The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record
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- Start date
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
Editors: David Eltis (Queen's University) and G. Ugo Nwokeji (University of Connecticut)
Between the summer of 1993 and the autumn of 1997, a team of scholars centered at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research created a data set of detailed information on 27,227 transatlantic slave trading voyages that occurred between 1650 and 1867. Under the direction of Barbara Solow (Boston University) and David Eltis (Queen's University) and with the collaboration of Stephen D. Behrendt and David Richardson, the work of this team resulted in the largest uniform, consolidated database of its kind in the world. The authors estimate that the assembled data cover at least two-thirds of the slaving voyages that ever sailed. The data detail not only basic demographic characteristics of the African slaves' mortality, age, and gender but also precise information on crew membership, conditions on slave ships, duration of voyages, the nature of slave resistance, business organization of slave traders, and the age and physical characteristics of vessels. Cambridge University Press published a CD-ROM comprising the totality of these data and maps in 1999.
A new phase of this research focuses on measuring the composition of African groups forced into the New World between 1819 and 1850, after the abolition of slavery by Great Britain and the United States in 1807. During those years, naval cruisers intercepted slave ships off the coast of Africa and liberated the captives on board. Before doing so, however, records were made by commissions in Sierra Leone, Capetown, Liberia, Rio de Janeiro, Havana, and St. Helena indicating the name, age, place of habitation, height, gender, and obvious cicatrisation of each captured individual. With field work and the considerable help of Africa-based scholars in several disciplines, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database Project expects, in this new phase, to be able to provide hard evidence of the African origins of the transatlantic slave trade and to extract from anonymity thousands of Africans who were captured and shipped into slavery.
The project directors are now working to make the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database as part of an open-access web site. Their goal is to create a dual-tier interface to accommodate a range of aptitudes for the internet, and, in addition to the open access feature, it offers the novel prospect of being constantly up to date in perpetuity
Link: http://dubois.fas.harvard.edu/research_projects/trans_atlantic_slave_trade_database.html
Take a look around the site, there is some other interesting info.........
Peace.
you gotta remember that the white wasnt responsible for slavery Africans helped them sell us too[/QUOTE]
mufuckas don't wanna talk about that shit.damn near all them pics I looked at from the link above had blacks enslavin other blacks....I'm sorry I can;t stereotype every white person to be evil and racist...Give a mufucka enough time and his true colors will reveal....as long as we hate the white man has won....hate turns your heart cold and makes you unable to love...we can't and don't even love ourselves....six homocides in my city this year and they all was black on black...but lets keep blamin the white man...as far as the halocost them folks suffered,cant take nothin from em.I don't think they suffered like slavery but they never forgot that shit and still came together and got money....we don't want to see anyone else black doing good....lost
this aint self hate this reality nigga....
mufuckas don't wanna talk about that shit.damn near all them pics I looked at from the link above had blacks enslavin other blacks....I'm sorry I can;t stereotype every white person to be evil and racist...Give a mufucka enough time and his true colors will reveal....as long as we hate the white man has won....hate turns your heart cold and makes you unable to love...we can't and don't even love ourselves....six homocides in my city this year and they all was black on black...but lets keep blamin the white man...as far as the halocost them folks suffered,cant take nothin from em.I don't think they suffered like slavery but they never forgot that shit and still came together and got money....we don't want to see anyone else black doing good....lost
this aint self hate this reality nigga....
wedrinkandscrew said:
mufuckas don't wanna talk about that shit.damn near all them pics I looked at from the link above had blacks enslavin other blacks....I'm sorry I can;t stereotype every white person to be evil and racist...Give a mufucka enough time and his true colors will reveal....as long as we hate the white man has won....hate turns your heart cold and makes you unable to love...we can't and don't even love ourselves....six homocides in my city this year and they all was black on black...but lets keep blamin the white man...as far as the halocost them folks suffered,cant take nothin from em.I don't think they suffered like slavery but they never forgot that shit and still came together and got money....we don't want to see anyone else black doing good....lost
this aint self hate this reality nigga....[/QUOTE]Put down the liquor.
You are having a back and forth discussion with your self, maybe still working out opinions.....
Bump for the rest..
.
