Nigeria’s Mass Weddings: The Exploitation of Vulnerable Girls

Government-backed mass weddings in northern Nigeria are drawing intense scrutiny after viral videos exposed ceremonies pairing vulnerable women, teenagers, and orphans with significantly older men. According to news reports, the Kano State Government hosted a ceremony on August 7 and 8 uniting 1,500 couples at a reported cost of 1.5 billion naira, or roughly $US1.1 … Read more

Blackbirding: How a Dark Map Rewrites Australian History

Between 1863 and 1904, an estimated 60,000 Pacific Islanders were coerced, kidnapped, or tricked into hard labor on Queensland plantations in a practice known as “blackbirding,” according to author Ryan Butta in his book Blackbirding: A Reckoning with the Australian Slave Trade. Approximately 15,000 of these workers died on Australian soil—a 25 percent mortality rate—driven … Read more