Libya Slave Auctions And Social Debasement Of Black Africans In The Maghreb

CNN’s video footage of slave auction houses in Libya has evoked outrage across the African continent. Many are calling on leaders to do all they can to end the slavery in Libya as well as address the migration crisis. At the EU-Africa summit in Ivory Coast, African leaders did not hide fury with Nigeria and Ivory Coast leaders being vocal on the treatment of Africans in Libya. Libyan officials said isolated cases are being used to cast all Libyans as racists, according to the Guardian.

Thousands of African migrants have been stuck in Libya due to insecurity and EU immigration controls that have sought to externalise controls to north Africa to stop migrants from getting on boats on the Mediterranean.

In light of the slave auctions, Haythem Guesmi argues that the problem of lingering racism in North Africa is nothing new. The writer describes the dehumanising conditions black Sub-Saharan Africans are facing in Algeria and Libya on their journey to Europe, which have long been known. He says the current reaction "is the same old circulation of humanitarian consumption but with a visual, social media twist." The piece speaks of conditions of black people, citizens of the Maghreb countries and the dehumanisation they face daily on the social, economic and political level.

So the human trafficking of African migrants and their use as forced labour is also related to the debasement of black people in North Africa and the divisions and insecurity in the country can only make it worse. The argument that Libyan officials are peddling about isolated cases does not hold. This piece gives us the bigger context beyond humanitarian calls in the wake of the slave auction videos.