Enslavement in Sudan: --'Our People Were Turned to Ash'—Victoria Ajang
As introduced and quoted by Nat Hentoff in The Village Voice, New York, March 29 - April 4, 2000
Victoria Ajang, a native of Southern Sudan, testifies that she twice escaped Sudanese government slave raids and now lives in Kansas. 'I am here by myself, with only my children,' she says. (The government in the north of Sudan is the National Islamic Front.)
She told her story to Congress on May 27 of last year. Ajang and the American Anti-Slavery Group are urging American pension and mutual funds, along with cities and states, to get rid of their stocks in Talisman Energy, a huge Canadian oil company. Talisman is a partner of the Sudanese government, which is deeply involved in the enslavement of black Christians and animists. "The dispute over oil," Victoria Ajang begins, "first became an issue of life and death for me in 1983. That year the government began its program to pipe oil from our land in the south up to the north. Students in my town were quite upset about our resources being diverted by the government, and so they held a protest march outside the local school. But the government would not tolerate this.
"On a summer night, the government militia forces suddenly swooped in on our village. We were at home relaxing, in the evening, when men on horses with machine guns stormed through, shooting everyone. I saw friends fall dead in front of me. While my husband carried out our little daughter Eva, I ran with the few possessions I could grab. "All around us, we saw children being in the stomach, in the leg, between the eyes. Against the dark sky, we saw flames from the houses the soldiers had set on fire. The cries of the people forced inside filled our ears as they burned to death. Our people were being turned to ash."
Ajang and her family jumped into a river at the edge of town, and escaped. She continues her story: In another village, "it was a Sunday evening, the 25th of July, in 1992. At that time, I was pregnant with my fourth child. After services, we gathered on the church grounds for singing and drumming. But then suddenly armed forces and government militias attacked. They were shouting, 'Allah Akbar! God is great!' This time it was impossible to grab anything, except the hands of my children. All around us we saw people who had been dancing just minutes earlier, now lying dead outside the church. "Unlike the raid in 1983, I fled with my three children in one direction, while my husband ran off in another
direction. I have never seen or heard from him again. My aunt, Laual, aged 45, was dragged off by soldiers, along with her three grandchildren. I know that my aunt died soon after being repeatedly raped by the soldiers. I know this because her grandchildren not only saw her die, but also witnessed her rape. My neighbor, Batul Adam, was captured as well. Her beautiful daughters were taken captive and given to northern masters.
"There is a powerful ideology that drives these slave raids. In the government's mentality, all blacks are slaves. Whether Christian, Moslem, or animist, we should be slaves forever. We are inferior beings who must submit or be killed."
Colorism and Arab enslavement of blacks in Sudan, by Kola Boof
- Kola Boof -- interviewed by Janine Howard in 2002, excerpts
JANINE: "Hi Kola. First of all..as one Black woman to another, let me applaud you for your courage. I am literally in awe when I read about you. You truly bring to mind the words African Warrior Queen."
KOLA: "Thank you so much, but I am not a warrior and I am not a Queen. I am a good daughter and I am a womanist. I believe that the meaning of life is that your deeds outlive you. But I am not a superwoman."
JANINE: "And so modest, too!" (they both laugh) "Kola, listen...this is really serious. These people who run your country are saying that you are such a traitor to Islam and to Sudan that you need to be...eliminated from this earth. Aren't you scared?"
KOLA: "Well, of course I am. But I would not be the first person who was killed or imprisoned or beaten for speaking out against slavery and Arab Muslim oppression in Sudan. This is a chance I had to take for the Black African people."
JANINE: "I am so shocked that in this day and age we still have slavery in the world. Many of us Americans aren't familiar with what's going on in Sudan, so can you talk about that?"
KOLA: "Slavery...is just a terrible symptom of a horrible disease that has been in Sudan for centuries now. You know, we have ethnic cleansing in Sudan. The lightskinned Arabs are the elite, the ruling class. Everyone wants to be them, look like them and be accepted by them. But what everyone doesn't want--is to be Muslim. This is what causes the civil war. My country is divided into the Arab Muslim North, which is where I am from, because my father was an Egyptian Arab Muslim...and then the South, which is very African and populated by charcoal Black people, the original Kushites as a matter of fact, the Dinka, Nuer, Shilluks and others. In the middle we have the people who are my color--dark brown--but most of them are mixed and they do not consider themselves African. Even as dark as me, they will slap you if you call them Black or African. They want to be considered Arab. Many of them are Nubians who mixed with light Arabs. These Nubians straighten their hair and they go to Turkey and marry White street prostitutes and bring them back to Sudan and try to pass them as respectable women--all because they want to breed lighter children who can pass for "Arab". That is the goal. Many Nubians who can become my color will turn on their own families and run away and embrace Islam. So this root of colorism is what causes the ethnic cleansing in Sudan, the civil war."
JANINE: "Boy oh boy. You know this reminds me a lot of the color issues in America. I heard that your Egyptian grandmother put you up for adoption because of your skin color."
KOLA: "Oh yes. My Mahdi Pappuh was killed when I was a child because he spoke out in public against the Arab Muslim government in Sudan. His mother, my grandmother, she had always hated that he married an African woman, but such a dark charcoal black one--that is what made him settle in Sudan instead of Egypt. So when my parents were murdered, my grandmother put me up for adoption. Yes."
JANINE: "Wow. I think you're beautiful."
KOLA: "Thank you. My charcoal Black mother was a Gisi-Waaq Oromo. They are extremely beautiful Black women. Very graceful and petite. She never walked on ground, she glided."
. . .
JANINE: "So this is why they want you dead...because you are saying these things out in public?"
