Nottoway and Liberia: Two Sides of the Same Plantation Coin
A few days ago, Louisiana’s Nottoway Plantation—the largest surviving antebellum mansion in the American South—was destroyed by fire.
Built in 1859 by sugar planter John Hampden Randolph and constructed using the forced labor of over 150 enslaved people, the plantation was a symbol of wealth amassed through racial exploitation.
Its destruction, while tragic to some, struck others as a symbolic turning point: a physical remnant of slavery reduced to ashes. Yet, even as one plantation burned, another remained intact, thriving under a different name, on a different continent.
Far from the flames, a Bloomberg investigation revealed disturbing labor abuses on rubber plantations in Liberia operated by Socfin, a European agribusiness conglomerate with deep colonial roots and a vast global footprint. These modern plantations—complete with quotas, coercion, and systemic exploitation—bear an unsettling resemblance to the systems that built Nottoway.
The Socfin Empire: Global Footprint, Local Harm
Socfin (short for Société Financière des Caoutchoucs) was founded in 1909 and today operates more than 400,000 hectares (nearly 1 million acres) of rubber and palm oil plantations across West Africa and Southeast Asia. Its operations span Liberia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Cambodia, among other countries.
The company is majority-owned by Belgian businessman Hubert Fabri, with partial ownership by Vincent Bolloré, a French billionaire known for his influence over African logistics and media infrastructure.
In Liberia, Socfin owns and operates two major concessions:
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Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) – Covering around 35,000 hectares, with multiple reports of forced displacement, land grabbing, and labor violations.
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Liberian Agricultural Company (LAC) – A rubber concession covering over 120,000 acres, historically acquired during Liberia’s civil conflict and later privatized.
Bloomberg’s investigation uncovered credible allegations of:
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Sexual coercion and abuse of female workers by supervisors in exchange for job security.
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Child labor, with children helping parents meet daily production quotas.
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Hazardous working conditions, including long hours and inadequate protective equipment.
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Land rights violations, with communities displaced without consultation or fair compensation.
Although Socfin promotes sustainability and compliance with international standards, local reports and international human rights groups—including FIAN Belgium and Bread for All—have documented persistent abuses and opaque grievance mechanisms.
The Plantation Model, Repackaged
What Bloomberg reveals is not a breakdown in corporate oversight, but the continuation of a global plantation system—one in which African land and labor are still extracted for foreign gain. While Nottoway’s grandeur was once built on the backs of enslaved Africans, today’s rubber industry profits from similarly exploitative conditions, hidden behind the complexity of global supply chains.
The rubber tapped in Liberia often ends up in automobile tires, surgical gloves, industrial products, and consumer goods around the world. And while the corporations benefiting from these materials tout sustainability goals, workers in Liberia are often left impoverished and voiceless.
The Real Reckoning
The burning of Nottoway may signal the fall of a symbol, but true reckoning requires us to confront what still survives—not just in architecture or memory, but in how the global economy continues to function.
From the American South to West Africa, the plantation economy has not ended—it has evolved. The names have changed. The structures have modernized. But the core remains: land, labor, and wealth extraction.
If the world is serious about confronting historical injustice, it must also dismantle the systems that allow it to persist today. That starts with transparency, accountability, and solidarity with the workers and communities still living under modern plantation regimes.
by Tony O. Lawson
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The post Nottoway and Liberia: Two Sides of the Same Plantation Coin appeared first on SHOPPE BLACK.
