The work of honoring the dead began right away all over the country, and several American towns claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. Researchers have traced the earliest annual commemoration to women who laid flowers on soldiers’ graves in the Civil War hospital town of Columbus, Miss., in April 1866. But historians like the Pulitzer Prize winner David Blight have tried to raise awareness of freed slaves who decorated soldiers’ graves a year earlier, to make sure their story gets told too.
According to Blight’s 2001 book Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, a commemoration organized by freed slaves and some white missionaries took place on May 1, 1865, in Charleston, S.C., at a former planters’ racetrack where Confederates held captured Union soldiers during the last year of the war. At least 257 prisoners died, many of disease, and were buried in unmarked graves, so black residents of Charleston decided to give them a proper burial.
GOD! there is none worthy of worship/prayer but Him – the Living, the Self-Subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize him nor sleep. His are all things in the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede in His presence except as He permits? He knows what (appears to His creatures as) Before or After or Behind them. Nor shall they compass any of His knowledge except as He wills. His Throne extends over the heavens and the earth, and He feels no fatigue in guarding and preserving them. For He is the Most High, the Supreme (in glory).
Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth stands out clear from Error; whoever rejects Evil and believes in GOD has grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And GOD hears and knows all things.
GOD is the Protector of those who have faith: from the depths of darkness, He will lead them forth into light. Of those who reject faith they are patrons are the Evil Ones: from Light they will lead them forth into the depths of darkness. They will be companions of the Fire, to dwell therein (for ever).
“My father introduced me to husbands since I was twelve.” – Sudanese female on her forced marriage at age 17
Africa is a vast and diverse region that accounts for 17 per cent of the world’s population. Modern slavery in Africa is driven by ongoing political instability, poverty, displacement of people due to conflict and climate change, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Modern slavery manifests differently throughout Africa; it occurs in every country in the region, while those with higher prevalence typically experience compounding vulnerability factors. More than 3.1 million Africans are in forced marriage, the drivers of which depend on factors in their location, such as the presence of conflict, poverty, or persistence of certain traditional practices. There are more than 3.8 million people in forced labour across Africa. At particularly high risk are adults and children who travel from rural and remote areas to urban centres seeking work. Higher rates of descent-based slavery and forced begging continue to occur in parts of the Sahel.
Over the past four years, many African countries have taken actions to improve their response to modern slavery. Nigeria and South Africa have taken the most action, while Eritrea and Libya have taken the least. South Sudan was excluded from the assessment of government action on modern slavery due to ongoing conflict and extreme disruption to government function. Much more needs to be done to provide support for survivors, strengthen laws to protect people, and develop national strategies to combat modern slavery.
What is the extent and nature of modern slavery in Africa? On any given day in 2021, an estimated 7 million men, women, and children were living in modern slavery in Africa, a prevalence of 5.2 people in modern slavery for every thousand people. Africa had the fourth highest prevalence of modern slavery among the five regions of the world, following the Arab States (10.1 per thousand), Europe and Central Asia (6.9), and Asia and the Pacific (6.8). Forced labour was the most common form of modern slavery in the region, at a rate of 2.9 per thousand people, while forced marriage was at 2.4 per thousand.
When considering the total number of people in forced marriage worldwide, 13 per cent (3.2 million) were in Africa, second to Asia and the Pacific, which at 65 per cent has by far the highest share of the world’s forced marriages. Fourteen per cent of all people in forced labour were in Africa (3.8 million), the third highest behind Asia and the Pacific (55 per cent) and Europe and Central Asia (15 per cent).
The countries with the highest prevalence of modern slavery in Africa are Eritrea, Mauritania, and South Sudan. The countries with the lowest prevalence of modern slavery in Africa are Mauritius, Lesotho, and Botswana.
How is forced labour affecting millions in Africa?
Nearly 4 million men, women, and children experience forced labour in Africa, particularly in the mining, agriculture, fishing, and domestic work sectors.1 African job seekers misled by traffickers with false promises are subjected to forced labour abroad, such as in the Gulf states.2 Children are also exploited in their pursuit of education. For example, under the confiage (trust) system in Togo, children from rural areas are sent to cities to complete their education and live with relatives, who may force them into domestic servitude.3 Nigerian girls seeking employment as domestic helpers to help pay for schooling are also subjected to domestic servitude.4 In Senegal, talibe (student, seeker) children in Quranic schools are forced to beg.
How does forced marriage in Africa impact women and girls?
In Africa, forced marriage particularly impacts women and girls. One in every 300 females in the region was in a forced marriage compared to one in every thousand males.6 In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports of child marriages increased in Sudan, Egypt,7 and parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),8 and they nearly doubled in communities across Senegal and Uganda.9 Women and girls living in conflict zones also experience forced and child marriage, including as a negative coping mechanism by families to protect them from further violence10 and by fighters who abduct, marry, and exploit women and girls as domestic and sexual slaves.11 Forced commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls is used as a weapon of war by both state and non-state groups, reportedly in the Central African Republic, the DRC, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan,12 and by both parties to the civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.13
“My father introduced me to husbands since I was twelve.” Sudanese female on her forced marriage at age 17
We bestowed (in the past) wisdom on Luqman: “Show (your) gratitude to GOD.” Any who is (so) grateful does so to the profit of his own soul: but if any is ungrateful verily GOD is free of all wants, worthy of all praise. (12)
Behold, Luqman said to his son admonishing him: “O my son! Join not in worship (others) with GOD: for false worship is indeed the highest wrong-doing.” (13)
And We have enjoined on man (to be good) to his parents: in travail upon travail did his mother bear him, and in years twain was his weaning: (hear the command) “Show gratitude to Me and to your parents: to Me is (your final) Goal. (14)
“But if they strive to make you join in worship with Me things of which you have no knowledge obey them not; Yet bear them company in this life with justice (and consideration) and follow the way of those who turn to Me (in love): in the End the return of you all is to Me, and I will tell you the truth (and meaning) of all that ye did.” (15)
“O my son!” (said Luqman) “If there be (but) the weight of a mustard-seed and it were (hidden) in a rock, or (anywhere) in the heavens or on earth, GOD will bring it forth: for GOD understands the finer mysteries, (and) is well-acquainted (with them). (16)
“O my son! Establish regular prayer, enjoin what is just, and forbid what is wrong: and bear with patient constancy whatever betide you; for this is firmness (of purpose) in (the conduct of) affairs. (17)
“And swell not your cheek (for pride) at men nor walk in insolence through the earth; for GOD loveth not any arrogant boaster. (18)
“And be moderate in your pace, and lower your voice; for the harshest of sounds without doubt is the braying of the ass.” (19)
Many people today either forget, or never new that Muslim’s took refuge from being persecuted in their home of Mecca to Abyssinia ‘Ethiopia.’ under the protection of the Negus.
Ethiopia is the latest African country to begin transitioning to green public transportation by introducing electric buses. A new fleet of Chinese-made electric buses hit the streets of Addis Ababa earlier in April.
“We’re terrified… Most people are trying to leave the town or to [go to] other countries if they have other citizenships,” said Hind*, a 25-year-old living in Deir Dabwan, east of Ramallah. “They’re attacking civilians and displacing Palestinians from the river to the sea. They are trying to terrorise us and kick us out any way they can,” said Hind.
Living Islam 
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