Junior Secondary School of Union(Kpeme) 8th December 2004.

Headmaster of Junior Secondary School of Union,
Headmasters of schools,
Dear members of the teaching profession,
Dear fellow Students,

With honour and fraternity feelings, I stand before you to discuss about the pain which undermines the blossoming of the young and especially that of our society, the modern slavery of children which is the main theme of my first novel revealing my biography. Before telling the real reasons which are on the base of my moving to kpeme, I would like you to allow my telling a memory. It concerns my coming in this school few years ago. Indeed I prepared and passed my high school graduation.
This success which allowed me to continue my studies had influence on my career of the writer I have finally choosed. I have the opportunity to express my gratefulness to all the teachers who are present here, for the quality of teachings they continue to achieve for the young despite the difficulties of the conditions in which they work. I have also the opportunity to pay homage to the headmaster of this Junior Secondary School of Union Mr. TOGBE who welcomes we people here. As a formal student of this school, I can give witness of the vigour and the seriousness which have always guided his action and his will to make his students, the future leaders of the country.
Here is also the opportunity to tell the fellow students that in order to become a leader of the future, they need to be good students during their training. As far as I am concerned, I was believing that it was enough to be half good and half poor, but at the present time, I realize that I would have become more than a writer if I had been thouroughly a good student. But I have to mention that it would have become worst if I hadn’t had the chance to go to school earlier.
It is unfortunately the situation of some fellow countrymen or of many other children of our developing countries who for their poorness, their situation of orphans, hadn’t had the chance to be trained. Without schooling I would not be here, I would look like that child who for her situation of orphans and without means for schooling, deluded herself on following a tradesman to Gabon for her blossoming. Victim of modern slavery she went back to her home country, traumatized and voiceless by the event of her adventure.
But it is a feeling of revolt that led me to my adventure. The constant and daily thoughts on the unhappy fate of this innocent victim added to the repetition of the phenomenon of children exploitation on different media woke up the skills of writers in some people. Thus I stand humbly before you as a writer to discuss about a theme which is on the base of the plot of my novel : “Journal d’une bonne”. Some of the fellow students and surely of the teaching profession have discovered it. This book is the embodiment of the bad feelings I have against this unhappy reality
What are the reasons of the choice of this theme of commitment ?
The exploitation of children is an odious and inhuman. When children are precociously employed in some activities whereby their life is in danger, the future of the country is crippled even cruelly cut down. Nowadays there are worst forms of the work of children :
- the slavery and hard labour ;
- exchanging children with servitude and debt,
- dangerous works,
- using children in illegal and vicious activities : prostitution, pornography and drug trafficking,
- domestic work of young girls maltreated in Togo and the situation of children as porters should appeal to the conscience of each of usFormerly, people were speaking of the exploitation of Blacks by white men. But nowadays, with the phenomenon of children’s labour, it is better to talk of the exploitation of human by human, for these children considered as humans, deserve rights universally recognizes ; and it became a word-wide phenomenon which concerns all the countries and all the areas. All kind of evil -natural disasters, economic crisis, AIDS pandemic, armed conflicts- have as effect to oblige an increasing number of young to do some kinds of work which are demoralizing, sometime illegal and secret. On word scale, more than 352 million from five to seventeen year-old children are assessed as workers and 48 millions in Africa especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
We know the causes of this pain :
Poverty, tradition, the fact that children are docile and they provide a manpower which is cheap, difficulties of sending children to school, discrimination against young girls, the vulnerability linked to family disintegration, conflicts and catastrophes.
On the initiative of International Labour Organization (ILO) and in the purpose to find a solution to this problem, two fundamental conventions have been signed on by a number of country among which there is Togo. There are :
- the convention N° 138 concerning the minimum of labour and employment age (1973)
- convention N°182 which aim at the abolishing of children labour (1999)

But all these conventions risk to remain useless if people don’t behave or act so as to achieve the agreement on which their government signed on.

According to me, the phenomenon is less dangerous than its drawbacks , for worst kinds of children labour deprive them of education and schooling. It is worth insisting on the need of a good schooling or education, for it leads not only to human emancipation but also to development. I have a personal experience, for the graduation I have got, allowed me to be an author of a novel. This offers me an opportunity to give my opinion about the phenomenon of modern slavery which is going on in our societies. So schooling is means to fight against this phenomenon.
What is actually the other message that I try to convey through my novel ?
- firstly, the exploitation of children is a dangerous case of human right violation
- secondly, this violation of human right has its origin in the family...

For long, it has been thought that the stopping of this phenomenon depends on the responsibilities of parents. Few result of this vision lead the actors of the fight to involve children themselves who are victims.
The ILO though the International Program of fight against children labour (IPEC)has started by extending in many areas the fight to stop children labour through their schooling. Among the actions and the solution which must be achieved is the sensitisation, which is the common point which involves our work. As literature, is not only written but also oral –evidence of oral literature in a long tradition of Africa- it is not surprising to see the author and the readers use oral when there are not copies available for pupils by back of means.
I would like you think about a theme which closes my message ; “acting individually against children exploitation.”
I should mention that the initiative taken by the teaching staff and their headmasters is aiming at this theme. I would like to thank Mr. TONSI who is the author of this initiative.

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