This article is inspired by an emotional movie I watched last night with the title ÒLÒTŪRÉ which means Endurance.
This is a 2019 movie set in Nigeria predominantly Lagos and Benin with English, pidgin and Edo language are predominantly spoken throughout the movie. This is a movie everyone must endeavour to watch. It is not because it’s a movie produced and acted by Nigerian rather it is a movie that exposes mostly the evils of human trafficking especially on the side of the girl child. I am not the kind of person that just sits to watch any movie if not recommended by someone who has watched it and this one was no different.
It was recommended to me by a very close friend whom I hold her words in high esteem whenever it comes to movie suggestions because she understands my take when it comes to watching movies. When she told me about this movie, I did not doubt that it was going to be worth my time and immediately I searched through the internet until I found it and downloaded it. I must commend the producers Heidi Uys, Timidayo Abudu and James Amuta, not forgetting the director Kenneth Gyang. These guys did a very good job and they deserve to be appreciated.
Human trafficking is the modern-day slavery which is still very much alive in various parts of the world. The truth remains that slavery has continued even though it was abolished on December 18, 1865 people are still being sold for sex, hard labour and so on. In this day, human trafficking has become more deadly than the old form of slavery because it is now misunderstood by the youth as a way to sort for greener pasture where there is none. Human trafficking is defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, employing the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or a position of vulnerability or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for exploitation (source).
From the definition above and having watched the movie Òlòtūré, I can say that human trafficking comes in several ways. The trafficked person who is unaware of what is waiting for her in the place she is going to can be coerced to freely give her consent both in words and in writing. There was a part in the movie when one of the trafficked girls was seen begging her trafficker who she is meant to pay some amount of money which will enable her and her sister to gain access to Europe to give her some time so that she can be able to complete her payment and that of her sister.
When I was pondering over what could make someone to want to leave the comfort of her home to a faraway land without having any family or trusted friend over there, I stumbled upon two words; hunger and poverty. In Africa, hunger and poverty have become the strongest enemy of man. A man who is incapable of getting a decent meal once a day and who is completely certain that his tomorrow is not sure will do anything to survive. Just like the man, the women and the girl child are the most affected in all of this. They are forced into sex as a means of survival. This does not mean that prostitution is the only way a girl can survival out of poverty and hunger but it has become the most viable and the most sort after.
One thing I have come to understand is that no trafficked person knew the kind of life he/she was going to live in the place she was heading to even though some may be aware that they are going into prostitution, they never knew that their rights as humans will be stripped from them the moment they get to the strange land. In the movie, there was a part when the girls were being prepared for the journey. They were meant to surrender their mobile phones, searched thoroughly by the men like criminals and worst of all, they were taken to a shrine where they were stripped naked and meant to take an oath which forbids them from double-crossing their sponsors. The girls were not told that they will go through such humiliating process all in the name of oath-taking and this is why when they go over there, they end up doing unspeakable things because their soul has been mortgaged.
The most gruesome part of human trafficking is that these trafficking persons can be killed at any time without any form of hesitation by the trafficker. This was portrayed in the movie when one of the girls was caught with a mobile phone after they were meant to drop their phones on arrival. Every one of them was made to come out in the middle of the night and just in the view of all, the girl was cut down with the machete and she bled to death instantly. This was a girl who was working so hard to save up money to pay to her trafficker not knowing that she was paying for her death. My question is; why would someone pay to be trafficked? The truth remains that the trafficker is making money from the trafficked persons in both ways. They will collect money from them to help them arrange their travelling documents. They will collect money from the merchants abroad who they are selling these girls and finally, this trafficked person will be making some sort of payment to them even as they go through hell every day.
Do not say that it does not concern you. Remember that you have a sister, daughter and a young girl in your neighbourhood who dreams of becoming a doctor, nurse, lawyer, musician, engineer or even a makeup artist. Do not close your eyes to this evil and barbaric act against the human race. Human trafficking is not a crime that should be allowed to continue, there is no moral justification for someone to take another person by force or by subtle coercion into slavery because slavery has been abolished since 156 years ago. I ask you my reader; how have you been able to save that girl or boy in your neighbourhood from hunger and poverty which might lead him/her to opt to be trafficked all in the name of looking for greener pasture? The government cannot do it alone, therefore this is a wakeup call for all of us to take a stand today and say NO to human trafficking.
This weekend’s movie suggestion for you is; ÒLÒTŪRÉ (Endurance). Don’t miss it for anything.
Young girls are most targeted by human trafficking.