STUDENTS from Preston have jetted off to Africa to perform a play they have written about slavery.

Teenagers from the Garstang area aim to explore the issues of the Atlantic slave trade as part of the Fair Trade/Slave Trade project, organised by the Garstang Go Global coalition.

The group is made up of people from the Garstang Oxfam Group, Lancashire County Council Youth and Community Service, Garstang High School and Lancashire Global Education.

It aims to promotes issues of world poverty in a country where slavery and unfair trading is rife.

The 16 students have written and directed the play Hidden Brutality to perform to audiences in Ghana. And as members of the theatre group Mission they will compare the issues of slavery with the present Fair Trade system.

Their stay will also involve trips to forts along Ghana's coast and the cocoa farms run by the Kuapa Kokoo farming co-operative, part owners of the country's Day Chocolate Company, an industry dominated by slave trade practices.

On their return to the UK, the students will revise the play in light of their experiences before putting on a local performance which mirrors the lives of many people in under-developed countries.

Brian Crowther, co-ordinator of the Oxfam Group, said: "We believe we can learn from the successful campaign to abolish the slave trade when looking at ways to campaign on fair trade and expose the injustices of the present trading system.

"People like us say that human beings should not be allowed to suffer to provide us with luxuries like sugar, chocolate, coffee and tea at an affordable price.

"This comes at a time when the eyes of the world are focused on slavery so often used to produce cocoa for our chocolate today."

Bruce added: "The fair trade campaign exposes the fact that the people in Africa working for the chocolate industry are still suffering because they do not get a fair price for their produce."