Nice nice thread, up till now this is still good shit
For other reading:
The Mis-education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson
For other reading:
The Mis-education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson
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B
blackcity
Guest
KAYANATION you understandably have a lot of disposable energy but just one thing is not so clear to me;kayanation said:
are you being wary of the caucasian because it is a personal issue for you - your ancestors were slaves
or
do you just hate the whole slavery idea period!
reason i asked is that to me you dont seem to realize, an iota, that slavery still goes on in africa to this day... by the fcukin' arabs
they kill the men, rape the women, take the children as slaves and then shout "allah akbar"
..........fcukin' sons of bicthes through and through so i wonder that had it been the arabs that had taken your ancestors would you have hated them just equally
because i think that we cannot just isolate the trans-atlantic slave trade as if its the absolute worst thing that ever happened
long after the whites have left the arabs have got the fcukin' guts to carry on and everyone turns a blind eye to them
the whites were civilized........ they were also opportunists... they're not the enemy or the devil as such
the real enemy is most definitely the arabs
B
blackcity
Guest
theres a lot more but you can start from here...kayanation said:
From the Jacket
A shocking true story of contemporary slavery: a young girl, snatched from her tribal village in Africa, survives enslavement in Sudan and London before making a courageous escape to freedom.
Mende Nazer lost her childhood at age twelve, when she was sold into slavery. It all began one horrific night in 1993, when Arab raiders swept through her Nuba village, murdering the adults and rounding up thirty-one children, including Mende.
She was sold to a wealthy Arab family who lived in Sudan's capital city, Khartoum. So began her dark years of enslavement. Her Arab owners called her "Yebit," or "black slave." She called them "master." She was subjected to appalling physical, sexual, and mental abuse. She slept in a shed and ate the family leftovers like a dog. She had no rights, no freedom, and no life of her own.
Normally, Mende's story never would have come to light. But seven years after she was seized and sold into slavery, she was sent to work for another master--a diplomat working in the United Kingdom. In London, she managed to make contact with other Sudanese, who took pity on her. In September 2000, she made a dramatic break for freedom.
Slave is a story almost beyond belief. It depicts the strength and dignity of the Nuba tribe. It recounts the savage way in which the Nuba and their ancient culture are being destroyed by a secret modern-day trade in slaves. Most of all, it is a remarkable testimony to one young woman's unbreakable spirit and tremendous courage.
Media Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
.. Nazer heart-wrenchingly describes the ragged unpredictability of beatings, the crowding thoughts of home, the repulsive food, and the drear of daily toil. Sent to London to work for her mistress's sister, the wife of a Sudanese diplomat, Nazer manages to contact a fellow Nuban who helps her to escape and gets her a lawyer... Revelatory in the truest sense of the word told with a child-pure candor that comes like a bucket of cold water in the lap.
Publishers Weekly
... a straightforward, harrowing memoir that's a sobering reminder that slavery still needs to be stamped out [and] a profound meditation on the human ability to survive virtually any circumstances.
Booklist - Hazel Rochman
Starred Review. The shock of this title is that it refers to what is happening right now, in Sudan, Africa, and also in the West. [This is] a clear, compelling, first-person narrative that conveys her young voice with powerful authenticity. Her memories of childhood in her Nuba village are idyllic. The details are unforgettable, capturing both the innocence of the child and the world-weariness of one who has endured the worst.
Denver Post
Nazer tells her story of individual dignity combined with uncommon courage.
Waris Dirie, author of Desert Flower
By telling her story, Mende has managed to shed much needed light to the plight of the rest of our African sisters and throughout it all, her strength and beauty never fade.
Norma Khouri, author of Honor Lost Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan
An eye-opening account of the atrocities that can and do happen when one nationality believes it is superior to another, and an unforgettable plea for all people of all nations to focus on the importance of human rights and to understand that we are all equal, all part of one human race, and therefore should all be treated equally.
Libby Manthey, Riverwalk Books Limited, Chelan, WA
Slave retells the story of Mende Nazer, captured in 1993 at age 12 in southern Sudan and taken to Khartoum to work as a house slave. As you read about Nazer's enslavement and her eventual run to freedom in September 2000, you will weep, rage, and shout for justice. I couldn't put it down.
B
blackcity
Guest
some more reviews...
From Publishers Weekly
Born into the Karko tribe in the Nuba mountains of northern Sudan, Nazer has written a straightforward, harrowing memoir that's a sobering reminder that slavery still needs to be stamped out. The first, substantial section of the book concentrates on Nazer's idyllic childhood, made all the more poignant for the misery readers know is to come. Nazer is presented as intelligent and headstrong, and her people as peaceful, generous and kind.
