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The Libyan/Trans-Mediterranean Slave Trade, the African Union, and the Failure of Human Morality:

The Libyan/Trans-Mediterranean Slave Trade, the African Union, and the Failure of Human Morality: In this article, I argue that the recently exposed slave trade in Libya involving Black African migrants seeking opportunities in Europe is not merely a crime against humanity that has been justly condemned by the international community, but is also a serious indictment on the failings of the African Union’s leadership. It is a reflection of the duplicitous nature of Europe’s commitment to human rights and exposes the African leaders’ moral and leadership deficiencies. Through the use of the Hamitic hypothesis and the cultural racism theory, I discuss some causal factors that have led to the abuse of sub-Saharan Africans migrating to Europe and also the African response to the migrant crisis. Finally, I draw parallels between what I term the New Slavery and the evolving narrative of racism and conclude that poor African leadership is the Achilles’ heel in the restoration of African dignity. Keywords slavery, Libya, African migrants, Europe, leadership and one million African migrants died at sea (Yousef, 2017). Introduction The question that then arises is why African migrants would In November 2017, a CNN special report revealed that take enormous risks making the voyage across the African migrants seeking to get into Europe were being sold Mediterranean Sea via a lawless and dangerous Libya. as slaves by some criminal gangs in Libya, a failed North Yousef (2017) explained that most of these migrants in Libya African state. This country has become the face of the new “are fleeing armed conflict, persecution or severe economic “Middle Passage” to Europe. The Security Council con- hardship in sub-Saharan Africa.” If most of the migrants are demned the slave trading as “heinous abuses of human rights bona fide refugees fleeing from multifaceted sociopolitical which may also account to crimes against humanity” and and economic problems, the international community should called upon “all relevant authorities to investigate such activ- respond to their plight in a more compassionate manner. The ities without delay to bring perpetrators to account” AU, by virtue of its immediate links with the member states (Levenson, 2017). The shocking revelations led to interna- from which the refugees flee, should have led the way in tional condemnation and demands by human rights groups ameliorating their plight in Libya as soon as it began. Hence, for the United Nations (UN) intervention and the prosecution the initial lethargic reaction to the unfolding crisis in Africa of the culprits. Worldwide protest marches condemned the and the subsequent hostility toward the migrants in Europe Libyan slave trade as the UN announced that it would inves- point to a troubling moral declension in the world in general, tigate. The Nigerian government started repatriating its and among African leaders in particular. It is as if postmod- nationals who had been rescued from their captors, yet ern society lacks the requisite moral foundations, which clearly, the overall African response to the revelations was enable relevant strategies that respond urgently to develop- shockingly inadequate. The response was, to put it suc- ing calamities. cinctly, reactionary and face-saving. For instance, it had to take a CNN investigation for the crime to be exposed while the African governments slept on their jobs. University of Zululand, Kwa-Dlangezwa, South Africa The Libyan criminal syndicates involved in the slave Corresponding Author: trade seem to have been operating with impunity right under Lucas Mafu, Department of English, University of Zululand, P. Bag X1001, the noses of the weak Libyan government and the continental Kwa-Dlangezwa 3886, South Africa. body, the African Union (AU). In 2017, between 700,000 Email: MafuL@unizulu.ac.za Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 SAGE Open Winter (1994, p. 4) argues that the postmodern society overthrow of the late Muamar Gaddafi, and calling for an still has the ability to make sound moral judgments informed official investigation, African leaders have been unconvinc- by a “radical insistence on contingency” which also reinvig- ing in their response. According to the Migration Policy orates “our understanding” of the deeper meaning of “the Centre (MPC), sub-Saharan Africans constituted the demo- problem of values.” His view means that the widespread graphic group most affected by criminal violence, deten- materialism and secularization of postmodern society does tions, and deportations in Libya. It also says that “they were not equate to a kind of nihilism devoid of both human com- in the most dangerous position being threatened by Gaddafi’s passion and an awareness of attendant moral obligations. His forces and the opposition” (MPC-Team, 2013, p. 6). view on postmodern morality is also shared by Lindholm Furthermore, the MPC states that the situation of these (1997, p. 11) who believes that the existence of an arbitrary, migrants was worsened by the failure of their countries’ gov- unstable, and uncertain international universe still leaves us ernments to help them. Consequently, the migrants were left with the capacity “to know the right way to behave” even “stranded in overcrowded transit areas in countries bordering when we may not know where we are going. In other words, Libya” (MPC-Team, 2013, p. 6). According to the MPC, postmodernist understanding of morality has not affected our 62,058 sub-Saharan migrants were deported from Libya in ability to decide on what is right and wrong. Yet, the whole 2013. idea of what should constitute morality is contested. There is The U.S. Department of State (2017) states that the subjective morality and objective morality—two apparently Libyan government registers migrants from seven nationali- exclusive concepts. Cline (2018, p.1) explains that the dis- ties as refugees, specifically those coming from Syria, tinction between these concepts of morality is that “objective Somalia, Ethiopia (Oromo), Sudan (Darfur), and Eritrea. The judgments and claims are assumed to be free from personal Department of State also reports that “treatment of detained considerations,” while subjective ones are “assumed to be migrants depended upon their country of origin.” These rev- heavily (if not entirely) influenced by such personal consid- elations expose the inept sub-Saharan African governments erations.” Dorsey (2012) postulates that even when deter- whose nationals were left to face illegal Libyan detentions, mining subjective morality, one still needs to examine rapes, arbitrary beatings, and enslavement on their own. The objective facts about an issue before making a determination. migrant crisis must surely be one of the worst human disas- Hence, to him, the “fundamental facts that determine whether ters to ever afflict Africa since the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade we conform to our moral obligations or not are objective,” and colonization. Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of meaning that they are independent of the epistemic contexts Human Rights declares the following: “No one shall be held of the “individual agents.” In view of the above perspectives, in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be the objective facts about the sub-Saharan African migrants in prohibited in all their forms.” Article 5 says that “no one the Maghreb are that they have been dehumanized through shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrad- torture, rapes, illegal detentions, deportations, and slavery. ing treatment or punishment” (Henry, 2018). Therefore, this These established facts should trigger a sense of horror in the study examines how in a world that has designed such lofty global community leading to urgent necessary interventions standards of human rights, and in a continent that has not as both torture and slavery have been outlawed in interna- only experienced slavery, but has also suffered from coloni- tional statutes. zation, the degrading scourge of slavery should again be In December 2017, the CNN also reported that some manifested. It attempts to answer the following questions: Is European criminal syndicates were recruiting African the dehumanization of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa migrants for exploitative labor on Italian farms. Some of the through exploitative labor in southern European countries immigrants told the CNN that they were forced to work on like Italy, and the subsequent slave trade in Libya following those farms to survive in a hostile environment. The farmers the Italian government’s deals with Libyan warlords explain- simply exploited their unfortunate circumstances by using able through the Hamitic hypothesis and the cultural racism them as cheap labor for selfish economic advantages. On the theory? Do the African leaders’ failed economic policies contrary, the Italian government ignored the exploitative carry most of the blame for the migrant crisis and the resul- wages as it saw these as a deterrent to those migrants still tant slave trade? dreaming of a future in the country (see Yousef, 2017). The fact that the governments of the host European countries International Migration and the Human allowed the exploitation of immigrants is an indictment of Rights of the Migrants their lack of commitment to the human rights of African migrants. Be that as it may, ultimate blameworthiness for the International migration is one phenomenon that is part of the refugee problem must lie with the African leaders in the human experience in the 21st century. In recent years, politi- source countries, while Libyan and European racial preju- cal conflict has been the key driver of migration from the dice must be blamed for the slave trade that resulted. Apart war-ravaged countries to host nations that hold the promise from complaining about the culpability of the West in the of peace, stability, and social advancement for refugees. lawlessness of Libya because of its involvement in the During the so-called “Arab Spring,” the Middle East and Mafu 3 North Africa were the major sources of migration to Europe. The cultural “other” is regarded as a suspect and therefore an The migration involved millions of migrants fleeing conflict undesirable presence in the indigene’s physical space. In his in countries affected by political upheavals. Countries such definition of cultural racism, Blaut (1992, p. 290) sees the as Syria, Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia experienced political phenomenon as a learned cultural practice in which the racial upheavals during the Arab Spring when people demanded category used in profiling people is “substituted” by the cul- democratization and progressive political systems. In Syria’s tural one so that the concept of a superior culture replaces the case, a civil war that sucked in major world powers like biological concept of a superior race. In this reasoning, non- Russia, the United States of America, Iran, Turkey, the Europeans are “rather culturally backward in comparison to United Kingdom, and France either on the rebels’ or on the Europeans because of their history: their lesser cultural evo- Assad regime’s sides forced hundreds of thousands of people lution” (Blaut, p. 293). Thus, the conflictual nature of the to flee to neighboring countries and to Europe. The emer- relationship between some European citizens and the gence of the terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria migrants of Middle Eastern stock has in recent years been (ISIS) only worsened the deadly conflict and forced millions exploited by terrorist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda. These from the Middle East to flee to Europe. The massive migra- groups see in the culturally excluded migrants fertile recruit- tion has caused social tensions in the host nations like France, ment grounds for suicide bombers operating as terrorist cells. Germany, and others while depriving the source nations of ISIS-linked terror cells have already shocked the world with the economically productive segments of their populations. their attacks in Paris, Berlin, and the Belgian capital Brussels More worryingly, neo-Nazi groups and far right parties have (see also Schmid, 2016). Consequently, these violent activi- exploited the migrant-related fears of European citizens and ties by terrorist groups seem to be directly linked to the cul- exacerbated xenophobic reactions that have heightened tural exclusion of immigrants in the host nations and the racial tensions. Gutteridge (2015) notes that the migrant cri- deep sense of resentment and grievance among the radical- sis has seen Europe swing to the right. Consequently, the ized cultural outsiders. The same problems of xenophobia continent’s extremist politicians have exploited the situation and racism are pertinent in this article’s discussion of the to build their support among electorates that are wary of ref- Libyan slavery and other forms of abuse of migrants from ugees. The hostility of European citizens toward African sub-Saharan Africa. According to the United Nations Support immigrants and indeed those from the Middle East has some Mission in Libya (UNSMIL; 2016), the majority of migrants elements of racial bigotry and xenophobia. Thorleifson that it interviewed in Libya were from the sub-Saharan (2015) observes as follows: African countries, namely, Eritrea, Somalia, Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Sudan. The migrants reported to UNSMIL that they had been regularly subjected In response to growing economic and social crises, the radical, to beatings, starvation, denial of food and water, gang rapes, far right and populist social movements are