2 October 2019
At the end of 2018, social media erupted with videos showing practices of contemporary slavery in Libya. These videos were circulated to garner solidarity, to mobilise support from social movements, global governance bodies and nation states alike. The moral outrage that emerged across social media was not without history, with many people connecting this dehumanizing practice with earlier forms of enslavement and violent, forced labour. Modern Slavery is the term used to describe diverse contemporary forms of dehumanisation and exploitation, including the trafficking of humans, mostly women and children, for sexual exploitation or exploitative and inhumane labour conditions.
In this event we take modern slavery as a framework for thinking through diverse forms of dehumanising and precarious labour. What are the specificities of the different forms, how do they differ and how might it benefit us to think them together? Speakers will explore the relationship between slavery and other historical forms of forced or precarious labour and modern day slavery and human trafficking.
This event is part of the Tropenmuseum’s ongoing series Gedeelde Geschiedenis, where we explore the afterlives of the slavery and colonial part of the RCMC’s ongoing research project Materialising Slavery. For more information on the Materialising Slavery project, which addresses the material and visual culture of slavery and colonialism, please take a look at www.materialculture.nl/en/research/projects/materializing-slavery.
This conference is developed in collaboration with the Chocolonely Foundation.