Discrimination based on Work, Descent and Slavery has just been reviewed by experts from different countries, at the invitation of TrustAfrica, initiator of a study involving Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. The review on webinar, which took place over a period of two days from 13 to 14 September 2021, was coordinated from TrustAfrica’s headquarters in Dakar. The results of the surveys revealed the persistent presence of slavery-like practices as well as the worst forms of inhuman treatment in all the target countries. From Mauritania to Mali and from Niger to Burkina Faso, communities have been formed for generations on considerations which are discriminatory or dominant relationships based on ancestry.
In the intense debates that marked sessions at the webinar, experts from Africa, Asia, and elsewhere established two main facts. The first, which was often mentioned and registered in the documents of the study and in the interventions of the experts, concerned the judicial question. The victims of discrimination have almost no chance of reversing the trend in countries where local customary, religious and political leaders, all heirs and conservatives of these (in)human counter-values, are still very powerful and influential. The few cases that arrive on the Judge’s table remain there for too long, pass from one hand to another, from one locker to another until they die a slow death after undergoing a series of re-qualifications that deprive them of any substance as a human rights case.
A documentary film on the subject and which serves as a means of communication was screened during the first day of this meeting, organized by TrustAfrica which is the pioneer organization in the fight against DWD in Africa.