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= = =Child Slavery - The trade between Benin and Nigeria=

History
Benin- Benin is located on the former lands of the Dahomy empire. Traders from Portugal, France, and The Netherlands came to trade weapons for slaves. The slave trade stopped in 1884 when the French took over the land and claimed it as a colony. On August first 1960 the people won full independence from France and renamed the country Benin. Military coups brought about violence and change in the government from 1960 to 1972. Mathiew Kerekou the head of a military coup and the Revolutionary party of the people of Benin,put an end to the battle for power. The party held office until the 1990s. Kerekou was asked by Democratic powers such as France and the US to hold a National Confrence to create a Democratic constitution and hold an election for government officials. Kerekou did as they wished and created the new government. He lost in the election however to NIcephore Dieudonne Solgo. Boni Yayi is the current president.(Source 1 Boddy-Evans)

Nigeria- The Fulani empire ruled the land of Nigeria untill the British gained control. It was under British rule until 1960 when Nigeria gained independence. The rulers of NIgeria had to face the near imposible challenge of unifying 250 ethnic and linguistic groups. In 1966 rioting began and and the Ibo tribe took over. Soon after another military coup put Yakubu Gowon into power for 9 years. Muslim groups from the north massacred hundreds of the primerly Christian Ibo tribe. The Ibo fled to the east and declaired thier independance. This caused a massive civil war to begin. The battles raged for 31 months and finally the Ibo surrendered. In the 1970s an oil boom got the countries economy on track and by the 1980s Nigeria was a prime example of African democracy and well being. In years later corrupttion and military rule creeped back in. The writer Ken Saro Wiwa was hung for speaking out against the new military leadership. After lots of turmoil leaders held a presidential election. Obasanjo won the election. He brought back democracy and order to the government. The current president is Umaru Yar-Adna.(Source 2 //infoplease//)

Political Impact
The political aspect of the slave trade between Benin an Nigeria was put under the radar up until 2003 when the two countries came together to discuss the issue. Leaders from both counties created and signed a cooperation agreement to first slow and ultamately stop the slave trade. The trade is successful because of geografical and cultural closeness so the countries are working to secure the boarders of both countries. Police have found upwards of 300 children working in quaries and other jobs working from dawn till dusk just to earn about one meal per day. Human rights groups constantly are working with the governments of both countries to track down on the operations.(Source 3 Monekosso)

Economic
With 30 children crossing the Benin and Nigeria border every month, child slaves can unfortunately be called an export(Monekosso.)The country of Benin is very poor and for some parents selling thier kids to trafficers is the only way to keep them alive. Benin's economy is not effected by the slave trade because of how poor they are to begin with. The Nigerian impact has been huge. The traders sell the slaves to farmers and other buisness owners. By only paying for food for the slaves, all of the profet made goes straight to the pocket of the slave owner. The owners continue to make money by selling the goods to be exported further improving the Nigerian economy.

Social
The social aspect of Child slavery is becoming bigger and bigger with the the numbers of slaves continuing to rise. The population of this generation is going to be significantly lower than generations ahead of them. Many of the kids will not live as long because of being worked to hard under harsh living conditions. That will decrease the population after them as well. The children are also not able to pass on the cultures of their native tribes because they are missing out on the education that others back home are getting.

The future of child slavery is in the hands of the Government of the countries involved. Sometimes they may need help from organizations but the majority of the weight is put on countries decisions on how to go about lowering the severity of the issue. Three possible ways for Nigeria and Benin to do so are: 1-Create a better living environment for the people and children. This would lesson the need for parents to sell the children into slavery and decrease the income of the traders. With the traders making less they would have to use other ways to find children. These alternatives would be easier for police to track down on the locations of the trafficking and where the children are being taken. 2- Inform and educate the people of the counties. This would lead to worldwide attention and support for the governments to use to help fight the people behind the trade. If the people were educated on the issue they could look out for the traffickers and report them to officials. 3- Creating a better police force that is trained to track down slave traders. They could run operations to bust traders in the act and give the police more and more information about the trading.(Source 4 unicef)