After the collapse of Apartheid in South Africa, Uganda seems to have embraced the is detectable Apartheid-like governance, with many Ugandans living like slaves as of old, and a small ethnic group with biological, cultural and ecological roots elsewhere has captured everything and the whole country for itself.

Indigenous Ugandans are dehumanised with no right to a minimum wage and are paid peanuts for their labour, which may be discharged without rest in enterprises owned by aliens. They have been locally commodified and their poverty has been commercialised.

It is, however, the commodified Ugandans that cross borders with their poverty that should concern us here. One writer has pointed out that of the 1.7 billion migrant women, men and children living in slavery in the Arab world by 2021, 50 million were in modern slavery, according to a September 10, 2022, report of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Some of these are Ugandan modern slaves. According to Uganda’s Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Services, the number of these modern slaves rose from 24,086 between 2016-2021 to 84,961 in 2023.

The publication ZAWYA of March 14, 2023, says that at least 77,414 Ugandan modern slaves went to Saudi Arabia, and of these 55,643 were housemaids. It seems modern slaves have become a major export for Uganda. ZAWYA says that Uganda earns $600 million (Ush2.2 trillion) annually from the modern slaves in the Middle East.

To the government, what the slaves are doing is legitimate employment and it is proud of it because the Ugandans in the Arab world are enjoying their right to work, which is better than staying in Uganda with no work and no earning at all. Other regime apologists participating in exporting slave labour to the Arab World argue that it is part of international labour movement okayed by ILO.

The lucrative modern slavery reflects ongoing impoverishment and economic failure, including diminishing employment of the youth in the country. The youth population is 80 per cent of the country’s total population, and indeed government has no capacity to plan for such a youthful population mainly because its priorities seem to lie elsewhere. Someone working in the Middle East whispered to me that some of the modern slaves have both undergraduate and masters degrees, which they hide so that they can qualify to be shipped or flown out of Uganda as cheap modern slave labour.

For each job, according to Daily Monitor, secured for a Ugandan worker in the Middle East, the Uganda government gets $30 dollars.  Unscrupulous people engaged in the evil trade can sell a Ugandan to a labour agency in the Middle East for as high as $2,000 dollars (Ush7.4 million) and the labour agency can sell the modern slave at $3,500 dollars (Ush13 million), according to the Daily Monitor. 

According to the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS), 89 per cent of Uganda’s modern slaves are subject to human trafficking the same way illicit drugs are trafficked. The two are lucrative commodities.

Although the trade in human beings is a degrading, dehumanizing and deplorable business, reminiscent of orthodox slavery, a government minister was heard sometime back boasting about the revenue accruing to government from the trade, and how it is also helping government to resolve the unemployment crisis in the country.

In fact, the same minister travelled to Saudi Arabia to reach an agreement regarding Uganda’s modern slaves, perhaps including accepting more of the slaves, which reflected government’s monetary motive. One may assert over and over again that the export of humans to the Middle East has emerged as one of the few commodity exports doing very well today in Uganda. The other one might turn out to be the associated organ trade, but illicit export of drugs is said to be booming.

All these together, perhaps with the illicit export of minerals such as gold, constitute Uganda’s illicit economy. This has overtaken the licit economy by far.

It should, however, be of interest to Ugandans that in May 2023, almost one day after the president of Uganda signed the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 into law, the Uganda Human Organ Donation and Transplant Bill 2021 was also signed into the Organ Donation and Transplant Law 2023.

It is true that the organ trade is the unseen form of the Human Trafficking Trade. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 10,000 kidneys are traded on the black market worldwide – more than one every hour. The human body has 100 organs, and virtually every organ is tradeable as a commodity and is being traded globally.

According to Acams Today, the magazine for career-minded professionals in the anti-money laundering field of June August 2018, citing Bloody Harvest Matas and Kilgour (2007), gives data on the financial gains from the trade in five organs, namely: corneas, lungs, heart, liver and kidney (see the Table 1 below):

 Table 1.

____________

 Corneas                     from $30,000

Lungs                           from $ 150,000

Heart                           from $ 130,000

Liver                            from $   98,000

Kidney                         from $   62,000

______________

That was 16 years ago! The cost must be up severalfold for each organ.

The Uganda Organ Donation and Transplant Law 2023 prohibits commercial dealings in human organs and tissues and provides for harsh punishment and heavy fines. However, it is important that students of law get interested in critically thinking about this law and unearthing whatever hidden leeway may be in it that may be exploited by rogue health personnel to continue with what has been a stealthy illegal trade in body organs. 

The organ trade is already scaring many Ugandans, especially the poor, away from government and even private hospitals, fearing that their organs or those of their people, will be stolen from them to renew the health of the rich in Uganda and abroad. They have heard that some big people are involved in the bloody trade, and may be in league with some health personnel to steal their organs.

The government should reassure the poor that they are safe in government hospitals and that no one will terminate their lives or the lives of their relatives, to criminally resource organs from them for the rich. Of course, when the poor citizens shun government or private hospitals, they become easy prey to people pretending to be traditional doctors yet there is a money motive behind their work.

Health security matters should not be left to quacks because of the growing threat of human organ theft. It is a health security measure of health workers are remunerated adequately as doing so will reduce the probability their being attracted to the evil human organ trade. A lot of money is being wasted in political schemes such as expanding the legislature, overcapitalising State House, over-militarisation and buying political support, all intended for power retention.

Money committed to such schemed should be redirected into development of the human resource and country. Besides, our youth should be protected by law and other means so that they are just shipped or flowed off to modern slavery markets or other places where they may be used as guineapigs in scientific research or as sources of organs for the rich who have spoiled their organs through stupid lifestyles.

One thing is for sure: commodification of humanity and the body organs is unethical, immoral and anti-God.

For God and my country – Uganda!                                                

• A Tell report / By Prof Oweyegha-Afunaduula, a former professor in the Department of Environmental Science of the Makerere University, Uganda