{"id":2661,"date":"2020-07-31T11:19:23","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T11:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vor.org.ng\/?p=1294"},"modified":"2022-08-14T00:49:47","modified_gmt":"2022-08-14T00:49:47","slug":"the-psychology-of-slavery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2020\/07\/31\/the-psychology-of-slavery\/","title":{"rendered":"The psychology of slavery"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Femi Olugbile
\n\"\"
\nThere is a video circulating in the social media. Two nubile young women, stark naked, are shown, with a naked young man in the ambience of a family that is clearly well to do. The girls look to be between the ages of fifteen and twenty. In the background is an elaborate ornamental balustrade, with tiled steps leading upstairs.
\nOne of the young women is holding a bundle of well-used one thousand-naira notes that could be the takings of a day\u2019s commerce in a high-end wholesale or retail store.
\nThe scene opens with one of the naked girls, \u2018Janet\u2019, on her knees.
\n\u2018Get up\u2019 she is commanded. \u2018Put up your hands.\u2019
\nThe kneeling girl gets to her feet, the evidence of her crime held guiltily before her.
\n\u2018How did you steal the money?\u2019
\nJanet recounts how Tope, the other girl, put her up to a scheme whereby they would steal money from \u2018Mummy\u2019s bag, with the assurance that she, Tope, had \u2018medicine\u2019 which would cover their tracks.
\n\u2018How much did you steal?\u2019
\n\u2018Five hundred thousand\u2019 \u2013 apparently the amount in the bundle she is holding.
\n\u2018\u2026I will destroy your life if you don\u2019t confess\u2026\u2019 comes a shrill, high-pitched voice, apparently that of \u2018Mummy\u2019, from the background.
\n\u2018I never stole before this\u2026\u2019
\n\u2018Look at their faces\u2026\u2019 says another voice, addressing the camera audience. \u2018They may give themselves false names\u2026\u2019
\n\u2018Don\u2019t hire them as house help\u2026They always steal from their masters\u2026\u2019 says \u2018Mummy\u2019.
\nShe is convinced she is doing public good.
\nIt is an ugly, despicable scenario, on several levels.
\n\u2018Mummy\u2019 is sore at her stolen, now recovered, money and is intent on \u2018disgracing\u2019 her erring staff. In doing so, she is unmindful that her own anatomy is not very different from the adult females she is \u2018shaming\u2019 before the camera.
\nFive hundred thousand naira is a large amount of money, and it is abominable for workers to steal from their employers. But it is not likely that a worker who steals five hundred thousand naira from Zenith Bank, or \u2018Mummy\u2019s\u2019 daughter, if she were to do a similar thing, would be \u2018paraded\u2019 naked in a video clip on WhatsApp.
\nThe reality is that the scene depicted is not the story of an employer and her rogue employees. \u2018Mummy\u2019 owns<\/em><\/strong> Janet and Tope. They are not \u2018workers\u2019 in the conventional sense.
\n\u2018Omo odo\u2019<\/em><\/strong> are usually sourced through a nation-wide network of human trafficking. Many are from neighbouring countries such as Togo and Benin Republic. They are without passports or other immigration documents, and so are totally vulnerable. They are transported across international borders in seasonal consignments and given out to \u2018masters\u2019. Although they are paid a \u2018salary\u2019, it is invariably a pittance, below the national minimum wage. Much, if not all, of the salary is appropriated by the \u2018Uncle\u2019 or \u2018Aunt\u2019 who trafficked them in. They have no rights. They are visited with sometimes unimaginable cruelty in some households. They are a lower form of life, not entitled to the hopes and aspirations of the children of the house. In all but name, they are slaves.
\nIt is an attitude of mind that many Nigerians, even those who consider themselves humane and enlightened, hold towards their domestic workers, who they also use as labour in their small and medium scale enterprises. It has led some Nigerians into perdition, because, while it is regarded with a wink and a nod even by law enforcement agencies and religious authorities here, it is a crime in other countries, where all human beings are, at least technically, equal under the law. Some time ago, a Nigerian doctor and his wife were arraigned before a court in the UK for their cruelty to a young lady they had brought over as domestic help. The lady\u2019s passport was kept from her and she was locked up in the house. One day she raised a cry that attracted neighbours, who called the police. She then recounted tales of beatings and humiliation she had received over the years. The couple were both sentenced to prison. The husband\u2019s name was struck off the practice register by the General Medical Council.
\nSlavery is not just about chains but about servitude. In reality, a domestic help is a worker just like a bank employee.
\nThere is a sordid, criminal element about the underground system of trafficking that is the \u2018supply-side\u2019<\/em><\/strong> which makes domestic workers vulnerable and brings out the worst in their employers. That they often steal and lie, as \u2018owners\u2019 such as \u2018Mummy\u2019 would be quick to point out, cannot be strange to anyone who understands work psychology and the fact that employees in a system where they have no stake \u00a0or future and are treated as chattels would predictably behave like predatory animals, out for the kill.
\nThere is nothing wrong with Nigerians or other nationals, registering with employment agencies and working legitimately and freely as domestic help, as many Filipinos do in Europe and America, and as many Nigerians do in the lower rungs of the Care system in the UK. But it is bizarre to have Nigerians who support \u2018Black Lives Matter\u2019 in other countries stand by while their spouses assault and humiliate domestic staff. It is the same disingenuous logic that allows people who support the toppling of statues of white slave traders to balk at acknowledging the guilt of their own slave trading forebears, or to support the preservation of anachronistic discriminatory cultural practices, such as the Osu caste system.
\nThe proper recourse for anyone who has been the victim of stealing from an employee is to report to the Police. The Nigerian Police is imperfect, but it is what we have.
\nThe litmus test for the modernity of any society is the recognition of the entitlement of even its lowliest members to human dignity and respect. There cannot be any exceptions to the rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Femi Olugbile There is a video circulating in the social media. 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