first aid kits or protective clothing. Most never see their families again.
They have never tasted chocolate and most of them do not even know what chocolate is. They sleep on wooden planks and live in unclean, disgusting huts, only allowed out to work. The only toilet they have is a bucket. Their work is hard, and they sometimes die from it. If they fall down while carrying the big sacks of cocoa beans, then they are beaten with bicycle chains or sticks until they get up.
“ The beatings were a part of my life,” a freed slave told reporters.“ Anytime they loaded you with bags of cocoa beans and you fell while carrying them, nobody helped you. Instead they beat you and beat you until you picked it up again.”
1.4 Effects on children
Sometimes slaveholders control their slaves not only with violence, but also with psychological terror: they tell the slaves a tale that they are under a magic spell, and that if they try to run away they will be paralysed. Some still dare to run away. Once recaptured, as they almost always are, the runaways are stripped of their clothes, their hands tied behind their backs, and then viciously whipped over several days with the farmer repeatedly demanding an answer to the impossible question, ʺHow did you break my spell? ʺ Some boys do not survive; those that do are put back to work as soon as they can walk. If their wounds become infected, they can expect no help from their captors, as the captors do not value them.
The brutality, isolation, hunger and exhaustion often break the spirits of children. Those very few that survive, and are rescued or escape, bear the scars in their hearts, as well as on their bodies, for years and years. They can also become emotionally isolated. Even after they are no longer in slavery, the children are more fearful of other people and less confident of themselves. They also have trouble readjusting to their families.
7
Life is not a piece of cake – especially for the slaves.