Roots
Slavery
By Marifi Jara
QUELIMANE, Mozambique–On a trip to the northern part of this country over the last Christmas and New Year holidays, one of the places we visited was Ilha de Mozambique, an island off Mozambique’s northeastern coast declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1993.
It’s a small island, just 3.5 kilometers long by 500 meters at its widest, but its strategic location accounts for the island’s rich history, serving as a central point for the great sea voyages between Africa, Europe and Asia beginning in the 8th century.
The Arabs then dominated the trading there which involved a colorful mix of Persians and Turks, Indians, Indonesians and Chinese. By the 1500s, the Portuguese led by Vasco de Gama established a stronghold and the island would later become the first capital of Portuguese East Africa, which would later become Mozambique.
Ilha de Mozambique’s position, unfortunately, also made it an ideal stopover for the slave trade which span many centuries.
Out on a walk towards the northern end of the island to see the famous fort that never fell, we chanced upon the memorial garden for slaves. It was open to visitors and so we stepped in. It is a small gated and fenced area that used to serve as a “warehouse” for African slaves before they were shipped out to the Middle East or to what the colonizers then called the “New World” which included countries in the Carribean and forced into labor in plantations.
The great adventurer and medical missionary in Africa David Livingstone wrote: “The strangest disease I have seen… seems really to be broken-heartedness, and it attacks free men who have been captured and made slaves.”
REMEMBERING THE SLAVES–The memorial garden
for slaves in Ilha de Mozambique.
The memorial garden was a place that gives a pinch to your heart. It made me feel the utter wickedness that man is capable of, the helplessness that the slaves — torn of everything they owned, including their freedom, and from everyone they loved — must have felt or the strength of spirit that kept them alive with hope, and our power to remember history so that such evils will never again be.
But sadly, slavery has not ended.
Nowadays, it is called human trafficking.
And it is still happening not just in this continent but elsewhere, including the Philippines. It comes in the form of illegal job recruitment, mostly for abroad. But human trafficking right within the Philippines, mostly young women from poor rural areas lured into promising work opportunities in big cities, is also prevalent. Just last week, there was the story here on The Punch about the victims of a sex-slave ring in Dagupan City (sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/2011/02/27/3-victims-return-to-expose-sex-slave-ring/) and this week there is the encouraging report on how the Department of Social Welfare and Development has forged ties with barangay officials in three places in Pangasinan and Ilocos Sur to help curb human trafficking.
In this day and age of high technology, slavery remains so unbelievably real.
To put an end to this modern-day slavery, it will have to start with the family, of course, because where else are we supposed to find protection first but in the home. But even that fails, we know. So communities can do their part. I think this is one of those few instances where we can be excused for being an usi (nosy) or a tsismoso to our neighbor. Smell trafficking going on somewhere in the neighborhood? Tell it to the authorities (www.traffficking.org.ph is also a helpful website). And perhaps you will help save and heal a broken heart.
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