Op-Ed

Slavery Thrives in Some Countries

Published

10 years ago

June 8, 2015

By Lekan Oguntoyinbo
NNPA Columnist

A couple of weeks ago, law enforcement officials in Mauritania arrested nine people for doing something the government considers radical: protesting slavery.

In 1980, Mauritania became the last nation in the world to legally abolish slavery, an institution that that had existed in the poor, landlocked Islamic West African country of fewer than 4 million people in the middle of the Sahara for more than 700 years.

The operative word here is “legally.” More than 30 years later, the enslavement of Blacks by the ruling Arab Berber class stubbornly persists. It is estimated that about 4 percent of Mauritania’s population, or about 140,000 people, are enslaved.

Over the years, the government has passed a couple of additional anti-slavery acts, but they are rarely enforced. For the most part, the government has taken a see-no-evil approach. Senior government officials often deny that the practice still exists – despite glaring evidence to the contrary.

But in recent months, Amnesty International and other human rights groups say the Mauritanian government appears to have maintained a campaign against the nation’s nascent anti-slavery movement.

The activists arrested recently included Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid, president of Mauritania’s Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) and runner-up in June’s presidential election. Abeid and the other activists had applied for permits to hold anti-slavery rallies and had been denied. Since their arrest, they have been beaten repeatedly, according to press reports and human rights groups. Shortly after their arrests, police officers also closed the IRA’s headquarters in the Mauritian capital Nouakchott and arrested the organization’s spokesperson.

In October, four IRA members were arrested in the biggest mosque in Nouakchott while responding to criticisms made against their organization. They were charged with disturbing prayers and incitement to revolt. They remain in detention and have not been tried.

“Anti-slavery activists are subject to never ending harassment and intimidation in Mauritania. Their actions are either prohibited or severely repressed and they are frequently arrested. This general clamp down must stop as it is a clear violation of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association,” Gaëtan Mootoo, Amnesty International West Africa Researcher, said in a statement.

The government’s campaign against the abolitionists coincides with the recent release of a report by the Global Slavery Index, which is produced by the Walk Free Foundation, an Australian-based organization dedicated to ending modern day slavery. The index says approximately 36 million people are enslaved in scores of countries around the world. These modern-slaves are forced against their will to do things such as picking cotton or growing cannabis and working as prostitutes. The report, which covers 167 countries, estimates that modern day slavery results in the production of more than 100 goods from nearly 60 countries. The International Labor Organization says profits from this forced labor hover at around $150 billion each year.

Several countries were singled out for having particularly bad records, including Qatar, a wealthy Middle Eastern kingdom that has a reputation for luring African and Asian immigrants with the promise of good jobs and then exploiting them; India, where approximately 15 million people are said to be enslaved; and Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia where the government forces more than 1 million people to harvest cotton each year. Other countries cited as having a high prevalence of modern slavery include Haiti, Pakistan, the Central African Republic, Syria, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

But Mauritania, where the practice is so deeply entrenched and kept alive by tradition, was cited as the most notorious offender. The report notes that Black African women are particularly vulnerable to the practice. It is not uncommon for several generations of women from one family to serve one Arab Berber family over decades or centuries. Arab Berbers began settling in the country in the 11^th century, overran it and have largely ruled it since then. They control the government, the military and other essential aspects of life in the country.

Most of the enslaved are beaten and treated as if they were chattel. Many of the women are raped and impregnated by their slave masters.

The practice persists in this 21^st century high tech world in part because of teachings of religious leaders in Mauritania that the Koran approves of slavery (sounds familiar?) and also because many of the slaves and their descendants have been conditioned to believe that there is no life outside of slavery for people who look like them.

In recent years, slavery in Mauritania has received some attention from several leading news outlets, including CNN, the New Yorker magazine, the Guardian and the New York Times, as well as the United Nations and anti-slavery groups. But the attention has not resulted in the kind of worldwide activist fervor that we saw in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, White minority rule in Rhodesia or in the battle against the enslavement and slaughter of Black Christians and animists in Sudan.

It will take that same kind of fervor to end this inhumane practice in the one place in the world where de facto slavery of Blacks still thrives.

Lekan Oguntoyinbo, a columnist for the L.A. Wave, is a national award-winning journalist. Follow him on Twitter @oguntoyinbo. Email him at oguntoyinbo@gmail.com.

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Commentary

California Respects the Power of Your Vote

As California Secretary of State, I do not take the progress we have made over the years lightly. My staff and I hold sacred the obligation to ensure that our elections are safe, free, fair, and accessible to all. Therefore, before certifying the results for this year’s election on Dec. 13, we have taken a number of steps to ensure that every vote is counted. We have also made sure that our ballot counting process is credible and free from interference.