KOLA: "I believe that religions are man-made..they are NOT God. God is God. Religions are just institutions that men came up to have power and control. I would like to see us women start our own religion, but anyway, I have scorned Islam...which is punishable by death, that's the nature of the religion you see...and I have revealed that all over the Arab world, Black African people are enslaved and treated like cattle--mainly and foremost, because they are Black. The Arabs have a word that's like Nigger, it's "Abeed", which means 'slave race'. This is what they reserve for Blacks, even the Arab Blacks with so called good hair and brown skin are called "Abeed". Have you ever seen dogs chained up to the back doors of houses...dogs who live outside and eat outside?...well in Arab countries, there are Black men's children chained to the back of houses this way. There are Black women who work in Arab kitchens--their tongues cut out of their heads. Sudan's Arab government, the NIF, they actually finance this satanic evil. Why don't you just ask Minister Louis Farrakhan? He's good friends with Sudan's Arab Islamic President, Al Bashir. Farrakhan loves the Arab Muslim governments of North Africa. They're his biggest supporters."
JANINE: "My God. Now that's deep."
KOLA: "Not only deep, but true. In Sudan, the Black Africans have a name for Minister Farrakhan. I use it, too. We call him 'The White Bastard'."
JANINE: "Well, Kola, I'm not about to go there with you girl."
KOLA: (laughs) "I know. He might have us killed, ha? Murdered in the name of Allah. You know, it's a shame Malcolm X had to die. In Africa--we really loved Malcolm X. We called him Red Rooster. He was an authentic Black man, a King among men. Him, I would like to give birth to again. He was every Black child's dream. It's a shame that the Arabs only showed Malcolm their living rooms when he visited their world. Their mosques. If he had seen what they had tied up in the bedroom...or pacing the kitchen...or tied to the back door, he would not have been fooled by those Arabs who so love and court American blacks and call them brother to their faces, but NIGGER behind their backs."
JANINE: "Girl, this is deep."
. . .
JANINE: "I have heard that the Black Southerners of Sudan call you QUEEN KOLA--but how do the Northerners react to you? You're a Northerner yourself."
KOLA: "Well, the Northerners mostly hate my guts. But not all Arab Muslim people are prejudiced, even Nazis, you know. There are many Northern Arabs who have written to me with their love and support. Many of them are also oppressed by Sudan's governments for other reasons. Many Muslim people believe in peace and goodness, but the religion is just too violent and too masculine for goodness to dominate it. And these people are good people...but they're cowards, because they know what is being done to Africans in Sudan and Egypt and yet they do nothing about it."
JANINE: "You have expressed a desire to see Israel triumph in the middle east, a position which is not popular with Black American leaders."
KOLA: "Well, that's because Black Americans are ignorant to the true picture in the middle east. Certainly, the Jews are not brothers to us, either. Israel is not a friend, in my opinion, to Africa. But the Arab nations are like parasites against African humanity. They exploit us, degrade and dehumanize us, enslave us and teach us to hate our own skin and hair. Amiri Baraka had a controversial poem in which he asked...WHO HAS KILLED MORE AFRICANS?....he's such a fool, to me, because he doesn't realize that the Arabs have enslaved and killed African people for thousands of years. If I had to choose between the White man and the Arab...give me the White one. At least he can be manipulated and impressed. At least he is not as psychotic and blood-thirsty as the Arab man is. The White Caucasoid, the Arab, the Jewish Caucasoid, the Asian and the African...all of these men are DEVILS...but the worst of all is the Arab...and because the African man has almost no real power in this world, he is the lesser Devil. But still, the men are the ones who make our lives unbearable and filled with joyless, numbing stupidity".
JANINE: "What do you think about the peace talks and the peace agreement they're trying to sign in Machakos?"
KOLA: "I think it's meaningless, because it won't change the lives of the oppressed Black people of Sudan. To be honest, I don't see much hope of North Sudan ever having peace and harmony with South Sudan. And I completely blame the Arabs for that. Perhaps if we could have a real African hero, a true Black leader as the President of Sudan with a democratic government--then we could have unity and justice in Sudan."
JANINE: "You have a book out right now...a really good collection of short stories called LONG TRAIN TO THE REDEEMING SIN: Stories of African Women...I loved this book."
KOLA: "Thanks."
JANINE: "But there was a character in one of the stories, a Black supermodel who said, quote....the black man is the biggest disappointment since GOD....."
KOLA: "You know what...I truly love Black men...the love of my life, the only man I have ever loved...is a Black man. Anyone who reads my work knows that I love Black men...but when I wrote that...[that the Black man is the biggest disappointment since God]..I meant that. I truly meant it. Many black women write to me and tell me that's their favorite line in the entire book..."
JANINE: "But why Kola? I felt sorry for brothers when I read that line."
KOLA: "Well I don't. I get so sick of these women who refuse to hold OUR poor black men, OUR men...accountable and responsible for their actions. I have seen this in Africa where the men are so catered to, so spoilt and the women are second class citizens, invisible doormats. Look at me--my vagina cut and marked with tribal markings(!) so that Black men can proclaim me "pure". What bullshit is that? And look at the epidemic of RAPE in Africa..look at how the Black man judges us Black women on the color..the shade..of our skin instead of the content of our character. Look at how he hates the natural God-given African hair of African women and prefers the hair of the White man's mother--then he calls the White man every name but GOD, which is what he should be calling him considering the condition of the Black race. Look at this evil that we Blacks do to our own mother all over the world..these hip-hop pimps with their toxic rap videos, spreading their self-hatred to black children all over the world...these Black men in America who think that racism only effects Black men and have dishonored their own mother's history just to be VALIDATED by the White man's WHITE mother. Oh, yes...Black women are doing it, too, you say..interracial profiling...but everybody knows from Nairobi to Seattle, that we Black women never wanted these White Caucasoids. We love our Black men, but they don't deserve our love. They are the ones with the power and the freedom--to be selfish and insecure. Look at the way our men are breeding our African children off the planet...in exchange for Tiger Woods, for Vin Diesel, for Jennifer Beales. Look at this weak shit. Look at how they lie constantly on the Black woman, throwing mud upon her character--almost always based upon how Black she is and how African the hair, how African the facial features--only they fail to mention that those are the real reasons they hate her. They hate her because she's black..and Black women..WILL make you black. Niggers don't want to be Black if they can help it. In America, the vast majority of Black children are raised by Black single mothers, which wouldn't be so bad if these women weren't so mentally and emotionally damaged. We have a community that coddles and spoils the Black male, but fails to develop Black daughters at all. It is that way in Africa, too. The society caters only to the men. On the law books, the women have no rights. Everyone talks of the poor Black man, the slavery that only HE went through, the racism that only HE faces, the discrimination and social abuse that only HE puts up with. It's such a load of bullshit. This is the disgrace of our entire race and Black men must not be allowed to degrade and dishonor us. We must not tolerate it."