In 1994, around age 12 (the Nuba do not keep birth records), Nazer was snatched by Arab raiders, raped and shipped to the nation's capital, Khartoum, where she was installed as a maid for a wealthy suburban family. (For readers expecting her fate to include a grimy factory or barren field, the domesticity of her prison comes as a shock.)To Nazer, the modern landscape of Khartoum could not possibly have been more alien; after all, she had never seen even a spoon, a mirror or a sink, much less a telephone or television set.
Nazer's urbane tormentors-mostly the pampered housewife-beat her frequently and dehumanized her in dozens of ways. They were affluent, petty and calculatedly cruel, all in the name of "keeping up appearances." The contrast between Nazer's pleasant but "primitive" early life and the horrors she experienced in Khartoum could hardly be more stark; it's an object lesson in the sometimes dehumanizing power of progress and creature comforts. After seven years, Nazer was sent to work in the U.K., where she contacted other Sudanese and eventually escaped to freedom. Her book is a profound meditation on the human ability to survive virtually any circumstances.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
Few places evoke otherworldliness like the Nuba Mountains of central Sudan. I will never forget seeing the endless miles of cracked earth stretching to the horizon when I flew to the region to cover the Nuba's struggle for self-determination in war-torn Sudan in May 1998. To this day, I have not reported a more remarkable story from a more distinctive part of the world.
The Nuba's homeland serves as the backdrop to the early chapters of Mende Nazer's harrowing tale, Slave. Nazer's book describes her oddly idyllic childhood; her subsequent capture and rape during an Arab raid on her village; her years of enslavement in the home of a well-to-do Arab family in the capital of Khartoum; and later, her life in London, where she served as the slave of a high-ranking Sudanese diplomat, also an Arab, before her ultimate escape, with the help of co-author Damien Lewis, a British journalist, in September 2000.
The Nuba became world-famous in the 1960s, after German fascist Leni Riefenstahl published photographs of their ancient traditions of body-painting and ceremonial wrestling in two renowned coffee-table books, The Nuba and The Nuba of Kau. Nazer provides beautiful and at times heart-wrenching accounts of the Nuba's traditions, from their annual wrestling matches to her horrific circumcision at the age of roughly 11. (The Nuba keep no record of birth dates.)
Geographically isolated from their black Muslim, Christian and animist allies to the south and largely cut off from foreign aid by the Islamic fundamentalist government to the north, the Nuba remain fiercely independent and almost completely removed from the rest of the world. The early chapters of Nazer's book reflect this. She recalls, for example, being utterly shocked at the sight of a group of white people who came to deliver food aid to her area, on what was in all likelihood an illegal flight.
Nazer grew up fortunate by Nuba standards. She never wanted for food, enjoyed the warmth of her loving family and attended a government-run Muslim school until the raid on her village abruptly changed her life. Prior to that, she had no direct experience of the devastation the Nuba suffered during Sudan's bloody civil war, which began in 1983 and is Africa's longest conflict. Nazer remembers only occasionally overhearing adults speak of "the militia" or recall with horror the raids in far-off villages she had never visited. Her pre-slave life was exceptionally untroubled: The Nuba, who joined the war in 1988 on the side of the southern rebels fighting for self-determination, have seen half their population displaced, hundreds of thousands starved or killed and whole villages wiped out. According to the United Nations, some 2 million Sudanese have died, and more than 4 million have been displaced in the past two decades. The Nuba, more than half a million of whom have fled their homeland, are on the verge of extinction.
According to Nazer, she and 31 other children were captured during a 1993 raid on her village. After her abduction, she was raped by an Arab raider as they made their way to a government-controlled military base, a crime made even more painful because she'd been literally sewn shut by infibulation, the most damaging form of female circumcision. She was then separated from her fellow captors and sold to a wealthy Arab family in the capital of Khartoum.
For the next seven years, Nazer says, she grew up in some of the most horrible circumstances imaginable. She slept in a shed, was fed the family leftovers, was worked to the bone, and verbally, sexually and physically abused on a regular basis. What's worse, she lived in almost complete isolation. The near complete denial of human affection to which she was subjected is perhaps the most tragic aspect of her story. Only a brief stay at the hospital under the care of a loving Nuba nurse or the rare afternoon spent with a fellow slave accompanying her master on a visit offered her any relief. Not surprisingly, her entire emotional life existed in the past -- and Nazer survived largely by living in it, remembering her wonderful family life back in the Nuba Mountains. In time even those memories faded, and she plunged into a deep depression.
The Sudanese government claims it has little control over the trafficking in slaves, though human-rights groups say the government arms and sanctions the makeshift militias made up of Muslim guerillas who conduct the slave trade. Sudan is a poor but oil-rich nation of roughly 38 million people. There is no prohibition against slavery in Sudan's criminal code, though the country's right-wing government has ratified a number of international treaties outlawing slavery.