Published

1 week ago

December 18, 2024

Oakland Post

Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D., California Secretary of State. Courtesy of California Secretary of State Office.

By Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D.,
California Secretary of State

Californians can confidently claim this: California has made more significant reforms to our election laws and expanded voting rights than any other state.

The relevance of this accomplishment deepens as we prepare to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act next year. This landmark legislation began to undo our country’s long history of voter suppression, intimidation, and disenfranchisement that far too many Americans experienced at the polls for decades.

My own parents, who were sharecroppers, were denied their right to vote in the Jim Crow era South. Before moving to Los Angeles from Hope, Arkansas, my parents, David and Mildred Nash, could not vote. My father was an adult with six children before he registered to vote and was only able to exercise that constitutional right for the first time here in California.

Therefore, before certifying the results for this year’s election on Dec. 13, we have taken a number of steps to ensure that every vote is counted. We have also made sure that our ballot counting process is credible and free from interference.

To meet that deadline without a hitch, California requires elections officials in all 58 counties to turn in their official results by a certain date. This year, that date was Dec. 6.

By law, every eligible voter in our state receives a vote-by-mail ballot. This ensures all registered voters can exercise their right to vote.

Whether you placed your ballot in a designated drop-off box, voted by mail, or cast your ballot at a polling center, votes are safe and secure. And we allow voters to sign up to receive text message, email, or voice call notifications about the status of their own ballots by using the Where’s My Ballot? tool. To learn more or to sign up, paste this URL in your web browser: https://california.ballottrax.net/voter/

The ballots of Californians who voted by mail are also protected. The United States Postal Service partners with the State to make sure ballots are delivered on time. All mailed-in ballots are sent by First Class mail with a postage paid envelope provided to every eligible registered voter.

Election Security is our No. 1 priority. That’s why my office designed and implemented a program to back up that commitment. For more information, visit this URL: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/election-cybersecurity

Additionally, California takes preventive actions to make sure our voting technology keeps our elections safe and protects everyone’s votes.

For example, county voting systems are not connected to the internet, which protects them from cyberthreats. The State also performs regular and rigorous testing to make sure the voting systems are working optimally, and only authorized personnel are granted access.

Staff members are also given phishing and cybersecurity training.

VoteCal, the state’s centralized voter registration system, is also key. The system is regularly updated, and it is used as a resource for counties to verify voter signatures.

California also provides security at all counting locations and makes sure ballot drop-off boxes are secured and monitored.

And all election processes are open to observation during specified hours.

In my role as Secretary of State of California, there is nothing more important to me than defending our democracy.

I am committed to safeguarding voting rights, and to leading our state in upholding the highest democratic standards by implementing policies and practices that Californians and all Americans can trust and look to for instruction and hope.

You can contact the California Office of the Secretary of State at 1-800-345-Vote or elections@sos.ca.gov with inquiries or to report suspected incidents or irregularities. Additional information can be found at www.sos.ca.gov and the office’s social media platforms:

Instagram: @californiasos_
Facebook: Facebook.com/CaliforniaSOS
X: @CASOSVote

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Activism

COMMENTARY: PEN Oakland Entices: When the News is Bad, Try Poetry

Strongman politics is not for the weak. Here in the U.S., Donald Trump is testing how strongman politics could work in the world’s model democracy.

Published

3 weeks ago

December 6, 2024

Oakland Post

iStockphoto.

By Emil Guillermo

As the world falls apart, you need more poetry in your life.

I was convinced on Tuesday when a weak and unpopular president of South Korea — a free nation U.S. ally — tried to save himself by declaring martial law.

Was it a stunt? Maybe. But indicative of the South Korean president’s weakness, almost immediately, the parliament there voted down his declaration.

The takeaway: in politics, nothing quite works like it used to.

Strongman politics is not for the weak. Here in the U.S., Donald Trump is testing how strongman politics could work in the world’s model democracy.

Right now, we need more than a prayer.

NEWS ANTIDOTE? LITERATURE

As we prepare for another Trump administration, my advice: Take a deep breath, and read more poetry, essays and novels.

From “Poetry, Essays and Novels,” the acronym PEN is derived.

Which ones to read?

Register (tickets are limited) to join Tennessee Reed and myself as we host PEN OAKLAND’s award ceremony this Saturday on Zoom, in association with the Oakland Public Library.

Find out about what’s worth a read from local artists and writers like Cheryl Fabio, Jack Foley, Maw Shein Win, and Lucille Lang Day.

Hear from award winning writers like Henry Threadgill, Brent Hayes Edwards and Airea D. Matthews.