JANINE: "Wow...I never thought of it that way, but I can’t deny it, either."
KOLA: "Look--it's time for us Black women to give birth to a new King. That is what I am saying. We women need to become competent and stop being delusional, stop being co-dependent doormats who allow this cycle of self-destruction to continue by trying to pretend it's not there. WE hold the power, because we have the WOMBS. Now let us women come together and use our spirit and nurturing, our innate goodness--we need to give birth to a new Black child. One who loves himself, accepts himself and respects and honors his own goddamned mother. It is time for the niggers...whether they be in Sudan or in Seattle...it is time for the Nigger men to be put to death. We cannot afford to keep giving birth to such worthless sons. A worthless son is like a pet rock. Have you ever noticed how the Black man asks for what he is not willing to give in return? They want love and loyalty, they want someone to stand beside them through thick and thin--but as an African woman, I ask you--Who did THEY ever stand by? It certainly wasn't us Black women. God knows we carried the world on our heads for our men, but look at how we are repaid. With disrespect, contempt and utter slander."
JANINE: "Do you worry that Black men will misconstrue your disappointment in them for...not loving them?"
KOLA: "I love Black men...and if they can’t see that, then they're stupid. But no, I don't care what Black men think about me. I am my own Queen. My loyalty is to my womb, to my children. As usual, we Black women have the important task of saving the race--and that includes the human race."
. . .
JANINE: "In your new book, DIARY OF A LOST GIRL, which is your life story and comes out in January of 2003...you did this beautiful essay that pays tribute to some of your favorite Black men. It's called THE LIGHT THAT I BLESSED, I loved it. Some of the men saluted are Ousmane Sembene, Spike Lee, Derrick Bell, Kalamu ya Salaam, Keith Boykin, Malcolm X and Denzel Washington. What is it about these men that makes you praise them?"
KOLA: "Well...the sad thing about being Black is that you must always think of yourself that way..for the sake and good of your children. It is the only way to achieve a clarity which can protect them, you see. The men that I praised fully understand that."
. . .
JANINE: "In DIARY OF A LOST GIRL...and just let me say that I am nervous for this book to come out, Kola. I mean, honestly, I think it's a masterpiece. It made me cry quite a few times. But it's also incredibly confrontational and controversial...I know average Black folks and I'm not sure how they'll react to this kind of book."
KOLA: "The real Black people will love it...they will "get it", you know. But yes, the ones who are in that gray area between Blackness and delusion, the runaways, they will have a problem with it. Still, this is my soul book. I had to write it and I fought hard to have it published just the way that I wrote it. It's a controversial book, but it's a book that represents me well."
JANINE: "Girl, I'm not even gonna mention how this book ends. I have to tell you...that shocked me, Kola. The ending just left my chin right on the floor. I was speechless."
KOLA: "I wanted to end the book in an African way. Like my bare breasts on the back cover, I wanted to affirm my ancestral mothers. It was fitting the way it ended. And I meant the shit, too."
. . .
JANINE: "Aren't you fearful of how people will react to this book, though? Girl, I would be scared for this book to come out!"
KOLA: (In tears) "I meant everything that I wrote. DIARY OF A LOST GIRL is my soul book. This is Kola Boof. I have so many enemies who are very powerful. So many lies are told on me, so much cynicism is used to degrade and discredit my life. Of course, Black women are used to that treatment. But I must speak my own truth. I must set an example to show that it's alright to speak ones own truth. Black women need to wake up from their delusions." THE WOMEN TAKE A SHORT BREAK
Mauritania--They Live In Slavery
Garba Diallo reports on the last country to abolish slavery.
Shocking, incredible, but true - 1996
Don’t worry; I am not planning to kidnap you 200 years back in history. What I want to tell you about is now, 1995. It is the story about a black Mauritanian slave whose name is Abdi.
Abdi is not an ordinary name which free people choose for their children. Abdi means slave in Arabic and the name is typically reserved for black slaves. Even though slavery was officially abolished in 1980, for the third time in independent Mauritania, slavery and slave trade are still a living reality.
Because of the massive sexual exploitation of female slaves by white male masters, the slave population has increased to become the largest single ethnic group in the country.
Mauritania’s population consists of about two million inhabitants: 32 per cent free black Africans of Fulani, Soninke and Wolof ethnic origins, 28 per cent white Moors of Arab-Berber origin, and 40 percent black slaves known as Abid or Haratin. The slaves belong to the white Moors, who have monopolized the government in the country since the French colonial regime transferred political power to them in 1960. The white Moors have no intention or interest in abolishing slavery, because this may incite the slaves into challenging Moorish supremacy.
New dimension of slavery
In cultural clashes between the Moorish regime and free black Africans, slaves have been used by the regime as buffer and death squads against the Africans. Slaves like Abdi still identify with, and blindly obey their masters. Thus, slavery has assumed a new and deadly, dimension. The current military regime of colonel Taya is aware of this and is exploiting slave power to settle old scores with the free blacks who resist and challenge Moorish hegemony.
Since the Afro-Arab conflict exploded into violent clashes in 1989, slaves have been organized into militia groups, which the government uses to massacre and deport blacks to Senegal and Mali. Like in the apartheid days of South Africa, they are being manipulated into black-on-black mutual destruction.
Slave economy
I met Abdi in his master’s shop near Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar on August 3, 1994. Dakar is not just the capital of Senegal, but also one of the busiest urban centers in West Africa. Here, one can meet West African students, academics, elites and officials, who are there to study or to take part in endless regional forums. Dakar is also the meeting point for micro and macro business men and women coming to make or lose money. More colour is added to the urban chaos by all the foreign tourists who come by the thousands in their red, bare legs every year.