A number of evangelical Christian groups have tried to trade on the emotional revulsion Americans feel toward slavery, raising tens of thousands of dollars to "emancipate" Sudanese slaves. Many of these "emancipations" have been exposed as frauds, some perpetuated by the very southern Sudanese rebels whose people are frequently preyed upon. For this reason, Human Rights Watch opposes such "slave redemptions."
What's odd about slavery in Sudan is that it has drawn so much attention here and in Europe, allowing a book like Nazer's to gain immediate widespread attention. According to Human Rights Watch and other humanitarian organizations, slavery exists almost completely out in the open in nearby Mauritania, and trafficking in child slaves is a growing problem in other West African countries such as Mali, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, yet it takes place with significantly less international outcry. That's not to discount the power of Nazer's story, but simply to point out that the immense tragedy of Sudan's civil war draws more attention to the problem of slavery there.
In 2000, Nazer alleges, she was shipped to London under false pretenses to serve as the slave of a then high-ranking Sudanese diplomat, whom she names. After nearly a year, she escaped with the help of several southern Sudanese, the first of whom she met on a trip to shop for the family that enslaved her. One of Britain's leading newspapers, the Sunday Telegraph, reported the story after her alleged escape, but without speaking with Nazer. The former diplomat filed a libel suit against the paper, and even claimed to have letters written by Nazer to her family that refuted her story. The paper eventually paid damages and published an apology declaring Nazer's story false. This complicated her political asylum request, which was initially rejected but ultimately successful.
Nazer's book was published in England in 2002 with this added controversy surrounding it. The success of the libel case brought against the Telegraph damages the force of her story, if not its credibility. Yet the media flap should not allow anyone to overlook the reality of slavery in Sudan, or the possibility that if ongoing peace talks between rebel groups and the government are successful, the practice could finally come to an end. Unfortunately, due to the Telegraph debacle, Nazer's account, which is difficult to verify and by its very nature stretches the boundaries of our belief, runs the risk of being compared to I, Rigoberta Menchu. Menchu's 1983 narrative, written, like Nazer's, with the help of a journalist when she was in her early twenties, was exposed as largely fabricated after she won the Nobel Prize for Peace. Yet Menchu's story still spoke to the experience of countless poor Mayans in Central America.
The Sudanese government has been extremely reluctant to investigate Nazer's claims, however, and given its obvious stake in wanting damning evidence of the country's slave trade refuted, this silence certainly lends credence to Nazer's story. If the experiences Nazer recounts here prove true, they will stand as an important reminder of the real, lived terrors of thousands of black southern Sudanese whose stories will never be told, and whose freedom may never be won.
Reviewed by Alex P. Kellogg
Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.
In Slave: My True Story, Mende Nazer's spirit echoes that of Sojourner Truth's during her journey from slave to freedom fighter. The singular difference in their heroic efforts is the span of more than a century. One would like to believe that humanity would choose to eradicate slavery everywhere, but Nazer is living proof that the horrific institution is thriving in the new millennium. Nazer, only in her mid-twenties, has spent more than half her life enslaved - held captive against her will by her own countrymen. Her escape to freedom was largely a stroke of luck but she took it as an omen to tell the world about the widespread slave trade in modern day Sudan. Her book is an international bestseller in Europe and she hopes its launch in the US will bring about awareness and more supporters.
Nazer's autobiography is told with a child-like voice that conveys innocence and honesty. Told chronologically, it begins with a happy, carefree childhood with her family in remote Sudan. She shares tribal traditions, wonderful family memories, and her perspective of the Arab and British influence on her people. She also covers the painful aspects that address female circumcision, poor health care provisions, and infant mortality. Her childhood is interrupted around 12 years of age (as the Nuba tribe does not record birth dates) when she was abducted and raped in a violent Arab raid on her village and sold into domestic slavery in Khartoum. There she was physically, mentally, and emotionally abused continuously for eight years serving as housemaid, car detailer, laundress, cook, seamstress, and 24-hour nursemaid; never receiving a vacation or any other compensation. Sadly the same tactics used during the ancient slave trade are still employed today. Equally effective are the perpetual impoverishment and loss of any familiarity. Although several opportunities for escape were presented over the years, Mende became too brainwashed and fearful to take advantage.