experiencing a and the renting out of women to armed men for sexual abuse. remarkable surge in support. Across different European contexts, citizens cast their votes for parties with xenophobic roots, Hence, the article argues that sub-Saharan migrants travers- rhetoric and policies. This is evident in countries like Greece, ing Libya while seeking Europe’s shores have been subjected France, Hungary, the UK and Sweden, where the radical right to worse treatment than those from other regions of Africa. form the spearhead of larger renationalization processes directed The second wave of migrations to Europe has originated at forces seen as threatening their “national culture and values.” in sub-Saharan Africa where poverty, poor governance, failed states, and conflict have been the major push factors. She also mentions the problem of cultural exclusion of The question then arises: Are scholarly arguments that war, migrants in countries like Hungary. This development is disease, and poverty have historically been the main drivers itself a form of cultural racism, the intent of which is nativist of massive African migration to Europe, true? The fact is that as it seeks to protect the cultural values and identity of the most of sub-Saharan Africa’s migration has mainly been indigene from the “adulterating” presence of the foreigner. intra-African, in the form of rural-to-urban migration or Thus, this article regards the European xenophobic response across national borders. The people migrate to get to the rela- to the migrants as being both a political expression of cul- tive safety of refugee camps or more stable host countries. tural exclusivity and an overt racism. Typical examples of regional destinations of African migrants The “othering” of migrants in Europe has been reflected fleeing from conflict include the Somali refugee camps in in violent actions and other forms of aggression and discrim- northern Kenya and South Sudanese refugee camps in ination by right-wing political parties, which, unsurprisingly, Tanzania and Uganda. In the case of refugees from the have been making electoral gains in countries like Germany, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda in the France, and Belgium, to name but a few. The cultural racism Great Lakes region, Zambia, South Africa, and Tanzania theory seeks to explain covert forms of racism that have have been the key destinations. In southern Africa, there has emerged since the end of fascism and subsequently colonial- been a lot of migration from conflict-ridden states like ism. Cultural racism constructs the cultural outsider as an Lesotho and Zimbabwe to South Africa by political refugees existential threat to a dominant ethnic group’s way of life. and economic migrants. Flahaux and De Haas (2016) argue 4 SAGE Open that research has demonstrated that the notion of desperately Asiatic origin. Thus, this article argues that this Afro- poor, starving, and undocumented African migrants fleeing pessimistic view of Black Africa underpins the racism that in Exodus-type proportions to Europe because of war, vio- has been exhibited against sub-Saharan Africans and contin- lence, poverty, and hunger is misplaced and stereotypical. ues to inflame anti-Black hostility in Arab North Africa. They assert that studies reveal that there is nothing excep- According to the BBC article “Gaddafi Wants EU Cash to tional about African migration and reject the notion of irreg- Stop African Migrants” (2010), Gaddafi suggested that the ular and illegal mass exodus targeting Europe as an El EU “should pay Libya at least 5bn euros (£4bn; $6.3bn) a Dorado. They point out that African migration, while being year to stop illegal African immigration and avoid a ‘black mainly regular and intra-African by migrants holding travel Europe.’” Italy subsequently began handing rescued migrants documents, passports, and visas, is also directed to Asia, to Libya, thereby drastically reducing the number of migrants Australasia, and the Americas. The migrants’ mobility is reaching its shores (Yousef, 2017). Hence, Gaddafi’s demand influenced by the need for a better education, family, joining for cash from European nations in return for him stopping a spouse, and finding a job, as is the case with migration the flow of migrants was a racist-tainted economic black- elsewhere in the world. While accepting that violence is a mail—the deliberate creation of a looming African invasion driver of African migration in regions like the Great Lakes, for extortionist objectives. It was the construction of a mythi- they argue that it only accounts for a fraction of the overall cal “Black Peril” that would coax Europe’s leaders into a causes of migration as most of the drivers are “mundane pro- financially advantageous deal for Libya. In a sense, the deal cesses that drive mobility like education, a spouse or a better he wanted was tantamount to commodifying the migrants, life” (Flahaux & De Haas, 2016, p. 3). They further observe turning them into negotiating chips and effectively dehu- as follows: manizing them. This extortionist rhetoric set the stage for Italian cooperation with post-Gaddafi Libyan warlords on The idea that much African migration is essentially driven by “cash for migrants” deals and the resultant slave trade, the poverty ignores evidence that demographic and economic motivating factors of which are financial and racist. transitions and “development” in poor countries are generally Blaut (1992) asserts that racism like all the other practices associated to increasing rather than decreasing levels of mobility is “cognized by a theory, a belief system about the nature of and migration and that the relation between development and reality and the behaviour which is appropriate to this cog- migration is fundamentally non-linear. (Flahaux & De Haas, p. 3) nized reality” (p. 289). He also posits that the practice of racial discrimination exists at all levels “from personal abuse Drawing from the above argument, this article submits that to colonial oppression.” Perhaps more relevantly, he explains the sensationalizing of the plight of African migrants who that the practice of racism has been essential in European have suffered from enslavement plays straight into the narra- society for several hundred years “in the sense that it is an tive of the Afro-pessimism and the so-called “curse of Ham.” essential part of the way the European capitalist system From a discourse analytical perspective, the use of disparag- maintains itself.” The farmers in southern Italy realized the ing rhetoric by leaders like the late Muamar Gaddafi who economic benefits of recruiting sub-Saharan African once described sub-Saharan African migrants as “swarms” migrants as cheap labor in conditions akin to slavery, where invading Europe and threatening Europe’s social order the vulnerable migrants simply had to work for peanuts, or through creating a “black Europe” amounts to stereotyping starve. The point is that no European farmer could have sub- the migrant and degrading him as a lesser human (see the jected a fellow citizen to exploitative working conditions “Gaddafi wants EU cash to stop African migrants,” 2010). without the risk of prosecution under relevant European Such an alarmist narrative of a potential “Black Peril” threat- Union (EU) labor regulations. Other than capitalist oppor- ening Europe’s cultural and racial makeup may amount to tunism, possible racism, and creating a deterrent against some form of cultural racism masquerading as concerns future migration to Europe, it is difficult to find alternative about “irregular” migration. The Hamitic theory explores the explanations for the abuse of migrants in southern Europe’s mono-dimensional interpretation of the biblical story of farms. Ham, the youngest son of Noah, mocking his drunken father’s nakedness instead of reverently covering him with a garment like his older siblings Shem and Japheth. In the bib- Libya, the Hamitic Hypothesis, and the lical narrative, Noah then cursed Canaan by declaring that he New Slave Trade would be a servant of servants to his brethren. Racists and cultural supremacists have, over the centuries, used this Oil rich Libya’s lawlessness is rooted in two related histori- “curse” to justify the abuse of Black Africans and, in some cal events: the end of Muamar Gaddafi’s dictatorship and extreme instances, to even deny them their human dignity. Western political and military interventions. Both of these According to the Hamitic theory, nothing of value in Africa factors are linked to the competing interests of capitalism originated from Black African communities (see Sanders, and nascent Libyan nationalist desire for global relevance. 1969). All that is valuable in Black Africa has a European or Libya has, in a sense, become a modern replica of the Mafu 5 Senegalese Goree Island, a new slave-holding post along the included “lighting up a cigarette and blowing it in the face of Mediterranean Sea. Its geographical proximity to southern his neighbour, or tossing insults at Gulf leaders and the Europe and its lawlessness make it an attractive launch pad Palestinians” during his period as a Pan-Arab champion. for human traffickers cashing in on migrants hoping to get to Later, during his Pan-African episode, he would use the Arab Europe. Its colonial association with Italy makes it particu- League summits to declare himself “king of kings of Africa.” larly attractive to Ethiopian and Somali migrants as a door- According to the “Raddington Report” (2017), Libya’s rac- way to southern Europe. The same country once had a ism is “old established” and the slave trading in Black people love–hate relationship with Europe’s capitalist powers. Its in that country “harks back to an age where subjugation and late dictator Muamar Gaddafi was implicated in the terrorist overt dehumanization of Africans was common place.” It bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie in Scotland and cites the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions became an international pariah thereafter. Libya was accused (ICFTU) statement of 2000 condemning a wave of attacks of sponsoring anti-Western terrorist groups. It also adopted a targeting African migrants and also Human Rights Watch radical anti-Western and Pan-Arab nationalist stance while reports of 2006 and 2009 documenting attacks on Black constructing its national identity on a more Asian Arab image African migrants by Libyan nationals. It concludes that the and not as an African state. “roots of Libya’s anti-black sentiment lies with the myth of It was only after Libya failed to assert its influence among racial superiority” over sub-Saharan Africans. In terms of the the Arab League nations that it adopted a Pan-Africanist Hamitic hypothesis, Libya’s historical cultural superiority identity and using its leader’s charisma and oil wealth, complex is premised on the belief that a subgroup of the courted friendship with sub-Saharan African nations (see “more technologically superior” Caucasian race that settled “Raddington & Report,” 2017). Later, it supported South in Africa created all valuable innovations. Clearly, the Pan- African President Thabo Mbeki in his African Renaissance Africanism of Gaddafi’s Libya only masked the racism and and the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development what the “Raddington Report” (2017) terms “the Arabisation” (NEPAD) agenda, which sought to develop intra-African campaign in Africa. trade and eventually, through the AU, champion continental The “Raddington Report” (2017) cites Gaddafi’s racist union. Gaddafi imagined himself as a future president of a rant in 2010 when he “warned that Europe could face being United Africa and worked hard at winning popular support in overrun by an ‘influx of starving and ignorant Africans’” sub-Saharan Africa through economic investments and other while also adding that “we don’t know if Europe will remain political initiatives. It later emerged that his family stashed an advanced and united continent or if it will be destroyed, as stolen Libyan wealth all over Africa. Several billions of sto- happened with the barbaric invasions.” His rhetoric sounds len dollars are said to be in South Africa’s banking system. similar to Trump’s “shithole” categorization of the migrants According to a UN report on Gaddafi’s missing billions, from the continent and are echoed in Kemp’s analysis of the “about $20 billion was believed to be held across four banks, European leaders’ xenophobic attitudes toward sub-Saharan while the rest was allegedly hidden in warehouses and bun- African migrants. The Gaddafi warning seems to have been kers around Pretoria and Johannesburg” (Chutel, 2017). In taken seriously in Europe, hence the collaboration between applying the Hamitic theory to Libya’s treatment of sub- the Italian government and the Libyan warlords on keeping Saharan Africa, one has to consider the changed nature of the sub-Saharan Africans out of Europe through the payment political realities in postcolonial Africa. These circumstances of bribes. As has been mentioned earlier, this collaboration have distorted Arab North Africa’s relations with Black led to the slave trade once the profits of the human smugglers Africans by creating a tension-filled dichotomy of Pan- began to fall. African brotherhood and race-based identity politics. Since Gaddafi’s fall, the Western-backed regime in Tripoli Sanders (1969, p. 521) argues that the Hamitic hypothesis has failed to establish control over the country leading to the is “symptomatic of the nature of race relations” and has terrorist group ISIS setting up camp in Libya. According to changed its “content if not its nomenclature through time, the UNSMIL and United Nations Human Rights (UNHR; and that it has become a problem of epistemology.” Thus, it 2016), “the breakdown in the justice system has led to a state