Established in 1958, the university is one of the oldest and most prestigious education centres in West Africa. Obviously Abdi did not end up here to learn in order to join the few elite of the region. He was brought here from Mauritania by his master, who was seeking profit. The master can work him to death with impunity and then send for another slave.
Shockingly, no one seems to notice that a black slave is still being kept in bondage, right in the heart of Dakar by his Moorish enslaver. The modern chaos brings certain freedoms to the rapidly growing informal business underworld.
Like in many other parts of the continent, the colonially created state of Mauritania is withering away. The role of the state has been reduced by the IMF and World Bank conditions that ensure the dictator’s protection from being lynched by the hungry and angry urban masses.
The Moorish master is not worried at all that this capital crime might be discovered, or that people passing by his shop might hang him in the tree growing just outside. Decidedly, the university students who are regular customers of the slave shop must have learned that slavery was abolished in the former French colonies already in 1905.
Prior to the 1980 abolition, slavery had been declared illegal in 1960 and 1966, but only on paper. The slave holders have become so accustomed to exploiting blacks as slaves for the last thousand years, that they cannot give up living on the backs of their slaves just like that. Both slaves and enslavers have internalized the slave-master status quo in such a way, that it would take more than just official decrees to eradicate slavery in the country.
Slave soldiers
The latest abolition was motivated by different factors. After a decade of catastrophic drought, most of the nomadic masters became so poor that they were no longer able even to feed themselves, not to mention to keep and feed a large number of slaves. Thousands of slaves were therefore released into the already overcrowded urban centres, where their masters hoped they would be able to collect a living for the masters’ households. Masters are not supposed to do manual labour. While some slaves were recruited as menial soldiers to fight in the West Sahara War from 1976 to 1979, others hung around and hustled, stealing or selling basics like water. When Mauritania withdrew from the Sahara War, the slave soldiers were demobilized and sent to the streets.
Aborted liberation struggle
Enlightened slaves organized themselves and established an emancipation movement called “El Hor” meaning freedom. El Hor’s aim was the total abolition of slavery and effective and concrete measures to help the slaves become economically independent. This was the only way to cultivate self respect and psycho-social emancipation. Although the methods El Hor chose were peaceful and mild, this nevertheless created panic within the white Moorish community and its military regime. The organization was challenging both the traditional social order and the military dictatorship.
Their liberation campaign was about to paralyse the slave market and make it impossible for the masters to sell human beings on the open market. Outside Mauritania, El Hor managed to draw the attention of international media and human rights groups to the persistence of slavery in the country. The result was embarrassing pressures on the regime from abroad.
To prevent a full scale slave revolution leading to real emancipation and the demise of minority rule, the regime of colonel Ould Haidalla decreed on July 5, 1980 abolition and the imposition of the Islamic Sharia Law. Sharia gives masters the right to compensation for setting their slaves free. Thus, the abolition decree stipulated that slavery was abolished throughout Mauritania, and that a national commission composed of Muslim legal experts, economists and administrators would be established to assess how much the masters would be compensated for each slave lost by the abolition.
Nothing was done to free the slaves in any meaningful sense of the word. But the regime managed to achieve its objectives, which were to deflect both external and internal pressures, while satisfying the masters at the same time. The masters are the same white Moors who control the state machinery for their own exclusive benefit. In this way, real emancipation was aborted.
Camel torture
For Abdi it was safer to remain with his master, who is morally responsible for his household and animals. Abdi is not responsible, nor is he a human being with feelings or the right to make a family. He is a machine that works like hell without pay or rest. Like the machine, Abdi needs only to be fed to oil his black muscles from cracking. His master can take him anywhere and make him carry out any task. He can be legally sold, given away, used to pay a bride price, or castrated to avoid mating with the master’s harem.
The master’s right comes before that of God, and he has the right to sleep with any of Abdi’s female relatives, as they are by law his concubines. Abdi is not even allowed to go to the mosque if his master needs him. If he tries to escape, the master applies the dreaded camel torture on him. Abdi is mounted on a thirsty camel with his legs tied under the belly. Then the ship of the desert is allowed to drink. As the huge belly expands, Abdi’s legs crack and he will never be able to run away again.
If Abdi uses his head “too much”, the master sends insects down his ears. A large belt around his head blocks his ears, while both his hands are tied behind his back. As the insects struggle to get out, Abdi is driven to insanity. The vast majority of the slaves are so brain-washed, that they would consider it a sin to escape from their masters. Their ancestors were kidnapped into slavery long ago, and their offspring have been brought up to believe that Allah created two groups of people: slaves and masters, each playing specific and eternal roles in society.
Slave and master go to Dakar
Abdi, another slave and their master had come to Dakar some years ago. Perhaps the master intended to use his slaves as starting capital for his business. Small businesses thrive and bring quick profit, especially for a foreigner with free slave labourers who can melt in as Senegalese in Dakar.
There are no state controlled opening hours, so the two slaves work almost 24 hours a day, and eat and sleep inside the shop in shift. I coincidentally stopped by the shop to buy a drink. Abdi was busy selling basic items to customers from the university. There was another man helping Abdi. I recognized them as Mauritanian slaves, because they were black and spoke the Arabic dialect of the white Moor community of Mauritania.
This made me curious to want to talk with the two men about their business in Dakar. Without telling them that I was actually a black Mauritanian like them, we conversed across the counter of the shop. But they were hesitant to my inquiries concerning their life in Dakar and the situation in Mauritania. After a while though, they said that they were running the shop “together” with their master.
I wondered where the master was.
Abdi smiled and pointed behind the counter. There he was, a little shabby looking white Moor, sleeping (see photograph) while his two black slaves toiled for him. Before he woke up, I was able to steal a couple of shots of him and his two slaves.
