Senegal's national assembly has adopted a bill declaring slavery and the slave trade crimes against humanity, moving closer to becoming the first African nation to pass such legislation, government said on Wednesday.

"Members of parliament voted on the text on Tuesday," said justice ministry spokesman Cheikh Bamba Niang.

The bill must still be approved by the Senate before being signed into law by President Abdoulaye Wade. The two houses of parliament are largely dominated by the presidential majority.

He said the law was about "a duty to remember. It is a judicial response to a historical, distant fact. To show the magnitude and the horror and its dramatic consequences on Africa."

The bill also provides for an annual day of commemoration on April 27 "corresponding with the date of the abolition of the slave trade in the French colonies, April 27, 1848, at the initiative of Victor Schoelcher," a French humanitarian who dedicated his life to the abolition of slavery.

In addition, it stipulates that "school programs must, notably in history studies, include this question and reserve sufficient space for it so that our children can understand what happened and the consequences of the slave trade on the evolution of Africa."

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Source: AFP