suited Libya to suddenly discover its African-ness when its of impunity, in which armed groups, criminal gangs, smug- designs for political pre-eminence in the Arab world failed. glers and traffickers control the flow of migrants through the Libya could successfully exert its influence and attain its country” (p. 1). Without central governmental control, the hegemonic ambitions in sub-Saharan Africa where it calcu- activities of criminal networks that have profited from human lated its chances would be enhanced by the comparatively trafficking and the slave trade have been unabated. weaker states. Hence, Libya’s masquerading as a committed Unscrupulous traffickers have robbed migrants of money Pan-Africanist champion only masked its years-old anti- while promising to deliver them to Europe. Unseaworthy Black African racism. Asser (2011) states that Gaddafi used vessels have often capsized in the Mediterranean Sea and to be known as the “Picasso of Middle East politics,” and cost thousands of migrants’ lives. Such calamities have not that during the 2000s, he would “disrupt the normally stolid dissuaded would-be migrants from attempting the dangerous annual summits of the Arab League” by his antics which voyage. Faced with political backlashes in their countries 6 SAGE Open over the issue of African immigrants, some European coun- unlikely cooperation between the Italians and the Libyans. tries like Italy have entered deals with the Libyan authorities The MPC-Team of the EU wrote that sub-Saharan Africans to keep the migrants in Libya and to jointly patrol the were the most affected by illegal detentions, arbitrary beat- Mediterranean Sea. The anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe ings, rapes, and deportations. They further state that this has been worsened by the unprecedented immigration of population group was often left “stranded in overcrowded Syrian refugees into countries like Austria, Hungary, transit areas” as their home countries governments “were not Germany, and France. After a string of ISIS-linked terror in a position to help them” (MPC-Team, 2013, p. 6). One attacks in Belgium, France, and Germany, neo-Nazi groups sub-Saharan African migrant identified as Kareema whom and the far right parties became more robust in their opposi- Refugees International (RI) interviewed spoke of inhumane tion to migrants. The European response to the migrant crisis conditions in detention centers that left him feeling that has been one of fear of minority “alien cultures, traditions “death would have been better . . .” (Leghtas, 2018, p. 10). and ways of life,” which often “fosters fear, a lack of trust, Another one named David (South Sudanese) told his inter- open hostility and, in some cases it results in xenophobia and viewer that “refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa racism against those regarded as different” (Guibernau, were treated worse” than others. He remembered an incident 2010, p. 5). in which three Moroccans queuing with him in a refugee The anti-immigrant sentiment has forced European states detention center were served before him even though he was like Italy and France to tighten their immigration laws and in front. When he challenged the Libyan officials on the become more robust in their reaction to the human trafficking favoritism, they simply told him “you’re black. You’re a problem. They have recently been accused of involvement in slave” (Leghtas, p. 10). Notwithstanding the racial prejudice controversial deals with the Libyans on curtailing the flow of against sub-Saharan African migrants, the unbearable living both economic and political refugees from sub-Saharan conditions in some African countries are so grave that the Africa. According to Yousef (2017), the Italian government need to flee from the African hotspots far outweighs the risks began “paying the Libyan warlords controlling Libya’s coasts involved. Even the horrendous route through the Sahara to curb the flow of migrants early in 2017.” These payments Desert and what Kemp (2017) describes as a “silent massa- to Libya’s warlords by the Italian government led to a drop cre” in Libya and the Mediterranean Sea have not deterred “in the flow of migrants to Italy,” thereby creating “a backlog the migrants. of customers for Libya’s smugglers, who have responded by To the question why is the world ignoring the slave trade, auctioning off migrants for as little as $400.” In a sense, the Kemp (2017) postulates that it might be “because they’re Italian payments to Libyan warlords exacerbated the migrants’ Africans and have been written off as undeserving migrants.” problems and resulted in their commodification as human This supposition gains credibility when viewed against pres- merchandise. Italy’s efforts have not yet been very successful ident Donald Trump’s labeling Africa and Haiti as “shit- as the determination of the migrants to get to Europe has far hole” countries. This clearly racist slur has provoked outweighed the deterrents mounted against their efforts. More international condemnation, more so given Trump’s declared have continued to fall into the hands of Libyan human traf- preference for Norwegian immigrants. Kemp’s assertion that fickers and found themselves abandoned, stranded, and fac- European leaders regard the African migrants as “swarms, ing death in the Mediterranean Sea. Many stranded migrants plagues and marauders” and that there is “more European have been rescued from dingy boats by European navies and sympathy for the Syrian refugees” implicates Europe for har- the Libyan Coast Guard. The following questions then arise: boring racial prejudices, a predisposition Trump evidently How strong are the factors that force these migrants to leave shares. Even the libelous verbiage used exemplifies the con- their own home countries, risk their lives crossing interna- tempt for African humanity and echoes Gaddafi’s alarmist tional borders and the Sahara Desert, and surrendering them- “swart gevaar” (Afrikaans for perceived Black danger to selves into the hands of greedy Libyan slave traders? What White people in South Africa) warnings of swarms and a are the sub-Saharan African countries and the AU doing about “black Europe.” the situation? To borrow Kemp’s (2017) question, why is the For the African people to show a desperate desire to leave world ignoring the booming migrant slave trade? their countries at whatever cost, the conditions they face In response to the above questions, I submit that cultural must be so dire that the potential risks are considerably sur- racism and the Hamitic hypothesis explain modern represen- mountable. People seem to be prepared to risk death, rob- tations of anti-African racism in Europe and the Maghreb. bery, and getting sold into slavery while attempting to reach Furthermore, I contend that even with the reality of the well- Europe’s shores. During the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the documented history of conflict between the West and Libya, African slaves were forcibly taken aboard slave ships by these erstwhile enemies closed ranks when confronted with their captors. In the Libyan Slave Trade, the African migrants immigrants from the sub-Saharan African region. The seem to literally stampede their way into the Maghreb slave entrenched condescending attitude toward Black Africans as abyss en route to Europe. This fact alone feeds the narrative racially and culturally inferior people, or more concisely, a of a postcolonial African reality of unmitigated political and mutual aversion for this demographic group, enabled the economic disasters that people have to flee from. It Mafu 7 also suggests that the NEPAD that Mbeki and other African as its axis the European continent, and according to Blaut leaders championed as a vehicle for the “African renais- (1992), “the countries of European settlement overseas” sance” has failed to deliver tangible economic and political (p. 295). Flowing from this perspective, the non-European benefits. Instead, some African states like Somalia, the DRC, world is located somewhere at the periphery of human South Sudan, and others have economically and politically civilization and technological innovation. One would log- regressed since the launch of these initiatives while Europe ically assume that sub-Saharan Africa, the Black man’s has further advanced. This fact is not lost on the ordinary world, is on the outer limits of the periphery. In terms of people, hence their desperation to find economic advance- this assertion, the rest of the world receives “its culture in ment and peace in Europe. The refugee crisis has itself its entirety from the West” (Chukwu & Madubuko, 2014, become an ultimate truism of the common people’s rejection p. 87). This reasoning enabled Gaddafi to warn of an of Pan-Africanism and its hopeless promises. impending African migrant threat to Europe as the world’s presumed cultural center. This echoes the Hegelian and Darwinist evolutionary theories that influenced colonial Capitalist Exploitation, the African conquest and the cultural supremacist beliefs of early Leaders, and Cultural Racism Theory European travelers, anthropologists, historians, and colo- nial administrators in Africa during the 19th century. Chinua Achebe (2000) once wrote, The Eurocentric narratives about a “dark continent,” a people without culture, history, government, and sophistica- the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian tion philosophically guided the racism and bigotry of the ear- character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or liest colonial encounter between Europe and Africa. A typical climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is example of such Afro-pessimist scholars is Hugh Trevor- the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the Roper (1969, pp. 3-17) who stated that the African continent responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are was “unhistoric” and that there was no African history to the hallmarks of true leadership (p. 1). teach as “there is only the history of Europeans in Africa” with the rest being “darkness” which could not be “a subject From a cursory look, some Afro-pessimists and Eurocentric of history.” Trevor-Roper (1969) also added the following: critics may be tempted to conclude that Africa is cursed with its leadership and to use Africa’s developmental problems to The history of the world for the past five centuries, in so far as it justify their racial bigotry against sub-Saharan African has significance, has been European history . . . It follows that migrants who are categorized as biologically or culturally the study of history is and must be Eurocentric. For we can ill inferior. Achebe’s statement above problematizes Nigeria’s afford to amuse ourselves with the unrewarding gyrations of leadership failure and does not acknowledge any existential barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant corners of the globe. (p. 26) biological problem. Both the cultural racism theory and the Hamitic hypothesis have in them elements of religious pro- The racist discourses like the one above have been developed filing of the cultural outsider. Blaut (1992, p. 292), citing the within the Western culture and then practiced in interactions contemporary Israeli expansionism in Palestine, asserts that with members of so-called peripheral cultures. Van Dijk theological arguments giving “overriding rights” to one (1993, p. 92) refers to racist discourses whose underlying group over the others is a form of religious racism. He structures are based on principles of “positive self-represen- explains that with the secularization of thought in the 1850s, tation and negative Other-representation” and which are it became necessary to sustain racist practice in different observable “at all levels of discourse structures in text and theories, thereby giving rise to manifestations of bigotry talk.” The stark reality of Africa’s economic exploitation, the through cultural superiority ideologies. Hence, problematiz- abuse of African migrants, and the continuing racist and ing Africa’s leadership as the major cause of its underdevel- patronizing Afro-pessimist discourses emanating from opment to the exclusion of other causative factors like Western leaders like the French President Macron and his unequal international trade unwittingly confirms the cultural United States of America counterpart Trump are evidence of inferiority argument. Yet, the recurrent nature of failed lead- a mind-set of projecting the presumed European (Caucasian) ership in many African states since decolonization, is an racial and cultural superiority. Where Trump speaks of Africa undeniable reality. The question is, should cultural inferior- as a “shithole,” Macron speaks of its “civilizational” (Mitter, ity be blamed for Africa’s failure to produce a type of leader- 2017) crisis that made a Marshall Plan-type of intervention ship that is on par with its Western and Asian counterpart? impossible. Cultural racism is not an unrelated belief or suprema- The idea that sub-Saharan Africa is culturally inferior to cist system of thought on an evolutionary trajectory; the West or to Asia is as deeply flawed as earlier colonial rather, it is a mutating phenomenon assuming different notions of a cultureless and history-less continent. The patent forms depending on existing sociocultural and historical ignorance in this idea, which fuels racism in all its forms, dynamics. The development of supremacist theories has 8 SAGE Open including the Libyan slave trade, is even more abhorrent conclusion implies that Africa is a financial liability to the when one considers that there is no heterogeneous African civilized world, and other arguments that the continent is culture in a common African cultural basket. In Appiah’s indebted to the West for its economic survival. The Global (1994) sociohistorical analysis of racial identity, he points Policy Forum (2014) adds that out that where “a racial label is applied to people, ideas about what it refers to, ideas that may be much less consensual than the Global South is being drained of resources by the rest of the the application of the label, come to have their social effects” world and it is losing far more each year than it gains. Africa (p. 78). The social effects of the modern slavery affecting alone loses $192 billion each year to the rest of the world. This sub-Saharan Africans in Libya and the European response to is mainly in profits made by foreign companies, tax dodging and the migrant crisis where race is at the core of “contemporary the costs of adapting to climate change. Whilst rich countries often talk about the aid their countries give to Africa, this is in identity politics” (Appiah, p. 79) highlight the scale of fact less than $30 billion each year. Even when you add this to Africa’s socioeconomic crisis and the indifference that has foreign investment, remittances and other resources that flow accompanied it. Unfortunately, today, racial politics and the into the continent, Africa still suffers an overall loss of $58 stereotyping of Africans are fueled by the inescapable reality billion every year. The idea that we are aiding Africa is flawed; of sub-Saharan African political leaders unwittingly contrib- it is Africa that is aiding the rest of the world. uting to the mass migration into the Maghreb (for the unex- pected benefit of Libyan slave traders) through their failure The above reality of economic exploitation of Africa not to economically develop their countries. African leaders only perpetuates the continent’s cyclical poverty, but also have laid the blame for the new slavery on the Libyan slave sustains the post-colonialist narratives of African exception- dealers, unscrupulous human traffickers, Europe and United alism in the areas of endemic poverty and economic stagna- States of America whose leaders they blame for creating a tion. The conclusion that African poverty and unjust failed state in Libya. The human tragedy of the Libyan Slave international trade policies skewed in favor of the developed Trade enhances the narrative of a hopeless continent of failed world are inseparable realities is inescapable. For instance, economies and abysmal governments. Nigeria, another major contributor to the sub-Saharan On the causes of the Libyan Slave Trade, Kamara (2017) migrant population in Libya, has had stalled economic devel- avers that poor governance and high levels of corruption opment because of declining oil revenues linked to falling make Africa’s leaders unaccountable and therefore accom- global oil prices. But then, Nigeria was ravished by succes- plices in the exodus of people fleeing from wars, poverty, sive military rulers who undermined democracy, looted state and human rights violations. In addition to this view, Kamara coffers, impoverished the country, and failed to diversify the also adds that the UN World Food and Agriculture economy while oil prices were still high. The democratiza- Organization estimates that 33 million people in sub-Saharan tion of the country a few decades ago has been a welcome Africa were hungry or undernourished in 2014-2016. change, yet economic development has been lopsided and Ewubure (2017) shares Kamara’s view that African leaders has largely benefited a few elites while creating sociopoliti- are to blame for the Libyan slavery. While some African cal conflict in the oil producing Niger Delta region. states like Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Rwanda, Botswana, and The policies of former Nigerian President Goodluck Tanzania have recorded impressive economic growth rates Jonathan who was succeeded by current President Buhari and with that political stability in the last few years, the same attracted scorn as corruption and cronyism got entrenched. cannot be said of many others. Somalia, a major source of Meanwhile, during his tenure, Boko Haram’s threat in the migrants seeking European shores, is both a failed state and East was met with indecisiveness. The same pattern of the epicenter of political instability, Al-Qaeda-linked terror- inept political leadership in countries like the DRC, ist violence, piracy, and refugees in the Horn of Africa. It Zimbabwe, the Central Africa Republic, Burundi, South contributed 300,000 immigrants to the EU, Norway, and Sudan, and many other countries that are joining the group Switzerland in 2018 alone (Kruger, 2018). Attempts by the of failed states is constant. Also constant is the AU’s obliv- United States of America and the AU to restore order in the iousness to the political transgressions of fellow African East African country have failed. Somalia is not an isolated leaders. According to the article ‘Africa’s Hegemon’ which case in sub-Saharan Africa. Many other countries have prob- appeared in ‘The Economist’ (2006), only a few African lems of political and economic instability that contribute to leaders subjected themselves to the peer review that immigration. Furthermore, economic hemorrhage in Africa Mbeki’s African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) initi- further compounds the migrant crisis. ated. However, there have been promising economies like According to the Global Policy Forum (2014), cash out- Rwanda, which after suffering a genocide ignored by both flows from Africa far exceed the inflows from outside the the West and the AU, has been a surprising economic mir- continent. Total illicit outflows as well as remittances to acle. After descending to the disastrous levels of human western governments and international corporations suffering and economic destruction when close to a million amounted to a net loss of some US$58.2 billion. This alone Tutsi and moderate Hutu people were killed in the 1994 debunks the racist “shithole” label which taken to its logical Mafu 9 genocide, the country’s impressive economic and political Conclusion development demonstrates that with sound leadership and Sub-Saharan African leaders should not pretend ignorance sensible economic policies, it is possible to move from a that the North Africans, the Libyans, in particular, do not see failed state to a middle income economy within two Black Africans as being equal human beings. The onus is on decades. Similar sensible political choices and economic these leaders to restore the dignity of their citizens by imple- programs in Ghana have led to notable economic growth. menting economic programs that socially uplift the people Uganda, after years of tyranny under the Idi Amin and and give them reasons to hope in the future of their respec- Milton Obote regimes, was once on the right path to eco- tive countries. Charity begins at home. Migrants first lose nomic prosperity and political stability. Sadly, Museveni their human dignity in their home countries when their rights has now subverted democratic principles by seeking to are violated through economic strangulation, political abuse, extend his rule for an indefinite period in what Gafey and denial of opportunities to prosper. Concomitantly, the (2015) terms “Africa’s third-term problem.” proverbial elephant in the room that permeates and continues The syndrome of life presidents and economic failure to shape the discourses on the migrant crisis in the seemingly refuses to be eradicated in some African states Mediterranean region is racism couched in the language of like the DRC, Burundi, Ethiopia, Togo, Equatorial Guinea, cultural superiority. This discourse sustains the degrading and Cameroon. In Zimbabwe, this problem was only ended and inhuman practice of slavery. Hence, it behooves the by a military intervention in 2017. Consequently, millions African political leaders to ensure that citizens benefit from have fled from these countries to other parts of the world in membership to their countries and the resources that exist. the quest for peace and prosperity. Africa has abundant natu- African leaders must consider the creation of the necessary ral resources which if put to good use for the benefit of its conditions for economic prosperity in their countries and the people would see an improvement in the economic and social restoration of the human dignity of their people their fore- conditions of its inhabitants. Admittedly, poor economic pol- most responsibility. This is only possible when they respect icies and uninspiring leadership continue to hamper the con- the fundamental rights of their citizens to live peaceably and tinent’s progress. Therefore, we are likely to see more productively in their countries with guaranteed meaningful desperate Africans migrating to what they see as better coun- employment, education, health care, and all that makes life tries where their economic and security prospects stand a comfortable. better chance of fulfillment. In fact, it is the continent’s polit- ical and economic failures that perpetuate racism and stereo- Declaration of Conflicting Interests typical representations of Africa as the developed world’s problem child. The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The Libyan/Trans-Mediterranean Slave Trade serves as a warning to African leaders that their work remains undone. Funding Condemning the Libyans and the Europeans, pleading for the UN’s investigation of the slave trade, and bemoaning the The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author- end of Muamar Gaddafi’s regime are unhelpful diversions ship, and/or publication of this article. from the real problems of poor governance and economic planning in sub-Saharan Africa. Although it is true that rac- References ism and economic exploitation by multinational conglomer- Achebe, C. (2000). The trouble with Nigeria. Enugu, Nigeria: ates from the developed world are major causes of Africa’s Fourth Dimension Publishing Company. economic underdevelopment, it is also clear that poor politi- Africa’s Hegemon. (2006, April 6). The Economist. Retrieved from cal and economic policies by Africa’s leaders are to blame www.economist.com/node/5678357 for what has happened to sub-Saharan African migrants in Appiah, K. A. (1994). Race, culture, identity: Misunderstood Libya. The continuing economic exploitation of Africa connections. Retrieved from https://philpapers.org/archive/ through the extraction of its material resources, the inhu- APPRCI.pdf Asser, M. (2011, October 21). The Muamar Gaddafi Story. BBC mane treatment of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, and News. Available from www.bbc.com the use of supremacist discourses that label Black Africans as Blaut, J. M. (1992). The theory of cultural racism. A Radical Journal less than human are underpinned by the supremacist ideolo- of Geography. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.1992tb00448.x/ gies of cultural racism and the misguided notion of Ham’s abstract curse. The fact that migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have Chukwu, D. O., & Madubuko, C. C. (2014). Racism, Hamitic been economically exploited as farm laborers in hypothesis and African theories of Origin. Journal of Mediterranean Europe and sold into slavery in Libya point to Integrative Human—Ghana, 3, 85-96. the failure of human morality in the 21st century. The Libyan Chutel, L. (2017). Muammar Gaddafi’s lost treasure may be stashed slavery serves as a monument of disgrace that governments in boxes hidden around Africa. Quartz Africa. Retrieved from and civil society organizations worldwide should honestly https://qz.com/1009354/united-nations-report-shows-lost-gad- and forthrightly confront. dafi-millions-may-be-all-over-africa/all 10 SAGE Open Cline, A. (2018). Objective vs. subjective in philosophy Lindholm, C. (1997). Logical and moral dilemmas of postmodern- and religion. ThoughtCo. Retrieved from https://www. ism. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 3, 745-760. thoughtco.com/objective-vs-subjective-philosophy-and-reli- Retrieved from https://open.bu.edu/bitstream/handle/2144/3850/ gion-250573 lindholm_jrai3_preprint.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Dorsey, D. (2012). Objective morality, subjective morality and the Migration Policy Centre-Team. (2013). European neighbourhood explanatory question. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semantic- migration report: Libya. Retrieved from www.migrationpoli- scholar.org/d1e5/b2eb08fa87d6a944ef185869bbcdd685bd89. cycentre.eu/docs/migration_profiles/Libya.pdf pdf Mitter, S. (2017). Yes, Macron’s “civilizational” Africa statement Ewubure, K. (2017). African leaders to blame for Libyan Slavery— is problematic but also very French. Quartz Africa. Retrieved Obasanjo declares. NAIJ.com. Retrieved from https://www. from https://qz.com/africa/1026263/emmanuel-macrons-africa naija.ng/1139564-african-leaders-blame-libyan-slavery- civilizational-statement-was-racist/ obasanjo Raddington Report. (2017, December 4). Libya’s racist history. Flahaux, M., & De Haas, H. (2016). African migration, trends, Retrieved from https://raddingtonreport.com/libya’sracist- patterns, drivers. Retrieved from https://comparativemigra- history/ tionstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40878-015- Sanders, E. R. (1969). The Hamitic hypothesis; its origins and func- 0015-6 tions in time perspective. Retrieved from https://www.jstor. Gaddafi wants EU cash to stop African migrants. (2010, August org/stable/179896?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents 21). BBC. Retrieved from www.bbc.com/news/world-europe Schmid, A. P. (2016). Links between terrorism and migration: An 11139345 exploration. The Hague, The Netherlands: International Centre Gafey, C. (2015). Africa’s third-term problem: Why leaders cling to for Counter Terrorism. Retrieved from https://www.icct.nl/ power. Newsweek. Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/ wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Alex-P.-Schmid-Links-between- africa-third-term-problem-cling-power-403440 Terrorism-and-Migration-1.pdf Global Policy Forum. (2014, July 16). Development aid to Africa Thorleifson, C. (2017, February 2). Can Europe make it? Retrieved negligible in comparison to illicit outflows. Retrieved from from https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/ https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/21/- Catherine-thorleifsson/euro development/52662-development-aid-to-africa-negligible-in- Trevor-Roper, H. (1969). The past and present: History and sociol- comparison-to-illicit-outflows-, html ogy. Past and Present, 42, 3-17. Guibernau, M. (2010). Migration and the rise of the radical right. UNSMIL. (2016). Detained and dehumanized: Report on Policy Network. Retrieved from www.policy-network.net/ Human Rights Abuses Against Migrants in Libya. Retrieved uploads/media/160/3768.pdf from https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/LY/ Gutteridge, N. (2015, December 26). The EU migration crisis: Far- DetainedAndDehumanised_en.pdf right parties gain ground in Europe. Retrieved from https:// U.S. Department of State. (2017). Human rights report: Libya. www.express.co.uk/news/world/629022/EU-migration-crisis- Retrieved from https://www.state.gov/documents/organiza- far-right tion/277499.pdf Henry, E. (2018). Article 5: No one shall be subjected to tor- Van Dijk, T. A. (1993). Ideologies, racism discourse: Debates on ture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punish- immigration and ethnic issues. Retrieved from www.discourse. ment. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers. org/Old/Articles/Ideologies, racism, discourse.pdf cfm?abstract_id=3202610 Winter, S. L. (1994). Human values in a postmodern world. Yale Kamara, A. B. (2017, November 27). The Specimen News. Journal of Law and Humanities, 6(2), Article 5. Kemp, R. (2017, February 20). The migrant slave trade. The Yousef, N. (2017, November 19). Sale of migrants as slaves in Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/ Libya causes outrage in Africa and Paris. The New York Times. commentisfree/2017/feb/20/migrant-slave-trade-libya- Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/world/ europe africa/libya-migrants-slavery.html Kruger, T. (2018, March 25). A rising tide of sub-Saharan Africa migrants. City Press (South Africa), p. 14. Author Biography Leghtas, I. (2018). Death would have been better: Europe continues to fail refugees and migrants in Libya. Retrieved from https:// Lucas Mafu is a lecturer in the Department of English at the www.refugeesinternational.org/reports/libyaevacuations2018 University of Zululand where he teaches Theory of Literature and Levenson, E. (2017). Libyan slave trade: UN security council con- literature in English. He is also a published writer whose other demns “heinous abuses” of the Libyan slave trade. Retrieved research interests are in literary theory, nationalism and African lit- from https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/07/world/un-security- erature. He also specializes in historical novels that deal with the council-libya-slavery/index.html postcolonial African reality. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png SAGE Open SAGE

The Libyan/Trans-Mediterranean Slave Trade, the African Union, and the Failure of Human Morality:

SAGE Open , Volume 9 (1): 1 – Feb 6, 2019

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Abstract

In this article, I argue that the recently exposed slave trade in Libya involving Black African migrants seeking opportunities in Europe is not merely a crime against humanity that has been justly condemned by the international community, but is also a serious indictment on the failings of the African Union’s leadership. It is a reflection of the duplicitous nature of Europe’s commitment to human rights and exposes the African leaders’ moral and leadership deficiencies. Through the use of the Hamitic hypothesis and the cultural racism theory, I discuss some causal factors that have led to the abuse of sub-Saharan Africans migrating to Europe and also the African response to the migrant crisis. Finally, I draw parallels between what I term the New Slavery and the evolving narrative of racism and conclude that poor African leadership is the Achilles’ heel in the restoration of African dignity. Keywords slavery, Libya, African migrants, Europe, leadership and one million African migrants died at sea (Yousef, 2017). Introduction The question that then arises is why African migrants would In November 2017, a CNN special report revealed that take enormous risks making the voyage across the African migrants seeking to get into Europe were being sold Mediterranean Sea via a lawless and dangerous Libya. as slaves by some criminal gangs in Libya, a failed North Yousef (2017) explained that most of these migrants in Libya African state. This country has become the face of the new “are fleeing armed conflict, persecution or severe economic “Middle Passage” to Europe. The Security Council con- hardship in sub-Saharan Africa.” If most of the migrants are demned the slave trading as “heinous abuses of human rights bona fide refugees fleeing from multifaceted sociopolitical which may also account to crimes against humanity” and and economic problems, the international community should called upon “all relevant authorities to investigate such activ- respond to their plight in a more compassionate manner. The ities without delay to bring perpetrators to account” AU, by virtue of its immediate links with the member states (Levenson, 2017). The shocking revelations led to interna- from which the refugees flee, should have led the way in tional condemnation and demands by human rights groups ameliorating their plight in Libya as soon as it began. Hence, for the United Nations (UN) intervention and the prosecution the initial lethargic reaction to the unfolding crisis in Africa of the culprits. Worldwide protest marches condemned the and the subsequent hostility toward the migrants in Europe Libyan slave trade as the UN announced that it would inves- point to a troubling moral declension in the world in general, tigate. The Nigerian government started repatriating its and among African leaders in particular. It is as if postmod- nationals who had been rescued from their captors, yet ern society lacks the requisite moral foundations, which clearly, the overall African response to the revelations was enable relevant strategies that respond urgently to develop- shockingly inadequate. The response was, to put it suc- ing calamities. cinctly, reactionary and face-saving. For instance, it had to take a CNN investigation for the crime to be exposed while the African governments slept on their jobs. University of Zululand, Kwa-Dlangezwa, South Africa The Libyan criminal syndicates involved in the slave Corresponding Author: trade seem to have been operating with impunity right under Lucas Mafu, Department of English, University of Zululand, P. Bag X1001, the noses of the weak Libyan government and the continental Kwa-Dlangezwa 3886, South Africa. body, the African Union (AU). In 2017, between 700,000 Email: MafuL@unizulu.ac.za Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 SAGE Open Winter (1994, p. 4) argues that the postmodern society overthrow of the late Muamar Gaddafi, and calling for an still has the ability to make sound moral judgments informed official investigation, African leaders have been unconvinc- by a “radical insistence on contingency” which also reinvig- ing in their response. According to the Migration Policy orates “our understanding” of the deeper meaning of “the Centre (MPC), sub-Saharan Africans constituted the demo- problem of values.” His view means that the widespread graphic group most affected by criminal violence, deten- materialism and secularization of postmodern society does tions, and deportations in Libya. It also says that “they were not equate to a kind of nihilism devoid of both human com- in the most dangerous position being threatened by Gaddafi’s passion and an awareness of attendant moral obligations. His forces and the opposition” (MPC-Team, 2013, p. 6). view on postmodern morality is also shared by Lindholm Furthermore, the MPC states that the situation of these (1997, p. 11) who believes that the existence of an arbitrary, migrants was worsened by the failure of their countries’ gov- unstable, and uncertain international universe still leaves us ernments to help them. Consequently, the migrants were left with the capacity “to know the right way to behave” even “stranded in overcrowded transit areas in countries bordering when we may not know where we are going. In other words, Libya” (MPC-Team, 2013, p. 6). According to the MPC, postmodernist understanding of morality has not affected our 62,058 sub-Saharan migrants were deported from Libya in ability to decide on what is right and wrong. Yet, the whole 2013. idea of what should constitute morality is contested. There is The U.S. Department of State (2017) states that the subjective morality and objective morality—two apparently Libyan government registers migrants from seven nationali- exclusive concepts. Cline (2018, p.1) explains that the dis- ties as refugees, specifically those coming from Syria, tinction between these concepts of morality is that “objective Somalia, Ethiopia (Oromo), Sudan (Darfur), and Eritrea. The judgments and claims are assumed to be free from personal Department of State also reports that “treatment of detained considerations,” while subjective ones are “assumed to be migrants depended upon their country of origin.” These rev- heavily (if not entirely) influenced by such personal consid- elations expose the inept sub-Saharan African governments erations.” Dorsey (2012) postulates that even when deter- whose nationals were left to face illegal Libyan detentions, mining subjective morality, one still needs to examine rapes, arbitrary beatings, and enslavement on their own. The objective facts about an issue before making a determination. migrant crisis must surely be one of the worst human disas- Hence, to him, the “fundamental facts that determine whether ters to ever afflict Africa since the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade we conform to our moral obligations or not are objective,” and colonization. Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of meaning that they are independent of the epistemic contexts Human Rights declares the following: “No one shall be held of the “individual agents.” In view of the above perspectives, in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be the objective facts about the sub-Saharan African migrants in prohibited in all their forms.” Article 5 says that “no one the Maghreb are that they have been dehumanized through shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrad- torture, rapes, illegal detentions, deportations, and slavery. ing treatment or punishment” (Henry, 2018). Therefore, this These established facts should trigger a sense of horror in the study examines how in a world that has designed such lofty global community leading to urgent necessary interventions standards of human rights, and in a continent that has not as both torture and slavery have been outlawed in interna- only experienced slavery, but has also suffered from coloni- tional statutes. zation, the degrading scourge of slavery should again be In December 2017, the CNN also reported that some manifested. It attempts to answer the following questions: Is European criminal syndicates were recruiting African the dehumanization of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa migrants for exploitative labor on Italian farms. Some of the through exploitative labor in southern European countries immigrants told the CNN that they were forced to work on like Italy, and the subsequent slave trade in Libya following those farms to survive in a hostile environment. The farmers the Italian government’s deals with Libyan warlords explain- simply exploited their unfortunate circumstances by using able through the Hamitic hypothesis and the cultural racism them as cheap labor for selfish economic advantages. On the theory? Do the African leaders’ failed economic policies contrary, the Italian government ignored the exploitative carry most of the blame for the migrant crisis and the resul- wages as it saw these as a deterrent to those migrants still tant slave trade? dreaming of a future in the country (see Yousef, 2017). The fact that the governments of the host European countries International Migration and the Human allowed the exploitation of immigrants is an indictment of Rights of the Migrants their lack of commitment to the human rights of African migrants. Be that as it may, ultimate blameworthiness for the International migration is one phenomenon that is part of the refugee problem must lie with the African leaders in the human experience in the 21st century. In recent years, politi- source countries, while Libyan and European racial preju- cal conflict has been the key driver of migration from the dice must be blamed for the slave trade that resulted. Apart war-ravaged countries to host nations that hold the promise from complaining about the culpability of the West in the of peace, stability, and social advancement for refugees. lawlessness of Libya because of its involvement in the During the so-called “Arab Spring,” the Middle East and Mafu 3 North Africa were the major sources of migration to Europe. The cultural “other” is regarded as a suspect and therefore an The migration involved millions of migrants fleeing conflict undesirable presence in the indigene’s physical space. In his in countries affected by political upheavals. Countries such definition of cultural racism, Blaut (1992, p. 