent-based slavery—a form of slavery considered hereditary, which in its worst forms manifests in forced labor without pay, denial

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4
May

Paralegals’ interventions in the ‘cercle’ of Kita (villages of Mambiri and Kokofata) – March 2021

SlaFMig (Slavery and Forced Migration in Western Mali) is a research action programme that has brought together SOAS University of London, the LERDDL lab and the University of Legal and Political Sciences of Bamako (USJPU), the University of Copenhagen and the Malian NGOs Temedt and Donkosira.  The paralegals have started their awareness raising tours in several villages. Mambiri Meeting, 7

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30
Apr

Newsletter #2, introduction – by Marie Rodet and Lotte Pelckmans

Dear colleagues, We are pleased to present here the second newsletter of our EMiFo project, with some updates on its progress over the last 6 weeks. The research team has continued to publish online texts and articles to raise awareness about the fight against descent-based slavery in Mali (article on the Africa Is a Country website) and to explain the

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30
Apr

“Protracted Displacements”, by Leah Durst-Lee -April 2021

Around the world, migrations are resulting in longer and longer periods of displacement, some families being apart from their homes for decades or generations. These long, protracted displacements have become the new normal. The average length of displacement is growing longer, during which those displaced live in extreme levels of insecurity and marginalization, facing little to no access to basic

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28
Apr

“The Kita Workshop – Initial results of the survey among displaced populations” – March 2021

On March 2nd 2021, the prefecture of Kita hosted a workshop to report on the initial results of the survey conducted among displaced persons in Mambiri and to launch the activities of the paralegals for our Slavery and Forced Migration (SlaFMig or EMiFo in French) research project. The SlaFMig programme uses a multidisciplinary approach to analyse the phenomenon of slavery

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