The silent North
The UN and diplomatic missions are well aware of the situation in Mauritania. (See box). So, what are the reasons behind the international community’s silence toward slavery in Mauritania?
It is definitely not because of any economic or strategic considerations, that the rest of the world does not help to eradicate this evil practice.
In my opinion, the most relevant factors are:
There is little inter-African communication on cultural or political issues. Otherwise, Africans would have realized that the slaveholders consider all blacks to be either tamed or potential slaves. This problem is a part of the Afro-Arab cultural conflict, which ranges from the Sudan by the Red Sea to Mauritania on the Atlantic Coast. This conflict has a clear racial element which has been going on for more than a thousand years. Both African and Arab leaders prefer not to talk about this dirty and deadly north-south conflict within the south, because this would suggest a lack of solidarity within the Third World. The traditional “imperialist North versus exploited poor South” attitude in international relations could not be sustained. The legacy of trans-Atlantic slavery has left a collective and eternal guilt in the European mind, which makes it difficult for European nations to take a moral stand on condemning Arab slavery in Mauritania. Most European writers who have been to Mauritania belong to the romantics who worship the magic of the desert and its rough and violent social order. This love for the desert and the feudal system helps to preserve the evil system in its racist form.
The Danish connection
One of the leading supporters and lovers of the Mauritanian desert society was Henrik Olesen of Denmark. Olesen was the local UN boss, who preferred to be called ‘Le Patron’. He closed his eyes, ears and conscience to the most brutal violation of human rights until one afternoon in June 1989, when Mauritanian security police stormed the UN offices to arrest, undress, torture and deport his black Mauritanian finance director, Mr. Abdoul Diallo, and his personal secretary, Miss Roukhaya Ba, to Senegal.
When Henrik Olesen protested in a letter to the government, he was told to withdraw the letter and shut up – or get the hell out of the country. He left without delay.
Was there any reaction from the UN or Denmark? Nothing, but silence.
Another Dane who has been deeply involved with the Mauritanian regime is Poul Sihm of the World Bank.When Norway threatened to cut development aid to Mauritania in 1991, because of the racist violation of human rights, Mr. Sihm sent a fax to the Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs with the following plea for the slaveholders:
“To stop this development [aid] would, in the eyes of someone who has been intimately involved in the [Arab owned] livestock sector of Mauritania since 1983 and as such has visited the country at least two times a year, and be a great mistake.” (Fax number 2791/1, October 24, 1991, by Mr. Poul Sihm).
Liberation struggle
What all this means is, that Abdi and his 800,000 fellow slaves should not expect much solidarity and support from the Danes, nor other world leaders. As another slave called Bilal told Le Monde in 1990, the slaves have to carry out their own liberation struggle to the inevitable victory of justice over injustice. Time, history, demography and justice are on the side of the victims of this brutal practice. In the meantime, Abdi will work with no pay and without complaining, while his master sleeps deeply into the middle Ages.
DECLARATION OF THE CONFERENCE ON ARAB-LED SLAVERY OF AFRICANS
Sunnyside Park Hotel, Johannesburg: 22 February 2003
Introduction and Preamble
As we penetrate the 21st century, the interrelated issues of racism and the legacy of African slavery as lingering historical and sociological phenomena constitute for Africa and the world one of the most vexatious problem areas in the conscience of the human community. At a time, when people of African descent, particularly in the Diaspora, are calling for reparations for the chattel slavery of Africans in the western hemisphere and its effects, Africans on the continent are making similar demands for Ottoman and Arab-led slavery and its outstanding historical and sociological implications.
In as far as these issues are concerned, The United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance of August 28th -01st September 2001, in Durban, South Africa, represented a significant milestone in the collective ability of humanity to confront issues of racism as a global phenomenon. The World Conference had been preceded by a half-century of United Nations efforts to eradicate racism and racial discrimination. Indeed, when the international community adopted the United Nations Charter in 1945, it accepted the obligation to pursue the realization of Human Rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion. In December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which declared in Article 1 that, all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, declared genocide an international crime. Through much of the 1960s, efforts were partially focused on racial discrimination in colonially dependent areas, where the end of colonially institutionalized racism was anticipated as a natural consequence of independence.(1)
On 20 November 1963, the General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. In the preamble, to this declaration it was recognized that in spite of obvious progress, discrimination based on race, colour or ethnic origin continued to give cause for serious and unmitigated concern. On 21 December 1965, the General Assembly adopted the International Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination. The Convention, which is a legally binding instrument, entered into force on 4 January 1969 and now has 155 State parties. This Convention defined racial discrimination as “any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition , enjoyment or exercise … of human rights and fundamental freedom …”. In 1968, shortly before the Convention entered into force, the first International Conference on Human Rights, meeting in Tehran,, called for he criminalization of racist and Nazi organizations. On 11 December 1969, the General Assembly designated 1971 as the International Year of Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination.
The First World Conference to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination was held in Geneva in 1978, at mid-point of the first decade. Its Declaration and Programme of Action reaffirm the inherent falsity of racism and the threat it posed to friendly relations among peoples and nations.
The Second World Conference to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination , held in Geneva, 1-12 August 1983, reviewed and assessed the activities undertaken during the decade and formulated specific measures to ensure the implementation of United Nations instruments to eliminate racism, racial discrimination and apartheid. (2)
The UN subsequently initiated detailed programmes for (a) Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1973-1982), (b) Second Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1983-1992) and (c) Third Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2002). At the Durban Conference, Mrs. Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said “if the World Conference is to make a difference, it must not only raise awareness about the scourge of racism, but it must lead to positive actions at the national, regional and international levels that can bring relief to those who bear the brunt of racism and racial discrimination. This is a subject that required firmness of resolve, disciplined and persistent action, and clear-sighted thinking.”(3)
As part of the proceedings the NGO Forum of the Durban Conference, the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS) undertook a Symposium on, ‘Racism in the Global African Experience”. This symposium drew on the experience and knowledge of a cohort of academics of African descent from within the continent and its Diaspora. (4)
Conference on Arab-Led Slavery of Africans in Johannesburg (22nd February 2003)
Following on the Platform of CASAS held in the context of the NGO Meeting (Durban), and by way of implementing the Declaration of Plan of Action of the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racila Discriminiation, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) Durban, 2001, CASAS and the Drammeh Institute organized a Conference on Arab-Led Slavery of Africans in Johannesburg (22nd February 2003).