290) sees the as Syria, Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia experienced political phenomenon as a learned cultural practice in which the racial upheavals during the Arab Spring when people demanded category used in profiling people is “substituted” by the cul- democratization and progressive political systems. In Syria’s tural one so that the concept of a superior culture replaces the case, a civil war that sucked in major world powers like biological concept of a superior race. In this reasoning, non- Russia, the United States of America, Iran, Turkey, the Europeans are “rather culturally backward in comparison to United Kingdom, and France either on the rebels’ or on the Europeans because of their history: their lesser cultural evo- Assad regime’s sides forced hundreds of thousands of people lution” (Blaut, p. 293). Thus, the conflictual nature of the to flee to neighboring countries and to Europe. The emer- relationship between some European citizens and the gence of the terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria migrants of Middle Eastern stock has in recent years been (ISIS) only worsened the deadly conflict and forced millions exploited by terrorist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda. These from the Middle East to flee to Europe. The massive migra- groups see in the culturally excluded migrants fertile recruit- tion has caused social tensions in the host nations like France, ment grounds for suicide bombers operating as terrorist cells. Germany, and others while depriving the source nations of ISIS-linked terror cells have already shocked the world with the economically productive segments of their populations. their attacks in Paris, Berlin, and the Belgian capital Brussels More worryingly, neo-Nazi groups and far right parties have (see also Schmid, 2016). Consequently, these violent activi- exploited the migrant-related fears of European citizens and ties by terrorist groups seem to be directly linked to the cul- exacerbated xenophobic reactions that have heightened tural exclusion of immigrants in the host nations and the racial tensions. Gutteridge (2015) notes that the migrant cri- deep sense of resentment and grievance among the radical- sis has seen Europe swing to the right. Consequently, the ized cultural outsiders. The same problems of xenophobia continent’s extremist politicians have exploited the situation and racism are pertinent in this article’s discussion of the to build their support among electorates that are wary of ref- Libyan slavery and other forms of abuse of migrants from ugees. The hostility of European citizens toward African sub-Saharan Africa. According to the United Nations Support immigrants and indeed those from the Middle East has some Mission in Libya (UNSMIL; 2016), the majority of migrants elements of racial bigotry and xenophobia. Thorleifson that it interviewed in Libya were from the sub-Saharan (2015) observes as follows: African countries, namely, Eritrea, Somalia, Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Sudan. The migrants reported to UNSMIL that they had been regularly subjected In response to growing economic and social crises, the radical, to beatings, starvation, denial of food and water, gang rapes, far right and populist social movements are experiencing a and the renting out of women to armed men for sexual abuse. remarkable surge in support. Across different European contexts, citizens cast their votes for parties with xenophobic roots, Hence, the article argues that sub-Saharan migrants travers- rhetoric and policies. This is evident in countries like Greece, ing Libya while seeking Europe’s shores have been subjected France, Hungary, the UK and Sweden, where the radical right to worse treatment than those from other regions of Africa. form the spearhead of larger renationalization processes directed The second wave of migrations to Europe has originated at forces seen as threatening their “national culture and values.” in sub-Saharan Africa where poverty, poor governance, failed states, and conflict have been the major push factors. She also mentions the problem of cultural exclusion of The question then arises: Are scholarly arguments that war, migrants in countries like Hungary. This development is disease, and poverty have historically been the main drivers itself a form of cultural racism, the intent of which is nativist of massive African migration to Europe, true? The fact is that as it seeks to protect the cultural values and identity of the most of sub-Saharan Africa’s migration has mainly been indigene from the “adulterating” presence of the foreigner. intra-African, in the form of rural-to-urban migration or Thus, this article regards the European xenophobic response across national borders. The people migrate to get to the rela- to the migrants as being both a political expression of cul- tive safety of refugee camps or more stable host countries. tural exclusivity and an overt racism. Typical examples of regional destinations of African migrants The “othering” of migrants in Europe has been reflected fleeing from conflict include the Somali refugee camps in in violent actions and other forms of aggression and discrim- northern Kenya and South Sudanese refugee camps in ination by right-wing political parties, which, unsurprisingly, Tanzania and Uganda. In the case of refugees from the have been making electoral gains in countries like Germany, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda in the France, and Belgium, to name but a few. The cultural racism Great Lakes region, Zambia, South Africa, and Tanzania theory seeks to explain covert forms of racism that have have been the key destinations. In southern Africa, there has emerged since the end of fascism and subsequently colonial- been a lot of migration from conflict-ridden states like ism. Cultural racism constructs the cultural outsider as an Lesotho and Zimbabwe to South Africa by political refugees existential threat to a dominant ethnic group’s way of life. and economic migrants. Flahaux and De Haas (2016) argue 4 SAGE Open that research has demonstrated that the notion of desperately Asiatic origin. Thus, this article argues that this Afro- poor, starving, and undocumented African migrants fleeing pessimistic view of Black Africa underpins the racism that in Exodus-type proportions to Europe because of war, vio- has been exhibited against sub-Saharan Africans and contin- lence, poverty, and hunger is misplaced and stereotypical. ues to inflame anti-Black hostility in Arab North Africa. They assert that studies reveal that there is nothing excep- According to the BBC article “Gaddafi Wants EU Cash to tional about African migration and reject the notion of irreg- Stop African Migrants” (2010), Gaddafi suggested that the ular and illegal mass exodus targeting Europe as an El EU “should pay Libya at least 5bn euros (£4bn; $6.3bn) a Dorado. They point out that African migration, while being year to stop illegal African immigration and avoid a ‘black mainly regular and intra-African by migrants holding travel Europe.’” Italy subsequently began handing rescued migrants documents, passports, and visas, is also directed to Asia, to Libya, thereby drastically reducing the number of migrants Australasia, and the Americas. The migrants’ mobility is reaching its shores (Yousef, 2017). Hence, Gaddafi’s demand influenced by the need for a better education, family, joining for cash from European nations in return for him stopping a spouse, and finding a job, as is the case with migration the flow of migrants was a racist-tainted economic black- elsewhere in the world. While accepting that violence is a mail—the deliberate creation of a looming African invasion driver of African migration in regions like the Great Lakes, for extortionist objectives. It was the construction of a mythi- they argue that it only accounts for a fraction of the overall cal “Black Peril” that would coax Europe’s leaders into a causes of migration as most of the drivers are “mundane pro- financially advantageous deal for Libya. In a sense, the deal cesses that drive mobility like education, a spouse or a better he wanted was tantamount to commodifying the migrants, life” (Flahaux & De Haas, 2016, p. 3). They further observe turning them into negotiating chips and effectively dehu- as follows: manizing them. This extortionist rhetoric set the stage for Italian cooperation with post-Gaddafi Libyan warlords on The idea that much African migration is essentially driven by “cash for migrants” deals and the resultant slave trade, the poverty ignores evidence that demographic and economic motivating factors of which are financial and racist. transitions and “development” in poor countries are generally Blaut (1992) asserts that racism like all the other practices associated to increasing rather than decreasing levels of mobility is “cognized by a theory, a belief system about the nature of and migration and that the relation between development and reality and the behaviour which is appropriate to this cog- migration is fundamentally non-linear. (Flahaux & De Haas, p. 3) nized reality” (p. 289). He also posits that the practice of racial discrimination exists at all levels “from personal abuse Drawing from the above argument, this article submits that to colonial oppression.” Perhaps more relevantly, he explains the sensationalizing of the plight of African migrants who that the practice of racism has been essential in European have suffered from enslavement plays straight into the narra- society for several hundred years “in the sense that it is an tive of the Afro-pessimism and the so-called “curse of Ham.” essential part of the way the European capitalist system From a discourse analytical perspective, the use of disparag- maintains itself.” The farmers in southern Italy realized the ing rhetoric by leaders like the late Muamar Gaddafi who economic benefits of recruiting sub-Saharan African once described sub-Saharan African migrants as “swarms” migrants as cheap labor in conditions akin to slavery, where invading Europe and threatening Europe’s social order the vulnerable migrants simply had to work for peanuts, or through creating a “black Europe” amounts to stereotyping starve. The point is that no European farmer could have sub- the migrant and degrading him as a lesser human (see the jected a fellow citizen to exploitative working conditions “Gaddafi wants EU cash to stop African migrants,” 2010). without the risk of prosecution under relevant European Such an alarmist narrative of a potential “Black Peril” threat- Union (EU) labor regulations. Other than capitalist oppor- ening Europe’s cultural and racial makeup may amount to tunism, possible racism, and creating a deterrent against some form of cultural racism masquerading as concerns future migration to Europe, it is difficult to find alternative about “irregular” migration. The Hamitic theory explores the explanations for the abuse of migrants in southern Europe’s mono-dimensional interpretation of the biblical story of farms. Ham, the youngest son of Noah, mocking his drunken father’s nakedness instead of reverently covering him with a garment like his older siblings Shem and Japheth. In the bib- Libya, the Hamitic Hypothesis, and the lical narrative, Noah then cursed Canaan by declaring that he New Slave Trade would be a servant of servants to his brethren. Racists and cultural supremacists have, over the centuries, used this Oil rich Libya’s lawlessness is rooted in two related histori- “curse” to justify the abuse of Black Africans and, in some cal events: the end of Muamar Gaddafi’s dictatorship and extreme instances, to even deny them their human dignity. Western political and military interventions. Both of these According to the Hamitic theory, nothing of value in Africa factors are linked to the competing interests of capitalism originated from Black African communities (see Sanders, and nascent Libyan nationalist desire for global relevance. 