Mende eventually came of age, started to attract the attention of adult male visitors to the household, then was "traded" to a family in London. She eventually escaped and was granted amnesty within the UK with aide from fellow Sudanese and British supporters. One of those supporters, Damien Lewis, is the co-author of the novel. Both he and Mende dedicate their time and resources supporting human rights organizations and government assemblies. She has since learned that her parents survived the raid and are alive near her village and communicates with them periodically. Unfortunately with her sensationalized trial, publicized battle for political asylum in the United Kingdom and the release of the novel, came noteriety that prohibits her from returning to the Sudan. Thus Mende's ultimate plea for the abolition of slavery everywhere is coupled by a simple desire to see her family again.
This is a book is a testimony to a young woman's outstanding courage and unconquerable spirit.
I read this book a few months ago and have been thinking about it ever since. Mende's story is not one that will soon leave you.
From the official review here, as well as the customer reviews, you know the basic outline of the book already, so I won't go into that. One of the things that has most stuck with me about this book is Mende's gentle tone. Given what she has lived through, she could be furious and hate the world and no one could blame her, but she doesn't seem to be that way at all. Even after all she has felt and seen, she seems to have an innocence about her. Mende's life has been a nightmare, but there were a few times in this book where she says stuff that is really funny. I never thought I'd be reading this book and burst out laughing. It's quite a testament to her spirit and who she is. I cannot even begin to imagine living through the events of her life, much less coming through them and retaining her magical spirit and sense of humor.
She is certainly a better person than I.
Many of the generalities of her story weren't new to me since I've read on the subject of today's slavery in Sudan before... but still. The details, and her way with words will haunt you. I was in tears at least ten times throughout my reading this book. Also, if you really pay attention to this book, you realize it's not over. It's a masterfully crafted, circular way of telling the true stories of these remarkably strong, tortured women.
Mende's story is not directly related to the Darfur atrocities happening now, just in that it is a different region of Sudan. A couple of the motivations are different, but many/most of the horrific acts being perpetrated against Black Africans in Darfur are the same as what Mende and her region (Nuba Mountains) have been experiencing for a long time now.
It's impossible to hear these stories, or Mende's specifically, and not be infuriated by the United States' government's lack of caring. While yes "we" did recently label these events as genocide, that same resolution also went out of its way to say that it was not recommending any action be taken. How lovely of us. We're happy to write down on a worthless piece of paper that yes it's genocide, but being that it doesn't negatively affect us economically or politically, we can't be bothered with it.
I'm sure that piece of paper really means alot to the thousands of people everyday who are having their homes destroyed, having their families murdered right in front of them, being gangraped, getting infectious diseases in cramped refugee camps, etc...
From Publishers Weekly
Born into the Karko tribe in the Nuba mountains of northern Sudan, Nazer has written a straightforward, harrowing memoir that's a sobering reminder that slavery still needs to be stamped out. The first, substantial section of the book concentrates on Nazer's idyllic childhood, made all the more poignant for the misery readers know is to come. Nazer is presented as intelligent and headstrong, and her people as peaceful, generous and kind.
In 1994, around age 12 (the Nuba do not keep birth records), Nazer was snatched by Arab raiders, raped and shipped to the nation's capital, Khartoum, where she was installed as a maid for a wealthy suburban family. (For readers expecting her fate to include a grimy factory or barren field, the domesticity of her prison comes as a shock.)To Nazer, the modern landscape of Khartoum could not possibly have been more alien; after all, she had never seen even a spoon, a mirror or a sink, much less a telephone or television set.
Nazer's urbane tormentors-mostly the pampered housewife-beat her frequently and dehumanized her in dozens of ways. They were affluent, petty and calculatedly cruel, all in the name of "keeping up appearances." The contrast between Nazer's pleasant but "primitive" early life and the horrors she experienced in Khartoum could hardly be more stark; it's an object lesson in the sometimes dehumanizing power of progress and creature comforts. After seven years, Nazer was sent to work in the U.K., where she contacted other Sudanese and eventually escaped to freedom. Her book is a profound meditation on the human ability to survive virtually any circumstances.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
Few places evoke otherworldliness like the Nuba Mountains of central Sudan. I will never forget seeing the endless miles of cracked earth stretching to the horizon when I flew to the region to cover the Nuba's struggle for self-determination in war-torn Sudan in May 1998. To this day, I have not reported a more remarkable story from a more distinctive part of the world.
