The Executive Director of Challenging Heights, James Kofi Annan, has delivered a harrowing first-hand account of child trafficking on Lake Volta, revealing how he was taken from his family at just six years old and forced into years of brutal labour that nearly cost him his life.

Speaking on Joy FM's Personality Profile on Thursday, April 23, Mr Annan recounted a childhood marked not by school or play but by exploitation, danger and survival in one of Ghana’s most notorious trafficking corridors.

“Eight out of 10 children” in his community, he said, were sent to the lake, often with the consent of parents who received money in exchange. “It was so popular that parents were just giving their children out and taking money, like virtually selling them to go and work.”

Mr Annan described how he was moved across nearly 20 fishing communities, working under 15 different masters over seven years. His duties were relentless and dangerous, paddling canoes, casting and pulling nets, mending equipment, and diving underwater to retrieve trapped fishing gear.

The most perilous task, he explained, involved diving into submerged forests beneath the lake, remnants of trees flooded during its creation in the 1960s.

“If the child dies, there’s no news,” he stated bluntly, describing how children were routinely sent underwater to free expensive nets entangled in hidden tree trunks.

The consequences were often fatal.

“The day I was trafficked, we were trafficked together. Three of us survived. The other three did not survive… and all the three that did not survive were as a result of the diving.”

Long hours, no mercy

According to Mr Annan, children worked under extreme conditions, sometimes up to 17 hours a day.

“Yes, 17 hours a day, even more,” he said. “There were times that you would go to work at dawn, around 3 am, and continue working… they would bring you food whilst you were working.”

He added that there was no access to healthcare or education in the remote lake communities.

“At the age of 13, I didn’t know how to write A, B, C, D or 1, 2, 3,” he revealed. “There was no school at all.”

A narrow escape

His eventual escape came by chance, triggered by a funeral within his religious community. His mother spent weeks searching for him before locating him on the lake.

During the funeral, she seized the moment.

“She said, ‘Have you seen the truck that is there? They were going to Winneba. So I want you to go with them.’ So I joined and that was it,” he recounted.

Before that moment, multiple escape attempts had failed.

“Even though I tried to escape so many times, I was caught [and] beaten… just like any other child who tried to escape.”

A crisis that persists

Despite years of advocacy, Mr Annan warned that child trafficking on the lake has not been eradicated.

“They are still trafficked anyway… they still do the same work,” he said, noting that while working hours may have slightly reduced, the core exploitation remains.

His story highlights a continuing national challenge being pursued by organisations like Challenging Heights, working to confront the issues through rescue operations, education and rehabilitation programmes.

From a childhood stolen on the waters of Lake Volta to becoming a leading voice against child exploitation, Mr Annan’s journey is both a testament to resilience and a stark reminder of the work still to be done.