1969). All that is valuable in Black Africa has a European or Libya has, in a sense, become a modern replica of the Mafu 5 Senegalese Goree Island, a new slave-holding post along the included “lighting up a cigarette and blowing it in the face of Mediterranean Sea. Its geographical proximity to southern his neighbour, or tossing insults at Gulf leaders and the Europe and its lawlessness make it an attractive launch pad Palestinians” during his period as a Pan-Arab champion. for human traffickers cashing in on migrants hoping to get to Later, during his Pan-African episode, he would use the Arab Europe. Its colonial association with Italy makes it particu- League summits to declare himself “king of kings of Africa.” larly attractive to Ethiopian and Somali migrants as a door- According to the “Raddington Report” (2017), Libya’s rac- way to southern Europe. The same country once had a ism is “old established” and the slave trading in Black people love–hate relationship with Europe’s capitalist powers. Its in that country “harks back to an age where subjugation and late dictator Muamar Gaddafi was implicated in the terrorist overt dehumanization of Africans was common place.” It bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie in Scotland and cites the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions became an international pariah thereafter. Libya was accused (ICFTU) statement of 2000 condemning a wave of attacks of sponsoring anti-Western terrorist groups. It also adopted a targeting African migrants and also Human Rights Watch radical anti-Western and Pan-Arab nationalist stance while reports of 2006 and 2009 documenting attacks on Black constructing its national identity on a more Asian Arab image African migrants by Libyan nationals. It concludes that the and not as an African state. “roots of Libya’s anti-black sentiment lies with the myth of It was only after Libya failed to assert its influence among racial superiority” over sub-Saharan Africans. In terms of the the Arab League nations that it adopted a Pan-Africanist Hamitic hypothesis, Libya’s historical cultural superiority identity and using its leader’s charisma and oil wealth, complex is premised on the belief that a subgroup of the courted friendship with sub-Saharan African nations (see “more technologically superior” Caucasian race that settled “Raddington & Report,” 2017). Later, it supported South in Africa created all valuable innovations. Clearly, the Pan- African President Thabo Mbeki in his African Renaissance Africanism of Gaddafi’s Libya only masked the racism and and the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development what the “Raddington Report” (2017) terms “the Arabisation” (NEPAD) agenda, which sought to develop intra-African campaign in Africa. trade and eventually, through the AU, champion continental The “Raddington Report” (2017) cites Gaddafi’s racist union. Gaddafi imagined himself as a future president of a rant in 2010 when he “warned that Europe could face being United Africa and worked hard at winning popular support in overrun by an ‘influx of starving and ignorant Africans’” sub-Saharan Africa through economic investments and other while also adding that “we don’t know if Europe will remain political initiatives. It later emerged that his family stashed an advanced and united continent or if it will be destroyed, as stolen Libyan wealth all over Africa. Several billions of sto- happened with the barbaric invasions.” His rhetoric sounds len dollars are said to be in South Africa’s banking system. similar to Trump’s “shithole” categorization of the migrants According to a UN report on Gaddafi’s missing billions, from the continent and are echoed in Kemp’s analysis of the “about $20 billion was believed to be held across four banks, European leaders’ xenophobic attitudes toward sub-Saharan while the rest was allegedly hidden in warehouses and bun- African migrants. The Gaddafi warning seems to have been kers around Pretoria and Johannesburg” (Chutel, 2017). In taken seriously in Europe, hence the collaboration between applying the Hamitic theory to Libya’s treatment of sub- the Italian government and the Libyan warlords on keeping Saharan Africa, one has to consider the changed nature of the sub-Saharan Africans out of Europe through the payment political realities in postcolonial Africa. These circumstances of bribes. As has been mentioned earlier, this collaboration have distorted Arab North Africa’s relations with Black led to the slave trade once the profits of the human smugglers Africans by creating a tension-filled dichotomy of Pan- began to fall. African brotherhood and race-based identity politics. Since Gaddafi’s fall, the Western-backed regime in Tripoli Sanders (1969, p. 521) argues that the Hamitic hypothesis has failed to establish control over the country leading to the is “symptomatic of the nature of race relations” and has terrorist group ISIS setting up camp in Libya. According to changed its “content if not its nomenclature through time, the UNSMIL and United Nations Human Rights (UNHR; and that it has become a problem of epistemology.” Thus, it 2016), “the breakdown in the justice system has led to a state suited Libya to suddenly discover its African-ness when its of impunity, in which armed groups, criminal gangs, smug- designs for political pre-eminence in the Arab world failed. glers and traffickers control the flow of migrants through the Libya could successfully exert its influence and attain its country” (p. 1). Without central governmental control, the hegemonic ambitions in sub-Saharan Africa where it calcu- activities of criminal networks that have profited from human lated its chances would be enhanced by the comparatively trafficking and the slave trade have been unabated. weaker states. Hence, Libya’s masquerading as a committed Unscrupulous traffickers have robbed migrants of money Pan-Africanist champion only masked its years-old anti- while promising to deliver them to Europe. Unseaworthy Black African racism. Asser (2011) states that Gaddafi used vessels have often capsized in the Mediterranean Sea and to be known as the “Picasso of Middle East politics,” and cost thousands of migrants’ lives. Such calamities have not that during the 2000s, he would “disrupt the normally stolid dissuaded would-be migrants from attempting the dangerous annual summits of the Arab League” by his antics which voyage. Faced with political backlashes in their countries 6 SAGE Open over the issue of African immigrants, some European coun- unlikely cooperation between the Italians and the Libyans. tries like Italy have entered deals with the Libyan authorities The MPC-Team of the EU wrote that sub-Saharan Africans to keep the migrants in Libya and to jointly patrol the were the most affected by illegal detentions, arbitrary beat- Mediterranean Sea. The anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe ings, rapes, and deportations. They further state that this has been worsened by the unprecedented immigration of population group was often left “stranded in overcrowded Syrian refugees into countries like Austria, Hungary, transit areas” as their home countries governments “were not Germany, and France. After a string of ISIS-linked terror in a position to help them” (MPC-Team, 2013, p. 6). One attacks in Belgium, France, and Germany, neo-Nazi groups sub-Saharan African migrant identified as Kareema whom and the far right parties became more robust in their opposi- Refugees International (RI) interviewed spoke of inhumane tion to migrants. The European response to the migrant crisis conditions in detention centers that left him feeling that has been one of fear of minority “alien cultures, traditions “death would have been better . . .” (Leghtas, 2018, p. 10). and ways of life,” which often “fosters fear, a lack of trust, Another one named David (South Sudanese) told his inter- open hostility and, in some cases it results in xenophobia and viewer that “refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa racism against those regarded as different” (Guibernau, were treated worse” than others. He remembered an incident 2010, p. 5). in which three Moroccans queuing with him in a refugee The anti-immigrant sentiment has forced European states detention center were served before him even though he was like Italy and France to tighten their immigration laws and in front. When he challenged the Libyan officials on the become more robust in their reaction to the human trafficking favoritism, they simply told him “you’re black. You’re a problem. They have recently been accused of involvement in slave” (Leghtas, p. 10). Notwithstanding the racial prejudice controversial deals with the Libyans on curtailing the flow of against sub-Saharan African migrants, the unbearable living both economic and political refugees from sub-Saharan conditions in some African countries are so grave that the Africa. According to Yousef (2017), the Italian government need to flee from the African hotspots far outweighs the risks began “paying the Libyan warlords controlling Libya’s coasts involved. Even the horrendous route through the Sahara to curb the flow of migrants early in 2017.” These payments Desert and what Kemp (2017) describes as a “silent massa- to Libya’s warlords by the Italian government led to a drop cre” in Libya and the Mediterranean Sea have not deterred “in the flow of migrants to Italy,” thereby creating “a backlog the migrants. of customers for Libya’s smugglers, who have responded by To the question why is the world ignoring the slave trade, auctioning off migrants for as little as $400.” In a sense, the Kemp (2017) postulates that it might be “because they’re Italian payments to Libyan warlords exacerbated the migrants’ Africans and have been written off as undeserving migrants.” problems and resulted in their commodification as human This supposition gains credibility when viewed against pres- merchandise. Italy’s efforts have not yet been very successful ident Donald Trump’s labeling Africa and Haiti as “shit- as the determination of the migrants to get to Europe has far hole” countries. This clearly racist slur has provoked outweighed the deterrents mounted against their efforts. More international condemnation, more so given Trump’s declared have continued to fall into the hands of Libyan human traf- preference for Norwegian immigrants. Kemp’s assertion that fickers and found themselves abandoned, stranded, and fac- European leaders regard the African migrants as “swarms, ing death in the Mediterranean Sea. Many stranded migrants plagues and marauders” and that there is “more European have been rescued from dingy boats by European navies and sympathy for the Syrian refugees” implicates Europe for har- the Libyan Coast Guard. The following questions then arise: boring racial prejudices, a predisposition Trump evidently How strong are the factors that force these migrants to leave shares. Even the libelous verbiage used exemplifies the con- their own home countries, risk their lives crossing interna- tempt for African humanity and echoes Gaddafi’s alarmist tional borders and the Sahara Desert, and surrendering them- “swart gevaar” (Afrikaans for perceived Black danger to selves into the hands of greedy Libyan slave traders? What White people in South Africa) warnings of swarms and a are the sub-Saharan African countries and the AU doing about “black Europe.” the situation? To borrow Kemp’s (2017) question, why is the For the African people to show a desperate desire to leave world ignoring the booming migrant slave trade? their countries at whatever cost, the conditions they face In response to the above questions, I submit that cultural must be so dire that the potential risks are considerably sur- racism and the Hamitic hypothesis explain modern represen- mountable. People seem to be prepared to risk death, rob- tations of anti-African racism in Europe and the Maghreb. bery, and getting sold into slavery while attempting to reach Furthermore, I contend that even with the reality of the well- Europe’s shores. During the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the documented history of conflict between the West and Libya, African slaves were forcibly taken aboard slave ships by these erstwhile enemies closed ranks when confronted with their captors. In the Libyan Slave Trade, the African migrants immigrants from the sub-Saharan African region. The seem to literally stampede their way into the Maghreb slave entrenched condescending attitude toward Black Africans as abyss en route to Europe. This fact alone feeds the narrative racially and culturally inferior people, or more concisely, a of a postcolonial African reality of unmitigated political and mutual aversion for this demographic group, enabled the economic disasters that people have to flee from. It Mafu 7 also suggests that the NEPAD that Mbeki and other African as its axis the European continent, and according to Blaut leaders championed as a vehicle for the “African renais- (1992), “the countries of European settlement overseas” sance” has failed to deliver tangible economic and political (p. 295). Flowing from this perspective, the non-European benefits. Instead, some African states like Somalia, the DRC, world is located somewhere at the periphery of human South Sudan, and others have economically and politically civilization and technological innovation. One would log- regressed since the launch of these initiatives while Europe ically assume that sub-Saharan Africa, the Black man’s has further advanced. This fact is not lost on the ordinary world, is on the outer limits of the periphery. In terms of people, hence their desperation to find economic advance- this assertion, the rest of the world receives “its culture in ment and peace in Europe. The refugee crisis has itself its entirety from the West” (Chukwu & Madubuko, 2014, become an ultimate truism of the common people’s rejection p. 87). This reasoning enabled Gaddafi to warn of an of Pan-Africanism and its hopeless promises. impending African migrant threat to Europe as the world’s presumed cultural center. This echoes the Hegelian and Darwinist evolutionary theories that influenced colonial Capitalist Exploitation, the African conquest and the cultural supremacist beliefs of early Leaders, and Cultural Racism Theory European travelers, anthropologists, historians, and colo- nial administrators in Africa during the 19th century. Chinua Achebe (2000) once wrote, The Eurocentric narratives about a “dark continent,” a people without culture, history, government, and sophistica- the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian tion philosophically guided the racism and bigotry of the ear- character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or liest colonial encounter between Europe and Africa. A typical climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is example of such Afro-pessimist scholars is Hugh Trevor- the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the Roper (1969, pp. 3-17) who stated that the African continent responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are was “unhistoric” and that there was no African history to the hallmarks of true leadership (p. 1). teach as “there is only the history of Europeans in Africa” with the rest being “darkness” which could not be “a subject From a cursory look, some Afro-pessimists and Eurocentric of history.” Trevor-Roper (1969) also added the following: critics may be tempted to conclude that Africa is cursed with its leadership and to use Africa’s developmental problems to The history of the world for the past five centuries, in so far as it justify their racial bigotry against sub-Saharan African has significance, has been European history . . . It follows that migrants