The Nuba's homeland serves as the backdrop to the early chapters of Mende Nazer's harrowing tale, Slave. Nazer's book describes her oddly idyllic childhood; her subsequent capture and rape during an Arab raid on her village; her years of enslavement in the home of a well-to-do Arab family in the capital of Khartoum; and later, her life in London, where she served as the slave of a high-ranking Sudanese diplomat, also an Arab, before her ultimate escape, with the help of co-author Damien Lewis, a British journalist, in September 2000.
The Nuba became world-famous in the 1960s, after German fascist Leni Riefenstahl published photographs of their ancient traditions of body-painting and ceremonial wrestling in two renowned coffee-table books, The Nuba and The Nuba of Kau. Nazer provides beautiful and at times heart-wrenching accounts of the Nuba's traditions, from their annual wrestling matches to her horrific circumcision at the age of roughly 11. (The Nuba keep no record of birth dates.)
Geographically isolated from their black Muslim, Christian and animist allies to the south and largely cut off from foreign aid by the Islamic fundamentalist government to the north, the Nuba remain fiercely independent and almost completely removed from the rest of the world. The early chapters of Nazer's book reflect this. She recalls, for example, being utterly shocked at the sight of a group of white people who came to deliver food aid to her area, on what was in all likelihood an illegal flight.
Nazer grew up fortunate by Nuba standards. She never wanted for food, enjoyed the warmth of her loving family and attended a government-run Muslim school until the raid on her village abruptly changed her life. Prior to that, she had no direct experience of the devastation the Nuba suffered during Sudan's bloody civil war, which began in 1983 and is Africa's longest conflict. Nazer remembers only occasionally overhearing adults speak of "the militia" or recall with horror the raids in far-off villages she had never visited. Her pre-slave life was exceptionally untroubled: The Nuba, who joined the war in 1988 on the side of the southern rebels fighting for self-determination, have seen half their population displaced, hundreds of thousands starved or killed and whole villages wiped out. According to the United Nations, some 2 million Sudanese have died, and more than 4 million have been displaced in the past two decades. The Nuba, more than half a million of whom have fled their homeland, are on the verge of extinction.
According to Nazer, she and 31 other children were captured during a 1993 raid on her village. After her abduction, she was raped by an Arab raider as they made their way to a government-controlled military base, a crime made even more painful because she'd been literally sewn shut by infibulation, the most damaging form of female circumcision. She was then separated from her fellow captors and sold to a wealthy Arab family in the capital of Khartoum.
For the next seven years, Nazer says, she grew up in some of the most horrible circumstances imaginable. She slept in a shed, was fed the family leftovers, was worked to the bone, and verbally, sexually and physically abused on a regular basis. What's worse, she lived in almost complete isolation. The near complete denial of human affection to which she was subjected is perhaps the most tragic aspect of her story. Only a brief stay at the hospital under the care of a loving Nuba nurse or the rare afternoon spent with a fellow slave accompanying her master on a visit offered her any relief. Not surprisingly, her entire emotional life existed in the past -- and Nazer survived largely by living in it, remembering her wonderful family life back in the Nuba Mountains. In time even those memories faded, and she plunged into a deep depression.
The Sudanese government claims it has little control over the trafficking in slaves, though human-rights groups say the government arms and sanctions the makeshift militias made up of Muslim guerillas who conduct the slave trade. Sudan is a poor but oil-rich nation of roughly 38 million people. There is no prohibition against slavery in Sudan's criminal code, though the country's right-wing government has ratified a number of international treaties outlawing slavery.
A number of evangelical Christian groups have tried to trade on the emotional revulsion Americans feel toward slavery, raising tens of thousands of dollars to "emancipate" Sudanese slaves. Many of these "emancipations" have been exposed as frauds, some perpetuated by the very southern Sudanese rebels whose people are frequently preyed upon. For this reason, Human Rights Watch opposes such "slave redemptions."
What's odd about slavery in Sudan is that it has drawn so much attention here and in Europe, allowing a book like Nazer's to gain immediate widespread attention. According to Human Rights Watch and other humanitarian organizations, slavery exists almost completely out in the open in nearby Mauritania, and trafficking in child slaves is a growing problem in other West African countries such as Mali, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, yet it takes place with significantly less international outcry. That's not to discount the power of Nazer's story, but simply to point out that the immense tragedy of Sudan's civil war draws more attention to the problem of slavery there.
In 2000, Nazer alleges, she was shipped to London under false pretenses to serve as the slave of a then high-ranking Sudanese diplomat, whom she names. After nearly a year, she escaped with the help of several southern Sudanese, the first of whom she met on a trip to shop for the family that enslaved her. One of Britain's leading newspapers, the Sunday Telegraph, reported the story after her alleged escape, but without speaking with Nazer. The former diplomat filed a libel suit against the paper, and even claimed to have letters written by Nazer to her family that refuted her story. The paper eventually paid damages and published an apology declaring Nazer's story false. This complicated her political asylum request, which was initially rejected but ultimately successful.
