What does it mean to live as women and girls in 21st Century Africa? In literary representations, many critics and women writers have in the past 10 to 15 years or so attempted to envision and represent the female person in a positive light. In fact in these representations, second and third generation African women writers like Buchi Emecheta, Ama Ata Aidoo, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Sefi Atta, Unoma Azuah and Sade Adeniran amongst others have used the figure of the girl-child as representative of change, change which begins at an early age. Despite these attempts of dispelling female subjugation and insignificance, there is a much darker, sinister side to these imaging where living as women and girls in 21st century Africa means occupying muted, voiceless, abused and enslaved spaces. In my interest of researching the evolving representations of African women in local and global spaces, this paper will discuss the lived experiences of African women who have been trafficked from and through Africa to other parts of the world such as Europe (Italy) and Asia (Malaysia). Through these narratives from actual survivors of modern (sex) slavery, we will listen to the ways in which African women (Ugandan, Nigerian) fall prey and become victims to transnational syndicates that mercilessly beat, rape and exploit them for sex purposes. Voiceless because of fear and stateless because they do not have any documentation, their stories tell us about the new ways in which women are being oppressed in Africa and beyond. However, through rescue agencies and their own self-determination, some of these women do attempt to forge new identities for themselves, displaying their ‘womanist’ strength and resilience, tenacity and the will to survive.