who are categorized as biologically or culturally the study of history is and must be Eurocentric. For we can ill inferior. Achebe’s statement above problematizes Nigeria’s afford to amuse ourselves with the unrewarding gyrations of leadership failure and does not acknowledge any existential barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant corners of the globe. (p. 26) biological problem. Both the cultural racism theory and the Hamitic hypothesis have in them elements of religious pro- The racist discourses like the one above have been developed filing of the cultural outsider. Blaut (1992, p. 292), citing the within the Western culture and then practiced in interactions contemporary Israeli expansionism in Palestine, asserts that with members of so-called peripheral cultures. Van Dijk theological arguments giving “overriding rights” to one (1993, p. 92) refers to racist discourses whose underlying group over the others is a form of religious racism. He structures are based on principles of “positive self-represen- explains that with the secularization of thought in the 1850s, tation and negative Other-representation” and which are it became necessary to sustain racist practice in different observable “at all levels of discourse structures in text and theories, thereby giving rise to manifestations of bigotry talk.” The stark reality of Africa’s economic exploitation, the through cultural superiority ideologies. Hence, problematiz- abuse of African migrants, and the continuing racist and ing Africa’s leadership as the major cause of its underdevel- patronizing Afro-pessimist discourses emanating from opment to the exclusion of other causative factors like Western leaders like the French President Macron and his unequal international trade unwittingly confirms the cultural United States of America counterpart Trump are evidence of inferiority argument. Yet, the recurrent nature of failed lead- a mind-set of projecting the presumed European (Caucasian) ership in many African states since decolonization, is an racial and cultural superiority. Where Trump speaks of Africa undeniable reality. The question is, should cultural inferior- as a “shithole,” Macron speaks of its “civilizational” (Mitter, ity be blamed for Africa’s failure to produce a type of leader- 2017) crisis that made a Marshall Plan-type of intervention ship that is on par with its Western and Asian counterpart? impossible. Cultural racism is not an unrelated belief or suprema- The idea that sub-Saharan Africa is culturally inferior to cist system of thought on an evolutionary trajectory; the West or to Asia is as deeply flawed as earlier colonial rather, it is a mutating phenomenon assuming different notions of a cultureless and history-less continent. The patent forms depending on existing sociocultural and historical ignorance in this idea, which fuels racism in all its forms, dynamics. The development of supremacist theories has 8 SAGE Open including the Libyan slave trade, is even more abhorrent conclusion implies that Africa is a financial liability to the when one considers that there is no heterogeneous African civilized world, and other arguments that the continent is culture in a common African cultural basket. In Appiah’s indebted to the West for its economic survival. The Global (1994) sociohistorical analysis of racial identity, he points Policy Forum (2014) adds that out that where “a racial label is applied to people, ideas about what it refers to, ideas that may be much less consensual than the Global South is being drained of resources by the rest of the the application of the label, come to have their social effects” world and it is losing far more each year than it gains. Africa (p. 78). The social effects of the modern slavery affecting alone loses $192 billion each year to the rest of the world. This sub-Saharan Africans in Libya and the European response to is mainly in profits made by foreign companies, tax dodging and the migrant crisis where race is at the core of “contemporary the costs of adapting to climate change. Whilst rich countries often talk about the aid their countries give to Africa, this is in identity politics” (Appiah, p. 79) highlight the scale of fact less than $30 billion each year. Even when you add this to Africa’s socioeconomic crisis and the indifference that has foreign investment, remittances and other resources that flow accompanied it. Unfortunately, today, racial politics and the into the continent, Africa still suffers an overall loss of $58 stereotyping of Africans are fueled by the inescapable reality billion every year. The idea that we are aiding Africa is flawed; of sub-Saharan African political leaders unwittingly contrib- it is Africa that is aiding the rest of the world. uting to the mass migration into the Maghreb (for the unex- pected benefit of Libyan slave traders) through their failure The above reality of economic exploitation of Africa not to economically develop their countries. African leaders only perpetuates the continent’s cyclical poverty, but also have laid the blame for the new slavery on the Libyan slave sustains the post-colonialist narratives of African exception- dealers, unscrupulous human traffickers, Europe and United alism in the areas of endemic poverty and economic stagna- States of America whose leaders they blame for creating a tion. The conclusion that African poverty and unjust failed state in Libya. The human tragedy of the Libyan Slave international trade policies skewed in favor of the developed Trade enhances the narrative of a hopeless continent of failed world are inseparable realities is inescapable. For instance, economies and abysmal governments. Nigeria, another major contributor to the sub-Saharan On the causes of the Libyan Slave Trade, Kamara (2017) migrant population in Libya, has had stalled economic devel- avers that poor governance and high levels of corruption opment because of declining oil revenues linked to falling make Africa’s leaders unaccountable and therefore accom- global oil prices. But then, Nigeria was ravished by succes- plices in the exodus of people fleeing from wars, poverty, sive military rulers who undermined democracy, looted state and human rights violations. In addition to this view, Kamara coffers, impoverished the country, and failed to diversify the also adds that the UN World Food and Agriculture economy while oil prices were still high. The democratiza- Organization estimates that 33 million people in sub-Saharan tion of the country a few decades ago has been a welcome Africa were hungry or undernourished in 2014-2016. change, yet economic development has been lopsided and Ewubure (2017) shares Kamara’s view that African leaders has largely benefited a few elites while creating sociopoliti- are to blame for the Libyan slavery. While some African cal conflict in the oil producing Niger Delta region. states like Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Rwanda, Botswana, and The policies of former Nigerian President Goodluck Tanzania have recorded impressive economic growth rates Jonathan who was succeeded by current President Buhari and with that political stability in the last few years, the same attracted scorn as corruption and cronyism got entrenched. cannot be said of many others. Somalia, a major source of Meanwhile, during his tenure, Boko Haram’s threat in the migrants seeking European shores, is both a failed state and East was met with indecisiveness. The same pattern of the epicenter of political instability, Al-Qaeda-linked terror- inept political leadership in countries like the DRC, ist violence, piracy, and refugees in the Horn of Africa. It Zimbabwe, the Central Africa Republic, Burundi, South contributed 300,000 immigrants to the EU, Norway, and Sudan, and many other countries that are joining the group Switzerland in 2018 alone (Kruger, 2018). Attempts by the of failed states is constant. Also constant is the AU’s obliv- United States of America and the AU to restore order in the iousness to the political transgressions of fellow African East African country have failed. Somalia is not an isolated leaders. According to the article ‘Africa’s Hegemon’ which case in sub-Saharan Africa. Many other countries have prob- appeared in ‘The Economist’ (2006), only a few African lems of political and economic instability that contribute to leaders subjected themselves to the peer review that immigration. Furthermore, economic hemorrhage in Africa Mbeki’s African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) initi- further compounds the migrant crisis. ated. However, there have been promising economies like According to the Global Policy Forum (2014), cash out- Rwanda, which after suffering a genocide ignored by both flows from Africa far exceed the inflows from outside the the West and the AU, has been a surprising economic mir- continent. Total illicit outflows as well as remittances to acle. After descending to the disastrous levels of human western governments and international corporations suffering and economic destruction when close to a million amounted to a net loss of some US$58.2 billion. This alone Tutsi and moderate Hutu people were killed in the 1994 debunks the racist “shithole” label which taken to its logical Mafu 9 genocide, the country’s impressive economic and political Conclusion development demonstrates that with sound leadership and Sub-Saharan African leaders should not pretend ignorance sensible economic policies, it is possible to move from a that the North Africans, the Libyans, in particular, do not see failed state to a middle income economy within two Black Africans as being equal human beings. The onus is on decades. Similar sensible political choices and economic these leaders to restore the dignity of their citizens by imple- programs in Ghana have led to notable economic growth. menting economic programs that socially uplift the people Uganda, after years of tyranny under the Idi Amin and and give them reasons to hope in the future of their respec- Milton Obote regimes, was once on the right path to eco- tive countries. Charity begins at home. Migrants first lose nomic prosperity and political stability. Sadly, Museveni their human dignity in their home countries when their rights has now subverted democratic principles by seeking to are violated through economic strangulation, political abuse, extend his rule for an indefinite period in what Gafey and denial of opportunities to prosper. Concomitantly, the (2015) terms “Africa’s third-term problem.” proverbial elephant in the room that permeates and continues The syndrome of life presidents and economic failure to shape the discourses on the migrant crisis in the seemingly refuses to be eradicated in some African states Mediterranean region is racism couched in the language of like the DRC, Burundi, Ethiopia, Togo, Equatorial Guinea, cultural superiority. This discourse sustains the degrading and Cameroon. In Zimbabwe, this problem was only ended and inhuman practice of slavery. Hence, it behooves the by a military intervention in 2017. Consequently, millions African political leaders to ensure that citizens benefit from have fled from these countries to other parts of the world in membership to their countries and the resources that exist. the quest for peace and prosperity. Africa has abundant natu- African leaders must consider the creation of the necessary ral resources which if put to good use for the benefit of its conditions for economic prosperity in their countries and the people would see an improvement in the economic and social restoration of the human dignity of their people their fore- conditions of its inhabitants. Admittedly, poor economic pol- most responsibility. This is only possible when they respect icies and uninspiring leadership continue to hamper the con- the fundamental rights of their citizens to live peaceably and tinent’s progress. Therefore, we are likely to see more productively in their countries with guaranteed meaningful desperate Africans migrating to what they see as better coun- employment, education, health care, and all that makes life tries where their economic and security prospects stand a comfortable. better chance of fulfillment. In fact, it is the continent’s polit- ical and economic failures that perpetuate racism and stereo- Declaration of Conflicting Interests typical representations of Africa as the developed world’s problem child. The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The Libyan/Trans-Mediterranean Slave Trade serves as a warning to African leaders that their work remains undone. 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The New York Times. commentisfree/2017/feb/20/migrant-slave-trade-libya- Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/world/ europe africa/libya-migrants-slavery.html Kruger, T. (2018, March 25). A rising tide of sub-Saharan Africa migrants. City Press (South Africa), p. 14. Author Biography Leghtas, I. (2018). Death would have been better: Europe continues to fail refugees and migrants in Libya. Retrieved from https:// Lucas Mafu is a lecturer in the Department of English at the www.refugeesinternational.org/reports/libyaevacuations2018 University of Zululand where he teaches Theory of Literature and Levenson, E. (2017). Libyan slave trade: UN security council con- literature in English. He is also a published writer whose other demns “heinous abuses” of the Libyan slave trade. Retrieved research interests are in literary theory, nationalism and African lit- from https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/07/world/un-security- erature. He also specializes in historical novels that deal with the council-libya-slavery/index.html postcolonial African reality.

Journal

SAGE OpenSAGE

Published: Feb 6, 2019

Keywords: slavery; Libya; African migrants; Europe; leadership

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