Nazer's book was published in England in 2002 with this added controversy surrounding it. The success of the libel case brought against the Telegraph damages the force of her story, if not its credibility. Yet the media flap should not allow anyone to overlook the reality of slavery in Sudan, or the possibility that if ongoing peace talks between rebel groups and the government are successful, the practice could finally come to an end. Unfortunately, due to the Telegraph debacle, Nazer's account, which is difficult to verify and by its very nature stretches the boundaries of our belief, runs the risk of being compared to I, Rigoberta Menchu. Menchu's 1983 narrative, written, like Nazer's, with the help of a journalist when she was in her early twenties, was exposed as largely fabricated after she won the Nobel Prize for Peace. Yet Menchu's story still spoke to the experience of countless poor Mayans in Central America.
The Sudanese government has been extremely reluctant to investigate Nazer's claims, however, and given its obvious stake in wanting damning evidence of the country's slave trade refuted, this silence certainly lends credence to Nazer's story. If the experiences Nazer recounts here prove true, they will stand as an important reminder of the real, lived terrors of thousands of black southern Sudanese whose stories will never be told, and whose freedom may never be won.
Reviewed by Alex P. Kellogg
Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.
In Slave: My True Story, Mende Nazer's spirit echoes that of Sojourner Truth's during her journey from slave to freedom fighter. The singular difference in their heroic efforts is the span of more than a century. One would like to believe that humanity would choose to eradicate slavery everywhere, but Nazer is living proof that the horrific institution is thriving in the new millennium. Nazer, only in her mid-twenties, has spent more than half her life enslaved - held captive against her will by her own countrymen. Her escape to freedom was largely a stroke of luck but she took it as an omen to tell the world about the widespread slave trade in modern day Sudan. Her book is an international bestseller in Europe and she hopes its launch in the US will bring about awareness and more supporters.
Nazer's autobiography is told with a child-like voice that conveys innocence and honesty. Told chronologically, it begins with a happy, carefree childhood with her family in remote Sudan. She shares tribal traditions, wonderful family memories, and her perspective of the Arab and British influence on her people. She also covers the painful aspects that address female circumcision, poor health care provisions, and infant mortality. Her childhood is interrupted around 12 years of age (as the Nuba tribe does not record birth dates) when she was abducted and raped in a violent Arab raid on her village and sold into domestic slavery in Khartoum. There she was physically, mentally, and emotionally abused continuously for eight years serving as housemaid, car detailer, laundress, cook, seamstress, and 24-hour nursemaid; never receiving a vacation or any other compensation. Sadly the same tactics used during the ancient slave trade are still employed today. Equally effective are the perpetual impoverishment and loss of any familiarity. Although several opportunities for escape were presented over the years, Mende became too brainwashed and fearful to take advantage.
Mende eventually came of age, started to attract the attention of adult male visitors to the household, then was "traded" to a family in London. She eventually escaped and was granted amnesty within the UK with aide from fellow Sudanese and British supporters. One of those supporters, Damien Lewis, is the co-author of the novel. Both he and Mende dedicate their time and resources supporting human rights organizations and government assemblies. She has since learned that her parents survived the raid and are alive near her village and communicates with them periodically. Unfortunately with her sensationalized trial, publicized battle for political asylum in the United Kingdom and the release of the novel, came noteriety that prohibits her from returning to the Sudan. Thus Mende's ultimate plea for the abolition of slavery everywhere is coupled by a simple desire to see her family again.
This is a book is a testimony to a young woman's outstanding courage and unconquerable spirit.
I read this book a few months ago and have been thinking about it ever since. Mende's story is not one that will soon leave you.
From the official review here, as well as the customer reviews, you know the basic outline of the book already, so I won't go into that. One of the things that has most stuck with me about this book is Mende's gentle tone. Given what she has lived through, she could be furious and hate the world and no one could blame her, but she doesn't seem to be that way at all. Even after all she has felt and seen, she seems to have an innocence about her. Mende's life has been a nightmare, but there were a few times in this book where she says stuff that is really funny. I never thought I'd be reading this book and burst out laughing. It's quite a testament to her spirit and who she is. I cannot even begin to imagine living through the events of her life, much less coming through them and retaining her magical spirit and sense of humor.
She is certainly a better person than I.
