Antislavery Usable Past

Janet B

2016 (Narrative date)

Uganda remains a source, transit and destination country for men, women and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. Ugandan children as young as seven are exploited in forced labour in agriculture, fishing, forestry, cattle herding, mining, carpentry, bars, restaurants and domestic service. Girls and boys are also exploited in prostitution, with recruiters targetting girls and women between the ages of 13 and 24 for domestic sex trafficking. 54,000 girls under 18 are sex workers in Uganda. Lured by false promises of education and good jobs. Others are escaping poverty, sexual abuse and child marriage.

Janet was 15 when she was forced to marry a man who was 36 years old. Her husband infected Janet with HIV and, ostracised by her family, she ran away to Kampala city. Upon arriving in Kampala, Janet was forced to undertake sex work in order to survive. With the help of Plan International, Janet was able to escape sex work and train to become a hairdresser.

My parents forced me to get married because they couldn’t afford my school fees. He used to force me to have sex with him. We would fight every time, I had no feelings for him.

[Janet ran away from her husband after he infected her with HIV, travelling to the city]

I just drink alcohol to help me get through the sex work. I’m wishing with all my heart to stop doing this work. I’m tired of it. Sometimes I get ready to go, and then I turn around and go to bed.

The prices differ. Without a condom, it’s between 5 and 8 USD. With a condom, men pay less. It’s 3 USD.

My future plans… I already bought a cow and left it back home. I’ll sell it after I graduate from here and use the money to start a hair salon. I’m going to be the first in my family to graduate, and the first to wear a gown. This feeling drives me to work hard for it.

Narrative courtesy of Plan International’s film series highlighting their programme in Kampala, Uganda, to train young women aged 13-24 who are sexually exploited or engaged in sex work.

Country

Uganda (slavery location)

Theme

Type

Narrative

Tags

VOICES: Narratives by Survivors of Modern Slavery

This is the world's largest archive of modern slavery survivor narratives. Across more than a million words spoken or written by survivors of modern slavery, we can see why slavery persists in particular hotspots, analyse patterns in trafficking routes, identify vulnerabilities, understand more about the challenges survivors face in liberation, and discover new antislavery solutions. These narratives offer the chance to systematically design new antislavery strategies based on the experiences, ideas and solutions of enslaved people themselves.

The database is searchable by country, name, theme, and narrative date. Narratives can be viewed in list or map form. A short introduction provides context to each narrative. Narrative provenance appears after the main narrative text.

For ideas on how to use this database, please see our accompanying guide.

Project Lead: Zoe Trodd. Team Members: Andrea Nicholson, Lauren Eglen, Rosemary Pearce, Olivia Wright.

Project Funders: AHRC Antislavery Usable Past grant (2014-19), ESRC/AHRC PaCCS Modern Slavery: Meaning and Measurement grant (2016-19), and AHRC-GCRF Antislavery Knowledge Network grant (2017-2021).

For any queries about the collection please contact: rightslab@nottingham.ac.uk. If you wish to cite a particular narrative, please acknowledge the survivor’s name, the provenance of the narrative and cite: Voices Database, the Rights Lab, University of Nottingham.

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