ABSTRACT
There is an important difference in Africa between residual slavery, a survival from pre-colonial times, and forced labour, which has been mainly the result of colonisation. Traditional slavery and servitude may have been reinforced or otherwise altered by colonial rule, but they did not originate as a result of colonisation. This economic exploitation, of which forced labour was for long seen by Europeans as a necessary part, was concentrated in certain regions of the continent. But the economic centres of Africa, and the areas near them, differ in many ways from the more ‘neglected’ regions of the continent. Migration is only one result of this increasing desire for a better life. Courts in many parts of Africa frequently handle cases of petty slave-dealing as an extension of the crime of kidnapping.
