Introduction

The stories from the community about modern slavery are presented here in a variety of formats. As this research is destined to extend beyond its funded time limit, so too the stories are likely to develop their own sense of fluidity. All story content has been collected with and through the community networks (formal and informal) of South Kamagambo in Migori County.

Process

Originally, our plans were to extend beyond these boundaries to investigate the locations of Migori County in general. Staff changes, a road traffic accident involving the PI leading to 4 major operations, together with the COVID19 pandemic lockdowns and social distancing regulations required us to shift our focus and drill down to investigate modern slavery at a more micro level – that of individuals, family and community. In a way, whilst these drawbacks created their own stories and definitely created barriers to our research, they also opend up possibilities that we had not previously considered, i.e., to study modern slavery – mainly child labour and early marriage through community lenses at the micro level of society.

Eliciting and collecting these stories has not been without its challenges, Needless to say many of those who expressed a willingness to share the stories of their experiences with us felt exposed and vulnerable in doing so, especially on camera. This frequently resulted in story sharers either not tutrning up, or being unable to express themselves in a meaningful way. Whilst frustrating for us as researchers, it is totally understandable and we never once sought to press people into telling their stories.

Content

The stories that we have been able to collect come in a variety of forms and formats. This divesrity is reflected in the outputs of our participatory community research collaborations. These outputs, some of which can be seen elsewhere in the project blog, are archived here collectively in order to give those, who need it, the opportunity to engage with the community media artefacts in one location. They are arranged in the following 6 categories.

Experiences of early marriage and Child Labour

A 3 part documentary which presents the experiences and reflections of 3 community groupings with first hand experience of dealing with child labour and early marriage.  The groups comprise the local Chief’s Barazza with the local Elders; Community Health Workers; and a group of survivors of early marriage who share their personal experienes and reflect on why early marriage is a ‘miserable life’.

You are a slave not a wife. It is because you are young and he is older than you.

Reflections from the chief

The documentary above includes a shortened version of an interview with the Assistant Area Chief – David Onyango. This interview is presented here in its entirity separately. David reflects critically on areas relating to modern slavery that he, the village elders, the community health workers and others have had to deal with. He also provides insights into why such things happen, citing examples along the way to illustrate his thinking and experiences.

Village Survivors share stories of modern slavery

In this section 18 stories of modern slavery told by local survivors/victims are shared. The main focii are on child labour and early marriage but there are also 2 stories relating to experiences of landlessness; 2 relating to FGM and 1 relating to human trafficking.

Community Media-based participatory research – the podcast series

A series of podcasts in which researchers and practitioners explain and reflect on the capacity and capability building approaches of this project’s methodology and its application throughout the project lifecycle.

Radio programmes and jingles

Examining community experiences and reflections on both child labour and early marriage, these programmes cover the same ground as the documentary but have been produced for dissemination on local radio for awareness raising and advocacy purposes. For this reason they are in the Dho Luo language of the local people, as are the jingles that accompany the programmes.

Community voices of modern slavery from the Arts

This section is currently under resourced. The pandemic severely restricted our ability to work with the local schools who had agreed to produce songs, poems, plays and dance as part of the inclusion of the study of modern slavery into their curriculum. These were to be included in the participatory community exhibition of our work as part of our collaboration. This has been postponed due to the Kenyan government’s lockdown regulations.

Migori County is currently one of several areas under the greatest threat from the pandemic and evening/night-time curfew hours have been extended. The research partnership will continue with the research (unfunded if necessary) in the guise of Community Media 4 Kenya (CM4K). Outputs from the exhibition will eventually be posted here, although it is too soon to judge when this will be. These few offerings are an indication of how this section of the project’s work was evolving.