There are an estimated 27m people trapped in slavery, from children forced to work as domestic slaves in West Africa to girls taken into prostitution in Thailand and children, women and men enslaved in bonded labour in South Asia.
To help raise awareness of this issue, a book of poetry has been created in aid of Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest human rights organisation. Festival of Flight, edited by Doug King-Smith, features work by 17 international poets, including Benjamin Zephaniah, Ben Okri, Imtiaz Dharker and Grace Nichols.
Three poems from Festival of Flight
Modern Slavery
Benjamin Zephaniah
Who says where who say when
who says stop to start again
who dictates where to go
moves you round to and fro,
you might work ina factory
de unemployed will never free
de situation look to me just like slavery,
modern slavery it mek you militant
modern slavery it mek you rave and rant
modern slavery you do not need tuition
to learn dad dis slave driving is done by television,
fight it bravely, modern slavery.
Every time you sign at the dole office
dem tax us and tek de money pay fe rockets
we pay fe wars their civilization is hig
some house have fifty bedrooms
some house is like pig sty,
and they have many millions and they give us
a share, health workers will riot to keep welfare,
and in high court de circle is complete,
de judge is a rapist and de jury is asleep,
you want to shout for justice but you cannot advertise,
starving faces on a poster don't make you any wise
to cover up hypocrisy they setting up a charity
they'll make a documentary, modern slavery,
slavery here we go again modern slavery
I want to see an end to modern slavery
hear it every time, sellout on de radio, check it out
here we go slavery, fight it fight it bravely.
Well if you try to fight it like Nicaragua dem say
you have a contact in Russia,
America have contact wid de Mafia but dem kill you
if you talk wid Cuba, see,
freedom of speech is a burning illusion and as
you work you die from pollution,
what I want see is a free Chile, until den I fight bravely.
Who says where who says when
who say stop to start again
who dictates where to go
moves you around to and fro,
some might slave in a factory
de unemployed are never free
dis is de documentary called
modern slavery.
Sugar Cane
Faustin Charles
The succulent flower bleeds molasses,
as its slender, sweet stalks bend,
beheaded in the breeze.
The green fields convulse golden sugar,
tossing the rain aside,
out-growing the sun,
and carving faces
in the sun-sliced panorama.
The reapers come at noon,
riding the cutlass-whip;
their saliva sweetens everything
in the boiling season.
Each stem is a flashing arrow,
swift in the harvest.
Cane is sweet sweat slain;
cane is labour, unrecognized, lost
and unrecovered;
sugar is the sweet swollen pain of the years;
sugar is slavery's immovable stain;
cane is water lying down,
and water standing up.
Cane is a slaver;
cane is bitter,
very bitter,
in the sweet blood of life.
Poems from the paths
Albina Kovaleva
The day will sleep
when we arise from that...
i know not which.
We found our souls cannot as yet be free.
The packaging, although so pleasing and wonderful to gaze on,
can but remain the shell
of the sleeping creature in it.
The forests are so far away
from this polluted city.
But we'll arrive, and we'll set up
Our arms will be so full of twigs,
and dropping one behind, we'll stumble
on a piece of birch
that lies by the oak's side,
You'll call out in despair - a roar of lions under lock.
Yet stay awhile and listen cat, to the song of the crackling flame.
The smoke may fill your eyes with tears,
do not forget that it is best,
as fire smoke does heal.
When we undress, I feel the stripping's not enough,
There is much more to be got rid of,
undoing, oh, so many bolts!
But when I fear no more that "I" of mine,
shall then the day be filled,
with a mouth that's open wide.
* * *
Peace on you, as sitting in your chair,
You bite a little more off truth.
You sit so near the fire,
and how you love the warmth!
Yet you're afraid to get too close
thinking you'll burn.
And in the mind the image plays, and then there comes a thought
that all you do is not complete.
You must let go of it.
Of it, of you, of incomplete,
Forget the blackness of it. Be.
For seeing dark breeds only dark,
you feed it with your fears.
Stop. See, its light and absolute
Trust in this love that you can feel.
Go forward to the light.
· Faustin Charles and Albina Kovaleva will be appearing at the launch party for Festival of Flight. Poets appearing on the night, alongside DJs, artists and musicians, include Sedek Vulcan, Parm Kaur, Abdul Malik, Marc Mathews, Niall McDevitt, Iggy Shark, Lennox Carty, John Crow with Michelle Watson, Naresh Jhali, James Richmond.
Festival of Flight is on February 25 at the Scala, King's Cross, London. Further information about the event and the book can be obtained from www.amiglobal.org