The initiative for the conference was advised by the fact that whereas, relatively much more is known about the European-led Atlantic Slave trade, the history and reality of Arab-led slavery of Africans continues to be an area of silence and darkness in African and non-African perceptions of African society and history. The painful reality of this history is profoundly aggravated by the fact that, slavery continues to the present day in the Afro-Arab borderlands (this area encompasses the broad stretch of Africa running roughly between the 30th degree latitude and the 10th degree latitude across the Africa continent), particularly in Mauritania and Sudan., The conference was intended to provide, for wider consumption, studies, by scholars, on the subject of Arab-led slavery of Africans. At the close of the conference, the meeting produced the following declaration:
On this day, this 22nd of February 2003, we the participants of this conference on Arab-led slavery of Africans, do solemnly make this declaration that, we the people, Africans and African descendants, herein referred to as Africans, striving for the unity of the African Nation, intend to reclaim our voice, and speak for ourselves on the above and related issues, after centuries of silence and non-self-expression.
We attest to the fact that, the African continent and people has served as a millennia-long reservoir for uncompensated labour obtained through brutal and dehumanizing processes for the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean areas and trade routes. Arising out of these labour extraction processes, in the form of slavery, Africans have historically become people whose slavery amongst all others had, for centuries, assumed intercontinental forms. In this context:
WE CONDEMN, in the strongest possible terms, all forms of slavery, historical and contemporary, in all parts of the world.
WE RECOGNISE, that the Arab-led slave trade of African people predates the trans-Atlantic slave trade by a millennium, and represents the largest and, in time, longest involuntary removal of any indigenous people in the history of humanity.
WE RECOGNISE, the need to combat and eliminate the collective amnesia about Arab enslavement of Africans. In this respect, more research needs to be conducted on the subject of the Arab and Ottoman slave trade of Africans. More workshops need to be undertaken which will facilitate the conscientization of people in Africa and the wider world. Academics and scholars of African descent are called upon to play an active role in this.
WE ACKNOWLEDGE the need to mobilize structures, worldwide, for the elimination and banning of slave practices in the world.
WE DEMAND that the issue of contemporary slavery of Africans in the Afro-Arab borderlands be placed before the African Union (AU).
WE DECRY the impact of African slavery on Africans and its effects towards the cultural denationalization of Africans.
WE ACKNWOLEDGE the need to establish relations between continental Africans and the African Diaspora in the Arab world.
WE CONDEMN, in the strongest possible terms, the practice of forced concubinage of enslaved women, and the use of enslaved women for the purpose of breeding children who become and continue to be property held by Arab masters.
WE CONDEMN in the strongest possible terms the collaborationist role of some Africans in this trade.
WE ACCUSE Arab societies, for historical and continuing crimes committed against African boys subjected to forced castration (of which the survival rate has been one in ten), to create a eunuch class.
WE ACCUSE Arab societies, for the historical and continued taking into slavery of young girls to serve as slaves to their masters with no right to marriage unless prescribed by their masters.
WE ACCUSE Arab societies, in some areas of the Afro-Arab borderlands, of genocide against Africans, particularly in the Sudan.
WE CHARGE the responsible Arab societies of ethnocide of African people through forced cultural Arabization processes.
GIVEN THE FACT that the millennia-long Arab-led slavery of Africans has wreaked incalculable damage on Africans and African society, apologies and reparations are due to Africans.
WE CALL for a civilization dialogue between the Arab and African peoples.
Notes:
World Conference Against Racism. 2001 NGO Programme. NGO Forum. The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Durban, South Africa. 28 August -1 September 2001. P.2
Ibid. P.3
Ibid. P.6
The proceedings of this symposium are appearing in 2003.
DIPLOMATIC NOTE FROM BORNU TO EGYPT (c. 1391)
by Uthman Biri ibn Idris (Nigeria)
In this letter a 14th century African king protests to his co-religionist the king of Egypt concerning the slave raids upon his people by Arabs, and asks for the return of those already captured and sold to Egypt and Syria. Observe that this black king claims Arab ancestry and that this does not save his people, not even his own brother, from being enslaved by Arab fellow muslims.
. . After greetings, we have sent you as ambassador my cousin,
Idris ibn Muhammad, because of the calamity we suffered.
The Arabs who arc called Judham and others have taken captive
our free subjects—women and children and old people, and our
relatives, and other Muslims. Among these Arabs are polytheists
and apostates: they have raided the Muslims and killed a great
many of them in a war which broke out between us and our enemies.
And on account of this war they have killed our prince, 'Umar ibn
Idris, a martyr [for the Faith]—he is our brother, the son of our
father, al-Hajj Idris, son of al-Hajj Ibrahim; and we are the sons of
Saif ibn Dhi Yazan, the father of our tribe, the Arab, of the family
of Quraish, as we have been informed by our learned men.
These Arabs have harmed all our land, the land of Bornu, con-
tinually up to the present, and have captured our free subjects and
relatives, who are Muslims, and are selling them to the slave-dealers
in Egypt and Syria and elsewhere, and some they keep for them-
selves.
Now God has placed in your hands the Government of Egypt,
from the Mediterranean to Aswan; and our people have been
treated [there] as merchandise. Send messengers to all your lands,
to your Amirs, and your Wazirs, and your Qadis, and your Gover-
nors, and your men of learning ['ulama'], and the heads of your
markets; let them examine, and inquire, and discover. When they
have found our people, let them remove them from the hands of
those who hold them captive, and put them to the test. And if they
say—‘We are free men—we are Muslims'—believe them, and do
not regard them as liars. But when the matter becomes clear to you,
release them, and let them return to their liberty and to Islam. In
truth, some of the Arabs in our country have turned to evil ways,
and are not living at peace. They are ignorant of God's book, and
of the sunna of our Prophet, and they continue in their wickedness.
