To complete the fumbling, it was revealed that the exact number of people on board and their data were given to the Benin authorities before the ship had set sail and was in their possession all the while the alarm was on. The only way that fantasy could be kept alive was to assume that the 28 children on board were being taken by their relatives and guardians to be sold as slaves. The international media continued its slave ship story even when it was clear it was a hoax. Surely, the story of a ship load of child slaves fits perfectly into the Western image of Africa as a back, sub-human continent where cannibalism and slavery thrives. The story would also have brought back the nightmares of Africans in the diaspora whose forebears were taken to be Americans in slave ships between the sixteen and nineteenth centuries.
Slavery is essentially, a human being being sold as a commodity to another person.
The whole slave ship hoax and the silence of our government especially that of Benin which investigated the case was an attempt to cover up an embarrassing truth. The truth is that due to bad governance, grinding poverty and to stave off hunger, many parents give out their children as domestic helps, and sometimes as child labourers. Many parents who are unable to fend for themselves or take care of their families willingly give out their children usually in return for monthly or annual stipends and based on the promise that the children would be well cared for by their benefactors. This is quite common in our country where unemployment is very high and there is no social security. Here in Lagos, people who want house helps can have their pick either from children sent in from the rural areas or kids from countries like Benin and Togo.