Many of the generalities of her story weren't new to me since I've read on the subject of today's slavery in Sudan before... but still. The details, and her way with words will haunt you. I was in tears at least ten times throughout my reading this book. Also, if you really pay attention to this book, you realize it's not over. It's a masterfully crafted, circular way of telling the true stories of these remarkably strong, tortured women.
Mende's story is not directly related to the Darfur atrocities happening now, just in that it is a different region of Sudan. A couple of the motivations are different, but many/most of the horrific acts being perpetrated against Black Africans in Darfur are the same as what Mende and her region (Nuba Mountains) have been experiencing for a long time now.
It's impossible to hear these stories, or Mende's specifically, and not be infuriated by the United States' government's lack of caring. While yes "we" did recently label these events as genocide, that same resolution also went out of its way to say that it was not recommending any action be taken. How lovely of us. We're happy to write down on a worthless piece of paper that yes it's genocide, but being that it doesn't negatively affect us economically or politically, we can't be bothered with it.
I'm sure that piece of paper really means alot to the thousands of people everyday who are having their homes destroyed, having their families murdered right in front of them, being gangraped, getting infectious diseases in cramped refugee camps, etc...
blackcity said:KAYANATION you understandably have a lot of disposable energy but just one thing is not so clear to me;
are you being wary of the caucasian because it is a personal issue for you - your ancestors were slaves
or
do you just hate the whole slavery idea period!
reason i asked is that to me you dont seem to realize, an iota, that slavery still goes on in africa to this day... by the fcukin' arabs
they kill the men, rape the women, take the children as slaves and then shout "allah akbar"
so i wonder that had it been the arabs that had taken your ancestors would you have hated them just equally
because i think that we cannot just isolate the trans-atlantic slave trade as if its the absolute worst thing that ever happened
long after the whites have left the arabs have got the fcukin' guts to carry on and everyone turns a blind eye to them
the whites were civilized........ they were also opportunists... they're not the enemy or the devil as such
the real enemy is most definitely the arabs
You are funny.......
Seems you are exercising your God complex.
Check this out, quotes from your thread:
understandably have a lot of disposable energy
had taken your ancestors
i think that we cannot just isolate the trans-atlantic slave trade as if its the absolute worst thing that ever happened
the whites were civilized........ they were also opportunists... they're not the enemy or the devil as such
the real enemy is most definitely the arabs
I wouldn't even waste my "disposable" energy on a reply.
Do you.
Peace.
Rebel-INS said:Get the hell out of here with that Bullshit! Fuck you and your non existent God.
I cant believe people actually think like this.
in africa ppl were willing to be slaves IN AFRICA. work and get ur pay and go home to ur family. But when the Europeans came.. they fucked everthing up.
By infiltrating they retarded the african nation.
blacktrace said:
yep that's it.
B
blackcity
Guest
jeffdude said:
SaKem said:
yeah... fcuk 'em real goodDr. Truth said:
absolutely powerfulmakes you want to shed a tear
smokedacane said:
makes you want to shed a tear
We are going to make it........... we made it through this shit.
When you say the word strength, we should pay reverence to our ancestors who held it down by living right.......
Nice drop, this is all very interesting but none the less it's goes to show that we need not to be mad at white people but our own. But even being mad at African's isn't going to solve our problem. "Slave trade". Nigga's was defeated and sold a long time ago for a single purpose. To do a white man's bidding. l could never sell out my brother, sister, mother or father, my people. l would rather die on my feet than live on my knees. Do you realize that our own people traded us away? For what? Many lives lost, our language, culture, and our spirituality for what? African's look down on us......we our not them. Our connection to Africa is void. They ( Africans ) have not tried to reclaim us as the U.S. would do if someone from another country held an American captive. We truely a lost people and we are conditioned to the bullshit alive.
Solution, hell l don't know. l feel like we need to connect with one another. Stop acting like crabs in a bucket. One people, one thought, one movement united. No religion, no politics, no sexual orinentation ( just man and woman ), everyone take off all their titles and place one difinitive title for
ourselves.....black people for black people.
Solution, hell l don't know. l feel like we need to connect with one another. Stop acting like crabs in a bucket. One people, one thought, one movement united. No religion, no politics, no sexual orinentation ( just man and woman ), everyone take off all their titles and place one difinitive title for
ourselves.....black people for black people.
T
ty_ra
Guest
great.post
Mookie323 said:
To understand what happened in part:
Role of Alcohol & Tobacco in Slavery even in 2007
up 
Keep The His-story Going.
