Faces from Darfur

A single face—sometimes that’s all it takes. Sometimes we get so lost in all the numbers and the statistics that we forget we are actually hearing about real situations, real people and real lives.

We have all heard about the atrocities that have occurred, and are still occurring in Sudan; the innocent lives lost, women and children raped, civilians misplaced from their homes, and even children abducted into slavery.

But how much are we actually concerned with these people suffering half-way around the world? Sure, we can donate $10 here and $20 there. Maybe we could even spare a couple hours to help raise funds for Save Darfur or Amnesty International, or write petitions to our congressmen and women to take action. But until we really see the people who are suffering, until we actually hear their personal stories and the suffering they have individually encountered, the problems in Sudan will remain just that—in Sudan. It takes a face and a person to bring these problems home.

After reading Slave: My True Story by Mende Nazer and Damien Lewis, and Escape from Slavery by Francis Bok, I was completely blown away by their experiences. I had always been interested in the Sudan genocide and the slavery that was occurring, but the complete devastation of the whole situation never really clicked in my mind until reading their stories.

Although Nazer and Bok’s enslavement mainly took place during the ’90s, similar situations are still occurring today in the Darfur region. Also, some slaves abducted at the same time as Nazer and Bok still remain in bondage today.

First meet Nazer from the Nuba tribe of south Sudan’s Nuba Mountains. After 12 peaceful years of childhood, her family awoke one night to Arab raiders burning their village and killing their fellow people. Nazer was separated from her family among the panic and terror, and was forced by an Arab to join 30 other Nuba children in the forest. One boy told her how the raiders slit his mother’s throat and then killed his twin baby sisters in front of him, just before they dragged him away.

During the raid, Nazer saw Arabs pin down Nuba women and girls, and rip off their clothes. In her autobiography she said, “Thinking back on this now, if the guards had just raped me that night and left me behind in the forest, that would have been a good thing compared to what really happened to me.”

The men on horseback took Nazer and the other children away and began to sexually molest and assault them. “He [the horseman] started to force my legs apart. Each time I tried to push them together again, he hit me hard around the face…I felt my flesh tearing…” Nazer said.
Many of the other Nuba girls had also been raped and were in more pain than Nazer was. She had learned Arabic in school and could understand the men laughing with one another and saying, “I enjoyed it so much. I wish it could go on for ever and ever!”

Nazer was sold as a domestic servant to a woman in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. She slept very little and was in charge of caring for the woman’s children, cleaning the entire house daily, cooking all the meals, and doing the dishes and the laundry by hand. The woman called her, “Yebit,” an Arabic insult that translates to “girl worthy of no name.” When Nazer accidentally broke a vase while dusting, her master slapped her and exclaimed, “This one vase is worth more than your whole filthy tribe!”

Nazer’s master beat her many more times for other small infractions, and often for no reason at all. One time after making a mistake, her master began screaming at her and punched her so hard that she fell back and deeply cut her leg on the corner of a table. Nazer had to be taken to the hospital, where her master told her to lie and say she was a servant and was being paid for her work.

Nazer was Muslim, like her master, but she was found praying, her master said, “So, now you’re trying to copy us, are you? Do you really think prayers are for people like you?” After that incident, her master would always try to prevent her from praying and would tell her that Islam wasn’t for black people.

“After all those years, [my master] had completely destroyed my sense of my own identity and my own self-worth. I believed that I was no longer valuable as a human being. I believed that I didn’t deserve to be paid for my work. I lived in a state of complete terror of her. And I was still only a child. To rebel against the woman whom I called ‘master’ and who called me ‘slave’ had become unthinkable,” Nazer said.

Eventually though, Nazer was sent to work for her master’s sister in London and was able to escape with the help of another Nuba there. She is one of the fortunate few south Sudanese that has escaped and can tell her story of slavery.

The second author who gives a face to Sudanese slavery is Bok. His story begins similarly. He had a peaceful childhood growing up in a Dinka village about 60 miles from the river separating northern and southern Sudan.

At seven years old, he and some friends were abducted during a raid at a nearby market. The Arab raiders killed every Dinka man and captured the women and children. The children were loaded on a donkey carrier and scared to silence, except for two sisters who were crying incessantly. A militiaman tried to shake one to silence and when she just cried harder, he shot her in the head. After that, the other sister began to cry harder and another militiaman sliced off her leg with a sword. Bok said, “A large fear sat on top of us with so much weight that we were unable to utter even a sound.”

One of the raiders took Bok home, where the raider’s children began dancing around Bok, beating him with sticks and chanting, “abeed, abeed!” (slave). Eventually, Bok herded 200 goats and sheep every day for his master. If he ever complained, his master would threaten to chop off his legs, which had happened to another young local Dinka slave.

