LIKE millions of others, I was shocked by recent reports of a Benin slave
ship full of children. In a world where moral absolutes are scarce, this looked
like one. Surely no one could believe this was anything other than wrong?
By chance, I’ve been in Mauritania, a West African country where slavery was
only abolished in 1980. And where, say human rights groups, it secretly
persists.
One of the nicest people I met there was a man, Ely, whose family once owned
slaves, and who badly wanted me to understand how tough it is being a slave
owner. And…
