George Mason University: Human Trafficking and Modern-day Slavery in Zanzibar

Using a highly interactive and experiential format, this course will introduce students to the history of buying, selling, and bondage of human beings. Following in the footsteps of Arab, Indian, Chinese and European traders and traffickers who have been drawn to Zanzibar for centuries, students in this course will go on the island’s unique spice tours and visit plantations that have historically fueled the demand for cheap human labor. A number of classes will be built around field activities that will bring students into contact with the Zanzibari people, and especially their cuisine, so that students will experience first-hand the unique fusion that is Swahili culture. The course will especially explore the contemporary forms of slavery and human trafficking and will examine some of the major philosophical, legal, economic, public policy, social and practical law enforcement issues involved in the struggle against such practices. The course will close with an invitation to students to engage themselves in suggested ways to advance that struggle and to think about new ways to achieve an effective and enduring abolition.