Bok’s master forced him to become Muslim, made him say prayers with the family, and gave him a new name. Although most of the time, his master called him, “jedut,” which Bok later learned means maggot.

One day Bok asked his master, “Why does no one love me?” and “Why do you make me sleep with the animals?” His master beat him, yelled at him and replied, “Because you are an animal.”

After 10 years of slavery and two unsuccessful escape attempts, Bok prepared for one last try. In his book he said, “If someone caught me, I vowed to tell them to kill me. I would fight them to make sure they killed me, because I could not be a slave again. And if they didn’t kill me, I would kill myself. I refused to live as a slave any longer.”

Finally, he escaped successfully to Matari, the largest town in the area, where he went to the local police. Instead of receiving help after his 10-year enslavement, the Matari police made Bok their own slave until he escaped again, a few months later.

This time Bok ended up in Jabarona, a refugee camp in Khartoum, where he was arrested 11 days after arrival because the police said, “You have been saying you are an escaped slave; making antigovernment statements.” The Arab raiders who had abducted Bok had been supported by the Sudan government.

After seven months of imprisonment, Bok was released after an official met with him and said, “You will not say bad things about the government again.”

After escaping his first enslavement of 10 years, escaping his enslavement from the local police and suffering through imprisonment and torture for speaking about his enslavement, Bok finally made it to freedom. He now works for the American Anti-Slavery Group in Boston and has literally become a face for the anti-slave movement in Sudan.

Nazer and Bok represent two of the thousands of children and innocent people who have been abducted into slavery in Sudan, and the many who are still being abducted in Darfur. However horrible Nazer and Bok’s stories may be, they are actually the lucky ones—they got out.

Their autobiographies help to shine a light on the slavery problem in Sudan by allowing people like us—sitting comfortably and freely in our own homes or college dorms half-way around the world—to realize and understand the severity of the problem and the lives that are being torn apart.

I have only covered a minimal part of Nazer and Bok’s incredible stories. There are a lot of political circumstances surrounding each of their escapes to freedom that are not mentioned here, but are definitely worth reading about.

With winter break quickly approaching, I urge you to add both of these books to the top of your reading list. They will make you weep of despair, scream of frustration, cry for justice, and most importantly think of the faces beyond the numbers. •

Human trafficking and the new slave trade

Everyone knows that slavery ended in 1865 with the Emancipation Proclamation, right?

Well not quite. The proclamation did end visible slavery in the United States, but according to the American Anti-Slavery Group, there are presently more people enslaved worldwide than at any other point in history. The world’s leading expert on contemporary slavery, Dr. Kevin Bales, conservatively estimates that in 2000 there was a total of 27 million people still held in bondage.

Modern Slavery has developed many new forms and ways to entrap the lowest people of our global society into the slave market. People, especially third-world women and children, are often trafficked either by force or by false promises of well-paying jobs and education.

The United Nations estimates that annually two million people worldwide are become enslaved through being illegally trafficked across borders.

Human trafficking and modern slavery affect every continent in the world, except Antarctica. Even in our own nation, “The Home of the Free”, the US government estimates that between 18,000 and 20,000 people are trafficked into America each year.

Today, slavery is the world’s third largest crime and by 2010, it will supposedly become number one, according to the American Anti-Slavery Group. It is currently surpassed only by the illegal selling of drugs and firearms.

So why is this occurring? How can slavery and human trafficking be on the rise in the modern world of 2006?
Well, the enormous increase of world population post-WWII has been one leading factor of the new slave trade, said Dr. Bales. The present rapid social and economic changes and globalization have created circumstances allowing new slavery to exist.

Almost all of the people currently trafficked and enslaved are victims of third world poverty, such as the child carpet slaves of India, the young female sexual brothel slaves of Thailand, the West African diamond mine slaves, the African children abducted into slavery in war-torn areas such as Sudan, the Brazilians living in slums who are trafficked into slavery with promises of good wages and conditions, and the West African and Caribbean children trafficked into Europe and the United States to work as domestic slaves, just to name a few.

If this is such a significant problem stretching across each continent and almost every nation, then why is more not being done to end it?

Well, there are actually many Non-Profit Organizations working to help research, educate and eradicate the modern slave trade and the trafficking of people. However, they are not going to be able to impact the world alone.

That is where we, as citizens of the richest, most capable, most powerful nation in the world can make a difference. The first step to ending these modern atrocities is to simply get informed, get educated, and begin talking about it.

A good place to start would be with Dr. Bales’ book, “Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy,” which discusses the issues surrounding the problem.

“Politicians and leaders of corporations need to take an interest because they have a lot of influence on the subject,” said Merv Schaffeder, co-director of the Canadian anti-slavery group Freedom Quest International.

The American Anti-Slavery Group’s website, www.iabolish.com, and Dr. Bales’ organization, “Free the Slaves” website, www.freetheslaves.org, both provide petitions and letters that can be electronically sent to US government officials to encourage action against trafficking and slavery.

