Slavery In Modern Sudan Essay, Research Paper

Slavery in modern Sudan

In this day and age it seems almost unlikely that anything as inhuman as slavery still exist but unfortunately it does. In Sudan thousands of South Sudan people, Dinkas, are being kept as house slaves by northern Sudan slave keepers. Still nothing concrete seems to be done in order to put a stop to it. That is to say that the government of Khartoum as well as the human rights organizations have found no adequate solution yet. The question however remains whether the government of Khartoum wants to stop the slavery or not ?

During the last thirty-two years of independence the Islamic government in Khartoum has tried to force its Sharia, the Islamic justice system, on the South of Sudan. This has resulted into a tragic war as most inhabitants of South Sudan are either or Christian. According to the American Committee For Refugees nearly two million people have died as a result of this war. Note that this amount is even more than all victims of war in Kosovo, Bosnia and Rwanda put together. However the war is not the only matter that is of concern to the human rights organizations that are currently working in Sudan. For Instance slavery, how immoral and inappropriate in a modern society, is still booming business in Sudan. It is even estimated that about one hundred thousand South Sudan Dinka women and children are being forced to work as house slaves in northern Arabia.

While Dinka men are trying to fight of the northern Islamic troops, their women and children are kidnapped by other Islamic militias. Several human rights organizations also state that it is the slave owners and traders ideal to have no other culture than its own in Sudan. For this reason all their slaves have to speak Arabic and perform Islamic rituals. Surely the younger the slave the more easily it is to reform him or her. That is why the slave traders are mostly kidnapping very young children. The government of Khartoum however denies that it deliberately lets slavery occur in the North. Nevertheless the government has admitted that slavery does occur in some independent Arabian tribes who act without their consent. More alarming yet is that there are several northern Arabic tribes who say that the Koran, their holy bible, states that it is their right to have slaves as they are inferior to themselves. According to them they are doing the Dinka people a favor by forcing them to adapt to the Islam religion.

John Eibner of the Christian Solitary International has setup a programme to free the slaves in 1995. For fifty American dollars he can and will buy the freedom of one slave. From 1995 onwards the CSI has managed to free almost eight-thousand Dinkas in Sudan. This year alone one-point seven hundred slaves were freed by the CSI during a crusade earlier this year. The ex-slaves however have no place to turn, as there is no organization which provides them with food, water and shelter. Furthermore many organizations like Unicef are opposed to buying the slaves freedom. Speaking generally these organizations feel that buying slaves will only result into more misery as the slave traders can now trade with both sides. Nevertheless John Eibner states that there is not any prove of an increase of slaves due to his actions. Moreover he says that the people who kidnap the Dinkas are not the same ones that bring them to him. It will come as no surprise that the people who sell the Dinkas to the SCI are in it for the money as there is a lot of poverty in Sudan. A whole new market is being created were it seems to be morally correct or even heroic to steel the slaves from their owners in order to sell them again to the CSI.

It goes without saying that something must be done. The government of Khartoum however does not seem to be particularly willing to find a solution as its main priority is to in-role its legal system through the whole country. Some human rights organizations have even suggested that the government of Khartoum is financing northern militias to find potential slaves. Apart from this the human rights organizations themselves do not have enough power or tools to fight slavery in Sudan. Clearly the only solution to slavery in Sudan is to make it public knowledge. Other countries can then send more money and people to Sudan, which will improve the existing aids to development.