One hundred and fifty two years ago, the 13th amendment was passed by congress, which “abolished” slavery in the United States of America. SInce then, African Americans have been “free”- despite the institutionalized racial caste systems they have involuntarily been placed in, like the Jim Crow laws and the prison pipeline that leads to mass incarceration. Even though nothing around the world is blatantly called “slavery” anymore, we cannot ignore the similar structured injustices around the world that happen to be just as bad.
For the most part, slavery has evolved and adapted a new appearance to suit it’s disguise. This past week while I was browsing my Instagram feed, I came across images of disenfranchised people expressing doom and hopelessness. The caption read, “Libyans are selling off black migrants as slaves…African people for sale in Libya Auctioned for $400…Y’all see this B.S…November 2017.” I immediately shared with all my friends and decided to look it up for more details. Everyone that I told reacted shocked and saddened, and did not have a clue that this was going on either. The majority of people reply with “omg that’s horrible!!!”, then proceed to repost/retweet the picture, and continue on with their day unbothered. This is my wake up call to everyone reading. These overwhelming injustices will not magically disappear unless we do something. We are disturbed daily by social media’s highlights on disparities around the world yet few of us decide to take action. The next time something hits you, research more on it. Call your senators. Sign petitions. Create dialogue. Write about it. Write to government officials about it. We have the power to raise awareness & construct change.
Sorry, but not so sorry for my little rant. Moving forth, I wanted to know what exactly was going on in Libya. In October 2017, a CNN team of reporters witnessed and documented several human auctions across Libya where men were bought for as little as $400 each. On November 14th, CNN released this report and alerted Libyan officials of the selling of migrants done by smugglers. Thousands of refugees, primarily from North African countries like Eritrea and Sudan, are escaping poverty, political unrest and violence in their own countries in hopes for a better life. Only to arrive in Libya to end up becoming victims of smugglers and slave traders at major ports in the country. The individuals and families of all age pay large amounts of money to the smugglers in order to emerge on this dangerous journey that’s filled with torturous abuse.
On November 17th, 2017, Libya opened an investigation into this slave market. The International Organization for Migration, who specializes on managing migration, encourages this investigation but warned them that, “the smuggling networks are becoming stronger, more organized and better equipped.” Since then, many politicians and celebrities have made statements on this, as well as UN councils committing to a investigation. President Trump hasn’t made a statement on Libya specifically, but he did have time to tweet about how CNN International spreads “fake news”. Don’t get me started.
Chaka Clark, or @chakabars on instagram shared a powerful statement discussing the origins of this tragedy that I hope will leave you astonished.
“Nobody who has 10 million followers plus is saying what is really going on. Libya has one of the largest oil reserves. The government in Libya was taken out because Gaddafi, was trying to create a African central bank backed by resources in the ground in Africa. This would have destroyed the petrodollar, and most western currencies that aren’t backed by actually resources, also they wouldn’t accept dollars for oil. Also the amount of fresh water (blue gold) in Libya is crazy, this paper was published in 2012… Researchers from the British Geological Survey & University College London have for the first time mapped the aquifers, or groundwater, across the continent & the amount they hold. ‘The largest groundwater volumes are found in the large sedimentary aquifers in the North African countries Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Sudan,’ the scientists said in their paper. They estimate that reserves of groundwater across the continent are 100 times the amount found on its surface, or 0.66 million cubic kilometres. The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS) is the world’s largest known fossil water aquifer system. NSAS covers a land area spanning just over two million km2, including north-western Sudan, north-eastern Chad, south-eastern Libya, and most of Egypt. Containing an estimated 150,000 km3 of groundwater, the significance of the NSAS as a potential water resource for future development programs in these countries is extraordinary. Recently the Great Man-made River Project (GMMR) in Libya began extracting substantial amounts of water from this aquifer, removing an estimated 2.4 km3 per year. Also the amount of gold that was stolen when Gaddafi was murdered. Also the fact that France and Italy are paying Libya to stop migrants from leaving Libya. Me and @iamcardib or whoever else, should do a live stream together. I will speak up about things that need to be said. Slavery has been going on in Libya for a minute but nobody want to talk about the amount of bombs the US dropped on Libya under the Obama administration… #chakabars respect @oldmanebro”
And lastly, here is some food for thought.