“Right now there is no political action demanded,” said Tommy Calvert of the American Anti-Slavery Group. “Modern slavery needs to become a national presidency concern. If we concentrate on the problem, it can be defeated within our lifetime.”

As free Americans we need to use our position not to continue ignoring the problem, but to help start fighting against it. Get informed and help make other people aware of the problem, so we can come together to make a difference.

The famous abolitionist Frederick Douglas once said, “Man’s greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done.” And according to the 27 million people who are being affected by the present slave trade, things are needed to be done. •

Tracy Fehr is a columnist for the InterActivist.

The silence on Sudan

by Tracy Fehr

In American society today our media controls not only what we see as a nation, but also our reality of the world. If something occurs and is not covered in the mainstream media then for most Americans the event never happened. This is why the silent role the media has played in the Sudan genocide and in the current Darfur conflict is so paramount.

South Sudanese villages are raided by the northern militia—which is supported by the Sudanese government—because of the “Jihad” or Holy War of the northern Arabs.

In 2005 Amnesty International said that over the past 21 years of fighting in Sudan, an estimated 2 million people have died and 6 million have been displaced from their homes. In addition, thousands of women have been raped and thousands of children have been abducted in the south and taken north to be sold into slavery.

“There is perhaps no greater tragedy on the face of the Earth today than the tragedy that is unfolding in Sudan”, said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to the House International Relations Committee in 2001. Although even at that point the tragedy had already been unfolding for some time. Our own president referred to the situation in Sudan as“genocide”, and the United Nations have called the Sudan bloodshed, “the Worst Humanitarian Conflict on Earth”.

So if Sudan is such a major crisis, then we have to wonder why do we not see it covered more in the media? Well, some could argue the recent lack of coverage is due to the Comprehensive Peace Accord—signed on January 9, 2005, to establish peace in south Sudan—but it’s not. Although this agreement helps to try to secure peace is one area, the rest of Sudan is still suffering. According to the UN News Service, the Darfur region of Sudan is experiencing attacks which have killed 180,000 people and displaced 2 million since that area’s fighting began in 2003.

The Sudanese government has gotten away with supporting militia against their own people for as long as the conflicts have been occurring in south Sudan and Darfur. Recently, the Sudanese government has made it increasingly difficult to obtain a visa for Sudan and has added difficulties for journalists once they arrive in the country. “Those reporters awarded visas are required to get permission to travel to Darfur, and once they get them, must be accompanied there by a government escort. Even then, soldiers can limit access to pillaged villages or displacement camps,” said Kenneth H. Bacon, President of Refugees International.

“There is such a small group of us [journalists] covering it [Sudan]. When we don’t go in, it means Americans don’t see what’s happening here,” said Washington Post reporter Emily Wax during an interview with Sherry Ricchiardi of American Journalism Review.

“The war in Sudan may be ‘invisible’ to Americans and others in the world, but to us south Sudanese it is a constant and painful experience,” said Francis Bok author of Escape from Slavery. Bok is a former slave who was abducted into slavery at the age of seven, when his south Sudanese village was raided by the north government-backed militia.

Although the Washington Post and the New York Times have slowly been setting the precedent for increased Sudan coverage, the television news remains drastically behind. In the year 2004, the three nightly newscasters—ABC, NBC and CBS—aired an insufficient 26 minutes on the Darfur and Sudan crisis. A television news analysis conducted by the American Progress Action Fund studied the amount of collective coverage Sudan received during the month of June 2005 on the ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC networks. Sudan’s coverage was 12 times less than the collective coverage on Tom Cruise and 50 times less than the coverage on Michael Jackson.

Placing more priority on celebrities’ lives than on an international crisis affecting millions of lives is an injustice not only to the people of Sudan, but also to the viewing public of America. It is time for the American public to speak out against the increasing celebrity and domesticated media and to demand appropriate coverage for the most significant news stories—especially regarding Sudan. The mainstream media will only continue to ignore international conflicts and sensationalize domestic stories and celebrities as long as its viewers allow it to.

According to Harvard Research Fellow, Ethan Zuckerman, more press coverage on an international conflict leads to more public awareness on the issue and more pressure on the government to act. Thus, the amount of media attention an international conflict receives is positively correlated to the likeliness of peacekeepers and aid being sent.

Perhaps the seriousness of the incredible lack of coverage on Sudan can be summed up in a quote by Rabbi Irving Greenburg, chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, in a Washington Post opinion editorial: “…the horror that afflicts Sudan is staggering…Remembering of the Holocaust has instilled in us a profound appreciation for the cost of silence.”

At this point of the Sudan struggle, we can only hope to cut that cost of silence and finally bring a voice to Sudan.