Antislavery Usable Past

Anyang

1999 (Narrative date)

Thousands of women and children were taken into slavery during the decades of Sudan’s civil war, mainly from Northern Bahr El Ghazal and the Nuba Mountains. Slave-taking was revived in 1985 by the National Islamic government of Sudan primarily as a weapon against counterinsurgents in the South, and secondarily a way to reimburse its surrogate soldiers for neutralizing this threat.

In 1989 the government created the Popular Defense Forces (PDF), militia trained to raid villages and take people as slaves. PDF recruits were allowed to keep whoever they captured, along with booty of grain and cattle. One study documents 12,000 abductions by name, while NGOs offer estimates ranging from 15,000 to 200,000. The slaves were often moved to large towns in the north on week-long journeys during which the women were repeatedly raped, and then sold to new masters who used them without pay for farming and sexual services. The peace process brought these PDF abductions to an end, but inter-tribal abductions continue in Southern Sudan. In addition, Sudanese children are used by rebel groups in the ongoing conflict in Darfur; Sudanese boys from the country’s eastern Rashaida tribe continue to be trafficked to the Middle East for use as camel jockeys; the rebel organization “Lord’s Resistance Army” has forcibly conscripted children in Southern Sudan for use as combatants in its war against Uganda; and the institution of chattel slavery continues in southern Darfur and southern Kordofan.

Anyang was abducted by Arab Murahaleen in 1998. Upon arrival in the North she was given to a man and forced to milk his cows.

I was captured in April 1998. Several hundred Arab Murahaleen attacked our village in the afternoon. They came on horses and many wore army uniforms.

My husband Garang Acuil Atany was at Warawar at the time of the attack. I don’t know whether he is still alive. The attackers took myself, my children Acien Garang and Garang Acuil and a son of my sister who happened to be with us at the time of the attack. I was pregnant at that time.

The raiders ordered me to milk the stolen cattle on the way. I also had to lead the cattle with a stick and carried loot on my head at the same time. Some of the stolen children had to lead the goats. We were forced to march fast because the raiders feared that they would be attacked by our people from behind. We walked for five days until we reached Adeela. I thought that I would die on the way because I was totally exhausted. In Adeela we were divided. The two children stayed with me. I was given to an Arab by the name of Hamid. He ordered me to milk his cows… It will be good to die in my own land. I am very happy now.

Narrative as told to Christian Solidarity International, January 1999, in Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Sudan.

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1998 (enslavement period)

VOICES: Narratives by Survivors of Modern Slavery

This is the world's largest archive of modern slavery survivor narratives. Across more than a million words spoken or written by survivors of modern slavery, we can see why slavery persists in particular hotspots, analyse patterns in trafficking routes, identify vulnerabilities, understand more about the challenges survivors face in liberation, and discover new antislavery solutions. These narratives offer the chance to systematically design new antislavery strategies based on the experiences, ideas and solutions of enslaved people themselves.

The database is searchable by country, name, theme, and narrative date. Narratives can be viewed in list or map form. A short introduction provides context to each narrative. Narrative provenance appears after the main narrative text.

For ideas on how to use this database, please see our accompanying guide.

Project Lead: Zoe Trodd. Team Members: Andrea Nicholson, Lauren Eglen, Rosemary Pearce, Olivia Wright.

Project Funders: AHRC Antislavery Usable Past grant (2014-19), ESRC/AHRC PaCCS Modern Slavery: Meaning and Measurement grant (2016-19), and AHRC-GCRF Antislavery Knowledge Network grant (2017-2021).

For any queries about the collection please contact: rightslab@nottingham.ac.uk. If you wish to cite a particular narrative, please acknowledge the survivor’s name, the provenance of the narrative and cite: Voices Database, the Rights Lab, University of Nottingham.

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