Born Into Slavery: Sabila's story

Sabila – not her real name – is 15 years old, and was born into slavery. She lives with her master in a village 100km outside the central Niger town of Tahoua. Timid and unsure of herself, she spoke to IRIN out of sight of other slaves, in a tattered mud-and-thatch hut outside her village. “My family are all slaves to my master’s family. I have to work so hard, fetching water and firewood, and other domestic work,” she said. “He forces me to sleep with him so many times. The times I have tried to refuse he beats me. This all started when I was about seven years old. “He takes me into his room, unclothes me and rapes me. It makes me so sad. I reported it to my father but he, like me, can’t do anything, because he too is a slave.” Unusually for a slave in Niger, Sabila was allowed by her master to go to school, after a teacher threatened to take him to court if he refused. “He was afraid and agreed that if I worked for him in the mornings and evenings I could go. “I have studied up to Class Five, but now he has refused to let me go any longer. “At school when the teachers taught us about slavery, they teach that it goes back to the transatlantic slave trade and that it doesn’t exist anymore. “I am too afraid to say anything.” Sabila’s master has a daughter who moved to Nigeria to marry, and he wants to take Sabila there and give her to his daughter as a gift. “When my parents found out they were not happy, and asked our master to let me stay with them. He said no, she is my slave, she must come with me. “I have refused. He is preparing to go now; I am so afraid that he will kidnap me and take me with him.” The 15-year-old’s future is unclear. “I am still living and working for him. I have been having problems with my periods, they have not been normal and I have had bad pains. “The last time I had a period was about three or four months ago. My master raped me three months ago.”