Legacies of Slavery in Niger 2: Mobilising Memory, Heritage, and Politics to End Abuse (LESLAN 2)

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LESLAN 2 builds on LESLAN 1's achievements to deliver significant political, social and cultural impacts. It supports Timidria, Niger's main anti-slavery NGO, in its efforts to improve the circumstances of persons of slave descent in the Republic of Niger and the Sahara-Sahel sub-region. Numerous reports highlight the continuing existence in this area of descent-based slavery, discrimination against formerly enslaved persons and their descendants, and forms of sexual slavery (such as the wahaya practice) that account for ongoing trafficking in women and girls. This situation has complex causes and consequences, which LESLAN 1 (the first stage of this collaboration, which took place from October 2018 to January 2020) contributed to unveil by conducting research in all of Niger's regions and collecting about 200 testimonies by members of affected groups. LESLAN 1 also started to undermine enduring hierarchical ideologies that stigmatise slave descendants and consider slave ownership a sign of honour. In this second stage, called LESLAN 2, research and data-collection activities are replaced by emphasis on the operationalisation of earlier findings with the aim of achieving a profound and lasting impact on society and politics. Research-related activities are limited to the participatory analysis and interpretation of previously collected evidence for the purpose of developing strategies and practices aimed at reducing descent-based slavery and its legacies. The objectives and methods of LESLAN 2 have been co-designed by the team of LESLAN 1 on the basis of initial results, unexpected developments, and consultation with grassroots participants. In LESLAN 2 Timidria plays a leading role in the management and implementation of all activities. Drawing from insights and best practices learned in LESLAN 1, it engages relevant governmental institutions, other sub-regional NGOs, artists and creative professionals, representatives of affected communities, and the wider public in a programme of collaborative action aimed at changing slavery-related policy and practice in the sub-region. Activities include a series of focused meetings with different stakeholders, the development of user-oriented, openly accessible publications co-designed and co-authored with West African abolitionist organisations and survivors of slavery, and an art-based campaign aimed at gaining public support for anti-slavery stances and policies. Through consultations, publications, advocacy, public engagement and art-based outreach LESLAN 2 contributes to hampering slavery, supporting victims, and protecting those most vulnerable to enslavement. It continues to promote the transformation of ideologies of hierarchy responsible for the resilience of slavery and its legacies in certain regions and contexts of Niger and the sub-region. It involves a close collaboration with grassroots communities of affected groups, especially female survivors who wish to share their past experience and make their voices heard not as victims, but as drivers of change. It musters public support through an 'Artists for Freedom' weekly radio programme, a series of 'Music for Freedom' concert tours, an art prize for works on the theme of slavery in Africa, and news and media information campaigns reaching out to a diverse national and international public.