Slave redemption is the process of buying slaves and setting them free. This appears to be a great charity, but in reality, slave redemption is actually doing more harm than good. Slave redemption needs to come to an end immediately.
Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the world and a place that is greatly affected by slavery. This is where John Eibner, an abolitionist, came up with the idea of westerners buying back slaves or slave redemption. This was not all his idea, however, he was inspired by the local people who were already putting this method into practice. His goal was to make this idea more wide spread. At first, the program seemed to be working, national news broadcasters picked up the story and local churches, schools, and relief organizations began fundraising money for the cause. Slowly these efforts were helping free thousands of slaves. It was not until Eibner made a couple more trips back to Sudan that he started noticing the problems.
The first problem with slave redemption is the profit. The raiders, the people abducting the slaves, are making about triple the amount selling slaves through slave redemption then they would by selling them to the northern slave market. A slave in the northern slave market would go for about 15 dollars whereas thorugh slave redemption the same slave would go for atleast 50 dollars. This is encouraging raiders to take more slaves and to do it more frequently, to gain a profit. Since this is such a profitable market the number of raiders is unbelievably increasing. Since 1995 the number of raiders, has grown from about 400, to about 2,500. Another problem with slave redemption is the value of even the weakest slave goes up. In the past, weak and elderly slaves were released because of their lack of value, but if raiders know that they can get 50 dollars for a slave in any condition, the likely hood of them letting the slaves free diminishes. An additional huge problem that goes along with slave redemption is staged slavery. This is where a raider will force free people to stand and act like slaves while they proceed to convince a buyer that they are freeing those exact “slaves”. The raider then gets free money, it is the ultimate con artist trick.
By paying for these slaves we are basically condoning the practice of slavery, and making it more profitable. Anthony Appiah, author of Buying Freedom: the ethics and economics of slave redemption, suggests that if slave redemption is not stopped then the number of overall slaves will actually increase. Slave redemption is simply giving more money to these raiders. This is only leading them to buy more weapons and pursue more raids which results in the abduction of even more slaves. It is a never ending cycle that needs to be stopped.
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Brilliant analysis of a controversial issue.
ReplyDeleteThis is a Catch 22. I disagree with slave redemption condoning an increase in slavery, because that is the opposite of the goal. It's really tricky because no one wants to keep someone enslaved, especailly if a life can be freed for only $50, but then again it's when our "help" is perpetutating the situation that the problem arises.
ReplyDeleteIt's shocking to me how the outcome of this is the opposite of what it is meant to be. The purpose of slave redemption is to help slaves become free by purchasing them. Rather, we are seeing the slave owners outsmarting the abolitionist causing more slaves to be captured, since they know they can sell them back and make a profit. I agree that this needs to come to an end.
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