SEX SLAVERY AS DEHUMANISATION : A CONTEXTUAL APPRAISAL IN MARTIN BUBER’ S DIALOGIC APPROACH

Abstract

Sex slavery is an evil that denigrates the human person. It is a criminal form of enslavement which limits one’s autonomy, freedom of movement and power to decide matters relating to one’s sexual activity. Unfortunately, this apparent evil has become widespread especially in Nigeria and has reached an alarming rate. Despite modernization and technological advancements, this modern form of slavery has taken another dimension. This paper discusses sex slavery in Nigeria and seeks to demonstrate how it not only denies full humanness to others but is accompanied by cruelty and suffering; the human person is treated as less human and women, who are mostly affected by this evil, are stripped of their dignity. Martin Buber’s philosophy of interpersonal relationship as an approach to resolving the dehumanisation of the female gender is the essence of this paper. The fundamental fact of human existence is simply a person with another person, a man with a woman and a human being is a creature capable of entering into living essential relations with others. This paper attempts to show that Buber’s philosophy of dialogue serves as a means of resolving sex slavery in Nigeria and beyond. It requires the reorientation of the human mind in seeing the other person as a Thou instead of an It’ This paper, which is basically expository, descriptive and analytic, approaches this issue from an existential perspective using Buber’s philosophy in understanding the human person as relational for authentic human relationships.