But do you fear God, and reverence him, and do not abandon our
people, to be bought and sold as slaves. ...
Peace be upon those who follow the Right Way.
(Hodgkin, T., ed Nigerian Perspectives: an historical anthology, London: Oxford University Press,1975, [1960], p.104)
MAURITANIA – THE OTHER APARTHEID? (Excerpt)
by GARBA DIALLO
Written 1993
Understanding the Mauritanian Crisis
In order to give a clear indication as to whether Mauritania is an apartheid state or not, I would like to focus on the more familiar conflict situations in the Sudan and South Africa. The racial and cultural conflicts in all three countries have been a permanent source of tension and destabilisation both within and across borders. Mauritania compared to the Sudan
Mauritania is comparable with The Sudan in that there have been bloody ethno-racial wars between the indigenous black Africans on the one hand and the immigrating Arabs on the other. The Arabs began to arrive into both countries from the north following the emergence and triumph of Islam in the Middle East from the early 7th century onward. The immigrants have been pressuring the original populations towards the south since that time. This has resulted in chronic north-south ethnic conflicts for political power and economic control within both nations. The Arabs have false assumptions of the superiority of their culture over the local ones. This has been manifested by the forced Islamisation and Arabisation campaigns orchestrated by successive Arab regimes.
The history of Afro-Arab relations in the Sudan and Mauritania have mainly been characterized by brutal wars, slavery, forced Islamisation and Arabisation, the systematic destruction of indigenous cultures, values and civilizations coupled with insatiable territorial expansion on the part of the immigrants. As in the cases of South Africa and Zimbabwe, the colonial powers left power firmly in the hands of the settlers in both Mauritania and The Sudan (Markakis, 1985, Diallo, 1991a). It is common to hear black militants say that Mauritania’s independence in 1960 was highjacked by the Arabs as the white settlers did with that of Zimbabwe in 1965 (Diallo, 1991a).
As the Arabs proceeded with the application of their visions of society, the natives set out to mobilize and resist the new imperialist yokes. This was the point of departure for the current civil strife, which broke out between the Arab north and African south in the Sudan on the eve of independence in 1956. The first Afro-Arab confrontation in Mauritania took place in 1961, a few months after Mauritania’s independence was proclaimed. Since then, there have been constant tensions between the north and south, with the former being repeatedly accused of racial discrimination – or even genocide – as well as political, economic and cultural hegemony over the latter.
Both nations are located in Africa and surrounded by black nations. Yet their leadership behave as if they were not in the dark continent or had large black communities within their societies. These communities were neither consulted nor gave their consent when the Sudan and Mauritania joined the Arab League in 1956 and 1974, respectively. Successive Arab regimes in both countries have been accused of misusing Islam for imperialist ends. This claim was made valid when military regimes introduced Islamic Shari’a laws in Mauritania and the Sudan, in 1980 and 1983 respectively.
Unlike the Sudan however, religion has not played any significant role in the ethnic war in Mauritania. Thus, if used rationally, Islam could play a positive role in the search for a peaceful solution to the conflict. Mauritania and South Africa – a comparison
Mauritania and South Africa are similar in that:
The colour divide between the whites and black is clear in both countries. The Arabs in Mauritania call themselves Beydane (Arabic for white) as the Boers refer to themselves as Blanke. As the Boers claim historical anteriority in South Africa, so the Arabs claim that they were the first inhabitants and the only true citizens of Mauritania. In both countries the settlers have used ruthless methods to gain territorial control through the forced displacement of the natives. Native territories are welcome as integral parts of the nations but the inhabitants of these territories are labeled foreigners. The Bantu Education Act of 1953 in South Africa and Arabisation Acts Nos. 65-025 & 65-026 of 1966 were introduced in order to secure cultural hegemony through the education of docile black servants. Land Act No. 27 of 1953 in South Africa and Land Act No. 83.127 of 1983 in Mauritania were adopted to give settlers access to and control over the most productive parts of the native lands. Banning and confining blacks to remote villages is a method used by both regimes, and Divide and rule policies are central in the maintenance of settler hegemony. South Africa has formed and armed black vigilante militia whereas Mauritania constituted a Haratin (slave) militia group in 1990 (Africa Confidential, 1989; Amnesty International, 1990, numbering 6,000-8,000; Diallo, 1991b).
Better than South Africa?
In contrast with South Africa, there are no straight forward racially discriminatory laws in Mauritania. For example there are no daily colour lines separating blacks from whites, there are no officially separate schools or housing for blacks and whites, or “independent homelands” whose citizens are foreigners in Mauritania. Blacks do not have to carry pass books in order to be allowed to move around the country, interracial marriage is not illegal; in principle, every mature citizen can vote and stand for election; there have always been 2 or 3 blacks in each government.
Black militants attribute this lack of strict colour lines to the fact that Mauritania has been ruled by weak and violent dictatorship regimes which not only oppress the blacks but also their own race. They do not bother to create laws and regulations.
Worse than South Africa?
Mauritanian regimes have surpassed South Africa in the following ways:
Classical slavery against blacks is still common, despite its official abolition in 1980. Mauritania has deported tens of thousands of its citizens to neighbouring countries solely on account of their ethnic origin. Their number was at least 130,000 in mid-1989, and was increasing all the time, reports Jeune Afrique (July 5, 1989). South Africa has not deported black citizens to Zambia or Angola. Mauritania avoids even having diplomatic ties with black Africa. Mauritania has both introduced and applied religious laws in a discriminatory manner for political purposes. Mauritania has systematically refused to release population figures to support the claim that the country is overwhelmingly Arab despite evidence to the opposite. There has never been any real democracy even for the Arabs.
Apartheid practice in Mauritania?
According to Mauritanian laws it is illegal to discriminate against persons or groups because of their race or colour. While the country has ratified the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (adopted on June 26. 1981), it has not ratified the main international treaties adopted by the UN General Assembly to protect human rights throughout the world, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (adopted in 1966) and the Covenant against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (adopted in 1984).
