we take our freedom for granted

Author : Mende Nazer
Title : Slave: The True Story of a Girl's Lost Childhood and Her FIght for Survival
Published : 02/10/2012
Pages : 331
Format : Kindle
Publisher : Virago

     Mende Nazer's happy childhood was cruelly cut short at the age of twelve when the Mujahidin rode into her village in the remote Nuba mountains of Sudan. They hacked down terrified villagers, raped the women and abducted the children. Mende was them. She was taken and sold to an Arab woman in Khartoum. She was stripped of her name and her freedom. For seven long years she was kept as a domestic slave,  Passed on by her master, like a parcel, to a relative in London, Mende eventually managed to escape to freedom.

    

    Most of us think of slavery as something in the past. A subject relagted to history books and a subject that most find difficult to come to terms with. How could some one own another. But as i was about to find out with this book it is a trade that is still alive and flourishing. Unlike most storeys of slavery this one come streight from the source. Mende  was captured a held as a slave for so long she did not believed she would every feel what freedom was like again.  

 

     The book starts us of with her childhood in the Nuba mountains. In some ways I found it strange that in a book so full of heartache it would begin with tales of such joy and happiness. But here the thing it give you context for what would come latter on. I enjoyed the tales of her carefree child hood and they made me smile. The bond she had with her family and especially her father are things to warm your soul. The only thing that tears you away from this idyllic early pages is when she talks about her F.G.M a subject I have written about in reviewing a previous book. It also aids in the process of ripping us away when she is kidnapped and her village virtually destroyed. What follows is a decent into hopelessness and a fight for survival. Her telling of being rapped by her captures is one that will rip the smile from your face. She was only 12 at the time. The event that take place over the following years are so distant from anything we can comprehend. Imagine not only being taken from your home but then on to another country where you cant speak the language. She really brings to life what is like to be treated like less than human.

 

     The author manages to keep you with her the hole way through her tale. This is some times a hard thing to stomach. But she manages to deliver in a way that we can all comprehend. As the book progresses the years role by and we get to follow her from Khartoum and then on to London where she was given to her owners sister as a gift. This was a story that held my attention from the start. She will break your heart with the tale she has to tell you. I find it so disturbing that this is a practise that is still all to alive and well in the supposed modern world. Being relegated to living in a small shed with no form of protection from the mosquito's and not being allowed a name. It must be a strange state of being not being allowed to use the very thing the we use to identify our selves by. This book filled me with such rage towards the people who took her and then those who held her. What gives anyone else the wright to do this to some one else. We like to think of our selves as living in an enlightened world but as I started to get towards the end and realised it was coming to the very country I call my home I started to doubt some of my beliefs in what my country is. But I guess we all think that about the place we chose to call home. Luckily and through sheer will of determination and the help of two people she managed to escape. And with this could start to rebuild her life. Although there where problems with the English government and her seek asylum.  Her writing companion has add some facts for us to better understand the global epidemic that is the modern slave trade. This shows the worrying state of affairs that people like Mende are in.

 

     This is a story we all should read I don't think we can pretend like its not happening any more. She will move you with each of the chapters. I can get my head around living in fear of being beaten for doing the slightest thing wrong. Working for no pay and no time off gives us some perspective for when we complain about the jobs we chose to work out. I can not thank the author enough for laying her story down on page and opening my eyes. I urge you to pick up a copy and learn from her story. It will not be an easy on to digest but it is important.  There is always more we can do.