Nigeria Update Episode 4 | Slavery in Nigeria, Then and Now
Save the Persecuted Christians & Save Nigeria Group
A JOINT WEBINAR
Nigeria Update: Episode 4
Slavery in Nigeria, Then and Now
11 am ET, Wednesday, May 27, 2026
(This is a biweekly event every other Wednesday
starting April 15 and continuing through June 24.)
In episode 4 of the Nigeria Update, a biweekly current events briefing on Nigeria, co-hosts Dede Laugesen and Stephen Osemwegie will be joined by human rights and religious freedom experts Dr. Charles Jacobs and Douglas Burton, among others, to analyze the historic and ongoing Islamic slave trade in Nigeria.
The Trans-Saharan slave trade, driven largely by Muslim North African and Arab traders from the 7th–8th centuries onward, formed a major part of Islamic involvement in African slavery. It lasted over 1,300 years, far longer than the transatlantic trade, and supplied enslaved Africans to North Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. Slavery predated Islam in the Sahel but expanded significantly under Muslim rule and trade networks. It coexisted with local African practices and later interacted with European trade.
Slavery was formally abolished in Africa, but hereditary descent-based slavery persists in places like parts of Mali, Mauritania, and northern Nigeria among some ethnic/Islamic social hierarchies.
Modern slavery in Nigeria and the Sahel, the region south of the Sahara Desert, is in full bloom as an ever-increasing array of jihadist groups engage in taking captives for ransom, unmitigated mass human trafficking, and sex-slavery.
Since 2009, Boko Haram (and its splinter Islamic State West Africa Province – ISWAP) and Muslim Fulani Militants in northeastern Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin have used abduction, sexual slavery, forced marriage, and child recruitment as core tactics. Nigeria alone has ~1.6 million in modern slavery (2023 estimates), exacerbated by insurgency, though not all conflict-related, according to the international human rights group, Walk Free.
Join us at 11 a.m. ET, Wednesday, May 27, for our next Nigeria Update, Episode 4, “Slavery in Nigeria, Then and Now,” as we dig deep into the ongoing crisis of human trafficking and captivity as it relates to history and the modern context of terrorism, genocide, and efforts to end it in Africa.
Moderator
- Dede Laugesen, President and CEO, Save the Persecuted Christians
Co-Host
- Stephen Osemwegie, President, Save Nigeria Group
Panelists
- Dr. Charles Jacobs, President of Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) and Board member of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME); Professor of Public Law and Political Science at Washington & Jefferson College
- Pastor John Haruna, Senior Christian clergyman based in the Kuru District of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria at Church of Christ in Nations
- Douglas Burton, Editor, TruthNigeria.com
- Mike Arnold, President, Arise Africa
Hosts of the Webinar
This webinar is jointly hosted by Save the Persecuted Christians and Save Nigeria Group USA.
Save the Persecuted Christians—an educational 501 (c)(3) non-profit charity registered in the United States of America—is a grassroots movement to save lives and save souls. We educate the public on anti-Christian violence and enlist their help in supporting those harmed for their faith in Jesus; holding those responsible accountable; and securing significant penalties on state and non-state persecutors of Christians.
Save Nigeria Group USA is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to uplifting the lives of Nigerians both in the United States and in Nigeria. Founded on the belief that every Nigerian deserves access to opportunity, dignity, and justice, we work tirelessly to support the Nigerian-American community and provide critical assistance to those in need across Nigeria.
UPCOMING
June 20th Rally for Nigeria
Saturday, June 20, 202610 am Eastern
Venue: Lafayette Park
(across from the White House)
Washington DC/US Capitol