PEN Oakland is the local branch of the national PEN. Co-founded by the renowned Oakland writer, playwright, poet and novelist Ishmael Reed, Oakland PEN is special because it is a leader in fighting to include multicultural voices.

Reed is still writing. So is his wife Carla Blank, whose title essay in the new book, “A Jew in Ramallah, And Other Essays,” (Baraka Books), provides an artist’s perspective on the conflict in Gaza.

Of all Reed’s work, it’s his poetry that I’ve found the most musical and inspiring.

It’s made me start writing and enjoying poetry more intentionally. This year, I was named poet laureate of my small San Joaquin rural town.

Now as a member of Oakland PEN, I can say, yes, I have written poetry and essays, but not a novel. One man shows I’ve written, so I have my own sub-group. My acronym: Oakland PEOMS.

Reed’s most recent book of poetry, “Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues, Poems 2007-2020” is one of my favorites. One poem especially captures the emerging xenophobia of the day. I offer you the first stanza of “The Banishment.”

We don’t want you here
Your crops grow better than ours
We don’t want you here
You’re not one of our kind
We’ll drive you out
As thou you were never here
Your names, family, and history
We’ll make them all disappear.

There’s more. But that stanza captures the anxiety many of us feel from the threat of mass deportations. The poem was written more than four years ago during the first Trump administration.

We’ve lived through all this before. And survived.

The news sometimes lulls us into acquiescence, but poetry strikes at the heart and forces us to see and feel more clearly.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. Join him at www.patreon.com/emilamok

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Bay Area

In the City Attorney Race, Ryan Richardson Is Better for Oakland

It’s been two years since negotiations broke down between the City of Oakland and a developer who wants to build a coal terminal here, and the issue has reappeared, quietly, in the upcoming race for Oakland City attorney. Two candidates are running for the position of Oakland City Attorney in November: current Assistant Chief City Attorney Ryan Richardson and retired judge Brenda Harbin-Forte.

Published

2 months ago

October 28, 2024

Oakland Post

Members of Oaklanders Defending Democracy political action committee with Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, center. Courtesy photo.

By Margaret Rossoff

Special to The Post

OPINION

Two candidates are running for the position of Oakland City Attorney in November: current Assistant Chief City Attorney Ryan Richardson and retired judge Brenda Harbin-Forte.

Richardson has worked in the Office of the City Attorney since 2014 and is likely to continue current City Attorney Barbara Parker’s policies managing the department. He has committed not to accept campaign contributions from developers who want to store and handle coal at a proposed marine terminal in Oakland.

Retired Judge Harbin-Forte launched and has played a leading role in the campaign to recall Mayor Sheng Thao, which is also on the November ballot. She has stepped back from the recall campaign to focus on her candidacy. The East Bay Times noted, “Harbin-Forte’s decision to lead the recall campaign against a potential future client is … troubling — and is likely to undermine her ability, if she were to win, to work effectively.”

Harbin-Forte has refused to rule out accepting campaign support from coal terminal interests or their agents. Coal terminal lobbyist Greg McConnell’s Independent Expenditure Committee “SOS Oakland” is backing her campaign.

In the 2022 mayor’s race, parties hoping to build a coal terminal made $600,000 in contributions to another of McConnell’s Independent Expenditure Committees.

In a recent interview, Harbin-Forte said she is open to “listening to both sides” and will be “fair.” However, the City Attorney’s job is not to judge fairly between the City and its legal opponents – it is to represent the City against its opponents.

She thought that the 2022 settlement negotiations ended because the City “rejected a ‘no coal’ settlement.” This is lobbyist McConnell’s narrative, in contrast to the report by City Attorney Barbara Parker. Parker has explained that the City continued to negotiate in good faith for a settlement with no “loopholes” that could have allowed coal to ship through Oakland – until would-be coal developer Phil Tagami broke off negotiations.

One of Harbin-Forte’s main priorities, listed on her website, is “reducing reliance on outside law firms,” and instead use the lawyers working in the City Attorney’s office.

However, sometimes this office doesn’t have the extensive expertise available that outside firms can provide in major litigation. In the ongoing, high stakes coal litigation, the City has benefited from collaborating with experienced, specialized attorneys who could take on the nationally prominent firms representing the City’s opponents.

The City will continue to need this expertise as it pursues an appeal of the judge’s decision that restored the developer’s lease and defends against a billion-dollar lawsuit brought by the hedge fund operator who holds the sublease on the property.

Harbin-Forte’s unwillingness to refuse campaign contributions from coal terminal interests, her opposition to using outside resources when needed, as well as her uncritical repetition of coal lobbyist McConnell’s claim that the City sabotaged the settlement talks of 2022 all raise serious concerns about how well she would represent the best interests of Oakland and Oaklanders if she is elected City Attorney.