By ratifying the African Charter, Mauritania has undertaken to respect the right to enjoy human and civil rights and freedoms without discrimination based on race, colour, language, sex, religion, political or any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or other status. Nevertheless there is ample evidence that blacks in the country have been the victims of racial discrimination at the hands of successive Arab regimes, who have denied them not only the most basic cultural, social, political and economic rights, but the right to life and citizenship.
Amnesty International has issued reports in 1989 and 1990. Amnesty International in 1990 writes: “Since the publication of the Report, the human rights situation in Mauritania has considerably deteriorated. Extrajudicial executions, torture and the cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of villagers have reached a very alarming level in the south of the country. The targets of government forces and Haratin [slave] militia are black African villagers who are singled out because they belong to a particular ethnic group, Haal-pulaar (Fulanis). Hundreds of black Mauritanians have been arrested, persecuted and often assassinated on very wide pretexts … A curfew whose timing varies in different regions and villages is in force” and Amnesty International in 1991 writes about the reported killing of 339 political prisoners between November 1990 and March 1991: “Details of the killings have only recently come to light, when those who remained alive in detention were released in March and April 1991. In November and December 1990 several thousand black Mauritanians were arrested… Most of those arrested were members of the armed forces and civil servants, the majority belonging to a single black ethnic group from the south of the country, known as the Haal-pullar (Fulani)” Africa Watch reports: “Persecution of black Mauritanians – Summary executions, deprivation of citizenship, illegal expulsions and arbitrary arrests” News from AW, September 7, 1989; “Mauritania: Slavery – Alive and Well, 10 Years After it was Last Abolished” June 29,1990; and “Mauritania: More Than 200 Black Political Detainees Tortured to Death” May 31, 1991. In its Country Reports On Human Practices For 1990, the US State Department charged that “the human rights situation in Mauritania continued to deteriorate in 1990.” After boasting in an interview with the Paris-based weekly, Jeune Afrique Magazine that “Mauritania is not going to be Liberia”, President Ould Taya confessed the killings of more that 300 black political detainees without any form of trial Jeune Afrique No. 1605: Oct. 2,1991.
In its adoption of an unprecedented resolution on what it termed “the extraordinary record of human rights violations in Mauritania”, the US Congress points out that “the government of Colonel Taya has institued an aggressive policy of Arabisation which as been used to persecute and marginalize black Mauritanians…” The Congress strongly condemns, “the unexplained killing of over 500 black political prisoners, who were arrested in late 1990, the burning down of entire villages and confiscation of livestock, land and belongings of black Mauritanians as well as the expulsion of tens of thousands of blacks to Senegal and Mali”. It adds that “execution, torture and forcible expulsion are only the visible signs of government abuses”. Non-Arabs are discriminated against in all walks of life, including unequal access to education, employment, and health care” said the resolution. “Even the heinous practice of slavery, although formally abolished in 1980, continues in some parts of the country” (Congressional Record, 1991).
Features of Apartheid?
Mauritanian regimes have gone as far as to deny the existence of black people in the country. In an interview with Jeune Afrique on January 1, 1990, Ould Taya declared that “Mauritania cannot be in the process of arabisation as it is an Arab country” (Jeune Afrique, 199:37).
The implementation of Arabisation policies, and the imposition of Shari’a laws by Arab regimes on black Africans suggest that deliberate efforts are being made by these regimes to forcibly assimilate non-Arabs. The routine maltreatment of blacks in the country reminds one of black people’s situation in South Africa. The Mauritanian regime has been accused of ordering the massacres of at least 1,000 and more than 500 black citizens, in April 1989 and November 1990 respectively (Africa Confidential, 1989). Blacks have been singled out for deportation to refugee camps whereas Arabs from neighbouring countries have been welcomed to settle in Mauritania (US Department of State, 1990; FLAM, 1992a). Tuaregs from Mali and Berbers from the West Sahara have been invited to colonize expelled blacks’ villages in southern Mauritania. Slavery is practiced exclusively on blacks by Arabs in the country. Islamic shari’a Law has been exploited by Arab judges in the country to claim “blacks’ heads and limbs” (Afrique International, 1989:16).
The Amsterdam based “City Sun” wrote in its October 4, 1990 edition: “The massacre of black Mauritanians continues in Mauritania. Blacks are dying and disappearing at the hands of the government forces on a scale never seen before in that country, says Amnesty International. A year ago we said the persecution of Mauritanian’s black community had reached a peak … that appalling situation has now gone from bad to worse … If the government wants to escape the charge of racial discrimination, it must take steps to calm the fears of the people of south and put an end to the conditions that have led to the disappearance and killing of prisoners, Amnesty International demanded” (City Sun, 1990). During a debate in the French National Assembly, representative Jean-Pierre Bouquet drew the attention of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roland Dumas, to the situation in Mauritania. He told the minister that: “For some years violent confrontations have taken place between the main Mauritanian communities… the black community has been the object of discriminatory measures which do no longer guarantee, for example, equal access to public employment… During the last few months numerous Mauritanian nationals have been expelled to Senegal under conditions which are difficult to accept.” Based on this he asked the foreign minister to explain France’s position on the issue (Assemblée Nationale, 1990: issue No. 27690-30/4-90).
In a reply letter concerning the situation in Mauritania to the MP, Bernard Stasi, another representative, Roland Dumas writes: “In response to your question on the grave violation of human rights, in Mauritania, whose victims are the black citizens… in the context of last April’s intercommunal confrontations, some 60,000 black Mauritanians were arbitrarily expelled to Senegal while others have been subjected to vicious and discriminatory measures. The French government has intervened with the Mauritanian authorities in the most firm manner… we have a frank and permanent dialogue in order to put an end to these inacceptable practices. As you have indicated, France shall not continue its cooperation efforts in the Senegal Valley should the forced displacement of the population continue…” (R.Dumas, Paris, march 14, 1990, 000235CM)
