Slavery

‘The aftermath of enslavement just doesn’t wash away with bleach. It doesn’t wash away with new buildings. It doesn’t wash away with so-called diversity and representation.” The voice of poet and musician Camae Ayewa, known as Moor Mother, commands your whole attention even over a video call. Within minutes of connecting with her, it’s clear that when she speaks, she does so not to impress or to serenade, but to tell the truth. “In the last I did in the Guardian I said we have yet to deal with the repercussions of…

A controversial education bill passed in a Florida House vote on Friday. One Republican lawmaker used the opportunity to wonder why educators don’t talk about how some slaves were paid for their labor. The bill, known as CS/HB 1291, would ban teacher preparation programs and similar courses that teach “identity politics … or based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.” During debate over the bill, state Rep. Alex Andrade (R)…

The small town of Ours is a haven for freed slaves. It’s tucked away in the woods a few miles north of St Louis, but it isn’t marked on the map and unwelcome visitors can’t reach it. That’s because the township of Ours is at least halfway enchanted, founded in the 1830s by Saint, an enigmatic “conjure woman”, and ringed by charmed stones that shield its rooftops from view. Every hostile traveller finds themselves turned about, circling back through the forest to the same clump of trees.Readers are at least provided with a…

You were trained as an engineer but you chose to become a social activist, who worked with children. What motivated you to take this step? PREMIUM Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi(Rajesh Kashyap/HT ) Right from my childhood, I was passionate about humanitarian causes. When I was a student — some 60 years ago, my parents wanted me to become an engineer. I belong to a modest family where nobody had studied engineering or medicine. I was good at mathematics and science, so I secured admission. But back in the…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Companies that have failed to address known cases of modern slavery are winning public sector contracts in the United Kingdom and cannot be disqualified from the public tendering process due to weak legislation, new research from the Universities of Bath, Sussex and the West of England shows. Current legislation means…

On Tuesday night’s episode of Finding Your Roots, LeVar Burton was shocked to discover that he’s part-white. Burton, the renowned host of PBS educational series Reading Rainbow and star of Roots and Star Trek: The Next Generation, came into the show with questions about his family tree, since him and his two sisters were raised by a single mother, Erma Gene, in Sacramento, California. And Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., host of the PBS genealogy series that traces celebrities’ ancestry, and is currently in its tenth…

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Modern slavery affects an estimated 120,000 people in the UK. Under international law, countries must identify and protect survivors, while prosecuting and punishing those who traffic and exploit them. Courts in England and Wales convicted 282 traffickers in 2022. But many victims of modern slavery also…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A dozen years ago, the Foxconn City industrial park in China became infamous for a rash of worker suicides. Foxconn (a manufacturer of iPhones, among other notable products) initially responded by installing safety netting around the facility so that employees were unable to hurl themselves from windows to their deaths effectively. …

SACRAMENTO —  California’s Reparations Task Force on Thursday released its final report, marking a milestone in the state’s historic effort to consider remedies for slavery. The task force has spent the last two years hearing testimony from academics, economists and other experts to gather evidence of the effects of slavery and to prove the ways in which government sanctioned policies continued to discriminate against Black people long after slavery was abolished. The movement now heads back to the state Capitol, where…

Credit: Shutterstock Australia is not immune to the rapidly growing global problem of modern slavery. In fact, new research has found the number of people living in modern slavery has more than doubled in the past four years, rising to an estimated 41,000. Sadly, very few people are formally identified as victims and able to access…