Slavery in Sudan Must End

Slavery in Sudan Must End

Joe Madison
Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2001

Several years ago, I became aware of the existence of 21st-century slave trade in Sudan and a modern abolitionist organization, The Anti-Slavery Group. As a radio talk show host with WOL in Washington, and because of my background as a civil and human rights activist, I explored every aspect of slavery in Africa’s largest country. Nothing prepared me for what my eyes saw, my ears heard, my hands felt and my soul embraced.

Members of the Christian Solidarity International group and I, on a trip earlier this month to Sudan, redeemed some 4,435 slaves, mostly women and children. After trekking through heat, mud flies and mosquitoes, I saw a scene that was directly out of the TV miniseries "Roots," except it was real. It was as if someone had placed me in a time machine and sent me back 400 years to the African slave trade, but it was today.

It was surreal. Hundreds, thousands of human souls, black, dirty, sick and hungry, in scorching sun, waited under the branches of a huge tree to be free. Many had walked for 10 days or more, led by a small band of Bedouins who served as their Harriet Tubman. As we approached, before they were in sight, we could hear the murmuring of these slaves; no shouting, no anger, just soft murmurs. As John Eibner of CSI explained through an interpreter what was happening, I uncovered harrowing stories of the abuse these slaves suffered at the hands, of their slave masters:

A 13-year-old boy, Yak Kenyang Adeiu, had all his fingers cut off by his slave master.

Mawien Aher Bol had his finger cut off by his master because he lost a goat.

Angot Wol Angra was attacked by her master's brother with a knife when she lost a goat.

Arek Kiir had her throat cut and her chest burned because she refused to give up her infant to a slave master.

Agom Bol Akuei and her children were forced to carry a heavy load of salt, looted by slave traders. She collapsed under the weight, and the load of salt crushed her jaw. She received no medical attention.

Garang Deng Yel and Athian Athian Athian had their arms chopped off with an ax by slave owners when they went north to try to rescue their enslaved wives and children.

A woman who walked with a severe limp recounted to me how she had been gang-raped by her master and 10 others. When she resisted, the men violently forced her legs apart, dislocating one of her hips from the joint.

These images will be with me for the rest of my life. I promised each of them and CSI that I would return to the United States and the African-American leadership and do all within my power to end slavery in Sudan.

I am not here today to speak out against the people of Sudan. I am here to speak out against the systematic institution of slavery in a country that seeks to be elevated to a position of international power and prestige while it wallows in the depths of human misery. I am here today because my heart is with the slaves of Sudan. I am here today to issue a wake-up call to the black community and the U.S. government to the travesty of slavery in Sudan and to demand an end to this evil.

If we, in the black community, demand liberty for ourselves, we must be prepared to demand it for our neighbors. If we demand to think for ourselves, then we must demand that same right for our neighbors.

Beginning today we will form a modern abolitionist movement. We will educate and mobilize the black community to raise not only their voices against slavery in Sudan, but to raise the necessary resources to assist CSI to help free our brothers and sisters in that part of the world. We will demand that the Congress of this country and the governments of the planet do all within their power to end the horrendous practice of human bondage.

To that end, I will today begin an indefinite period of fasting and praying until the United States Congress strikes the gum-arabic clause from the trade bill when it comes up for a vote here on Capitol Hill. We cannot put profit ahead of conscience. I will also continue the fast in order to compel the United Nations not to seat the government of Sudan as a member of its Security Council.

When I was in southern Sudan, no one asked me if I was a conservative or a liberal, a Republican or a Democrat, a Christian or a Muslim. They simply asked for help to end slavery, terrorism and torture, which have contributed to the slaughter of 2 million people.

If the Republicans who are in control of Congress allow Section 1439 of the trade bill H.R. 4868 to go forward, it does itself irreparable harm of being called "party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.”

If the Democrats in Congress do not strike to roll back this provision, they do great injury by betraying their most loyal constituency, African-Americans who are descendants of slaves.

If this measure passes the United States Congress, and the president does not veto the trade bill, he does immeasurable damage to his legacy as the first American president who believes in a free and democratic Africa; an Africa where all its people can live in a secular society; an Africa where all religions are respected and the people of Africa in general and its largest country, Sudan, in particular, have the right to self-determination.

We, as Americans of all races, religions and political affiliations, cannot directly or indirectly have any part in the selling of women and children as slaves in Sudan. We cannot sell our individual souls, and we cannot sell the soul of this great country for the price of gum arabic.

Finally, let me invoke the words of America’s greatest abolitionist, Frederick Douglass: " Slavery is the common enemy of all mankind. The slave is part of the human family. Slavery is a system of such gigantic evil that no one nation is equal to its removal. It requires the humanity of all of us and the morality of the world to remove it."

Editor's note: Joe Madison, a new pundit for NewsMax.com, originally issued a version of this statement on Sept. 28, 2000.