Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 21:58:14 +0100
To: revs@csf.colorado.edu
From: slein@e1m147.mpibpc.gwdg.de (Stephan Leineweber)
Subject: SLAVE TRADE IN THE SUDAN


The following is part of a series of articles published on the Internet
by the 'Coalition Against Slavery In Mauritania And Sudan' (CASMAS).

< http://www.cc.columbia.edu/~slc11/ >

The articles deal with the African's world view of the Arab and the problems
that view poses for the African-American.

"Those in the Black community who claim identification with Africa will be
unable to rise to this historic occasion without the ability to access and
process accurate information. It would also be beneficial if the Black
community had leadership on the issue of slavery--the sad truth is that it
does not. All the African-American leaders in this country--produce your own
list if you desire--are hiding under their beds until this gunfight over the
question of slavery is over. ..."

"The point--Black leadership in both America and Africa is bankrupt. ..."




SLAVE TRADE IN THE SUDAN:

"Sudan is the Arabic word for "black" but only the southern part of the country
is populated by black Africans who practice traditional religions or
Christianity. In the southern Nile Basin the Dinka and Nuer tribes practice a
semi-nomadic economy based on cattle raising.

The Sudan is formerly a parliamentary democracy. From 1899 through 1955 it was
ruled jointly by the British and the Egyptians as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
Sudanese nationalism gradually redeveloped, and on January 1, 1956, Sudan
became independent. Upon independence, civil war broke out between the black
southerners and the Arab northerners who now ruled the country. This war lasted
until 1972 and ended with the Addis Ababa accord.

In 1989, Lt. General Omar Hassan Bashir and the Sudanese People's Armed Forces
overthrew Sudan's democratic government and dissolved all political
institutions. This new government and it's Popular Defense Force (PDF), is
said to be controlled by a fund amentalist Islamic group called the National
Islamic Front.

This action set the stage for the second civil war when southerners,
6,000,000 people, saw their special constitutional status overthrown by the
Arab government in Khartoum. Previously, the black south had its own regional
parliament and government. Additional pressures were the Arabization and
Islamization of the country, particularly the imposition since 1983 of Islamic
law in the South. The people of the South, many of them Christians, feel this
is oppressive and strongly resisted. Under the leadership of John Garang, the
Sudanese People Liberation Army (SPLA) was formed. Garang, a former colonel in
the Presidential Guard, is a Dinka and his movement has splintered along tribal
lines.

The civil war also led to the resurgence of the slave trade. The Sudan was once
virtually rid of slavery, but "Time has spun backward since rebel leader John
Garang rallied the African tribes of the country's fertile south against the
country's Muslim elite" says Newsweek. ". . .The government counterinsurgency
strategy has included arming the Arab tribespeople who live on the fault line
between the Muslim north and the animist south. Consequently, there has been a
resurgence of traditional raiding including slave taking, human-rights
organization charge." Arab militias, armed by the Government, raid villages,
mostly those of the Dinka tribe, shoot the men and enslave the women and
children. These are kept as personal property or marched north and sold,"
wrote AASG's Jacobs and Athie in the New York Times (July 13, 94.) [and]
"Many of the children are auctioned off." 

Corroborating this testimony is Gaspar Biro, a specially appointed United
Nations human rights monitor, who returned from the Sudan in March to
report that ". . .abducted children are often sent to camps that become 20th
century slave markets. The price varies with supply. According to the London
Economist (January 6, 90) in 1989, a woman or child could be bought for $90.
In 1990, as the raids increased, the price fell to $15.
....