Slavery FAQ

Slavery is recognized in international law as a “crime against humanity.”

In 1983, the Arab Muslim-dominated Government of Sudan abrogated the autonomy of Black African Christian/traditionalist Southern Sudan and imposed Islamic law on the entire multi-religious country. Southern Sudan opposed these arbitrarily imposed measures through armed resistance. In response to rebellion in Southern Sudan, the Sudanese government began to arm Arab Muslim militias and use them as an instrument of its counter-insurgency policy. The Arab Muslim militias, sometimes supported by the Sudanese army, regularly raided the borderlands of Southern Sudan. They routinely burned villages, stole cows, goats and other movable property, shot men and captured women and children as slaves.

The CPA did suspend the abduction of slaves in Southern Sudan. However, it made no provision for the liberation of women and children who had been captured in Southern Sudan and taken as slaves to the North before the signing of the CPA. Moreover, as the CPA was being negotiated, a new war broke out in the northern region of Darfur where armed Black African Muslim groups launched a rebellion against the Government of Sudan. The enslavement of Black African women and children is a feature of the civil war in Darfur.

No one knows for sure. Community leaders from the affected area have reported to CSI that over 200,000 women and children have been enslaved since 1983. In addition to those captured in slave raids, slave children are born in bondage to slave women. In 2008, a member of the Sudanese Parliament in Khartoum estimated that at least 35,000 were still enslaved in the borderland of Northern and Southern Sudan.

Most of Sudan’s slaves are members of the Dinka tribe. Their homeland is in Northern Bahr El Ghazal. This area borders Northern Sudan. It is south of Darfur and Kordofan. Many other tribes in other parts of Sudan have also been victimized by slavery, but not to the same extent as the Dinka tribe.

Most of the slaves are taken from Southern Sudan to the North, and are kept by their captors in Darfur and Kordofan. Some slaves are taken to other parts of the country. There are credible reports of Sudanese slaves being sent to Libya and the Gulf States.

Male slaves usually have to look after livestock in cattle camps and/or help with agriculture. Female slaves usually have to perform domestic labor and/or field labor. Sexual abuse of slaves is widespread, especially, but not exclusively, amongst female slaves. Beatings, death threats, forced conversions, forced labor, racial and religious insults are commonplace. Some slaves are executed if they displease their masters.

The UN is doing very little. It is unable to do much for two reasons: It lacks the will and it is incapable of acting in Sudan without the permission of the very government that is responsible for the revival of slavery. The revival of Sudanese slavery was documented and well known in governmental and NGO circles since the mid-1980s. But the UN was silent for political reasons. When publicity generated by CSI forced UNICEF to acknowledge for the first time in 1999 that children and their mothers were indeed being enslaved, the Sudanese government threatened to close down all UNICEF and other UN operations in the country. Following negotiations with the Sudanese government, UNICEF agreed not to speak of “slaves” and “slavery” in Sudan. Instead it started to use the misleading euphemisms “abductees” and “abductions.” UNICEF also agreed to provide financial support for the Government of Sudan’s new Committee for the Eradication of the Abduction of Women and Children (CEAWC). Although this committee was established mainly as a showcase to deflect criticism from Western countries, it has succeeded in returning several thousand slaves to Southern Sudan. However, during the past several years, the government has wound down its funding and CEAWC has become largely dysfunctional.

CSI began its slave liberation work in 1995. The decision to act came following fact-finding visits to the affected area. CSI became aware of the extent of the slavery problem and of the sad fact that the international community was doing virtually nothing to help the slaves. We also discovered that an “Underground Railroad” already existed, enabling slaves to be freed and sent home. Community leaders asked for CSI’s help.

CSI began to strengthen the local Arab-Dinka peace agreements by sponsoring peace conferences (see below details of these agreements.). CSI also launched a major anti-slavery campaign to create awareness and encourage the policy-makers in North America and Europe to use their power to help free the enslaved. CSI furthermore provided financial support for the Underground Railroad.

The media spotlight that CSI placed on slavery and our efforts to build a broad, left-right, black-white, Christian-non-Christian coalition were two crucial factors in President Bush’s decision to in September 2001 to launch, a diplomatic initiative, headed by former Senator John Danforth, that ultimately brought peace to Southern Sudan. Moreover, local community leaders have recorded the liberation of over 80,000 slaves through the CSI-supported Underground Railroad since 1995.

It currently costs CSI about $89 to help emancipate a slave and return him or her to South Sudan. This figure includes $43 for the cattle vaccine that retrievers offer slave owners as an incentive to release a slave, and $46 for providing food and other care for each freed slave from the time of their liberation until their repatriation to South Sudan is completed. In addition, to help these people build new lives in freedom, CSI provides each liberated slave with a survival kit costing $62.50, a female goat costing about $60 and a 16-lb. ration of grain costing $7.50.

Yes, when there is no better way to affect liberation, and when the families of the enslaved and the leaders of the victimized community desire it. In Sudan, the government in Khartoum, the UN, and the rest of the international community, including the NGOs, have failed to produce a more effective system for liberating slaves. The redemption of slaves is sanctioned by the Judeo-Christian tradition. The great 12th century Jewish scholar Maimonides judged that the redemption of slaves was a religious obligation. Two Catholic orders, the Trinitarians and the Mercedores were established explicitly for the purpose of redeeming slaves. Fredrick Douglas was a redeemed slave, as was Mother Bakhita – Sudan’s only canonized saint.

Local Arab-Dinka peace agreements are the basis of the slave retrieval system. In the early 1990s, some Arab clans which have an economic dependence on Southern Sudan – either the need for trade or land for dry season grazing – forged peace agreements with their Black African neighbors to the South. These Arabs were allowed to trade at designated markets in Southern Sudan and graze their cattle in designated areas, in return for rejecting the Government of Sudan’s declared jihad and facilitating the return of women and children who had been enslaved. Masters expected some payment for the release of their slaves, and the retrievers incurred costs. For nearly a decade, CSI paid 50,000 Sudanese pounds for the liberation and return of a slave. In local terms, that is the purchase price of two goats. In U.S. currency the value has ranged over the years between $50 and $35. At the present time, CSI does not exchange cash for slaves. Instead, we make cattle vaccine available to slave-owning cattle camp Arabs. When slaves are returned to Southern Sudan, they are documented by local community leaders and CSI staff. Tribal chiefs help locate the families of the liberated slaves.Meet one of CSI’s slave retrievers.

No. The revival of slavery in Sudan was not driven mainly by economic forces. It was instead driven primarily by political and military factors. The suspension of slave raiding in Southern Sudan at the time of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the SPLA – notwithstanding the ongoing redemption of slaves – clearly proves this fact. Moreover, the religious and civil leaders of the victimized communities would not have encouraged CSI to redeem slaves had they experienced an increase of slave raiding because of CSI’s efforts. There is a broad consensus within these communities in favor of the CSI-supported liberation system. Were this not the case, CSI would not wish to liberate slaves, and, indeed, would not be permitted to.

CSI has employed many safeguards to prevent against fraud. There have been many independent investigations of CSI’s work, especially by the media. None of the eye witness journalists have discovered and revealed false slaves. CSI also involves many people, representing different segments of the victimized communities, including the local churches, in the documentation process. None of the few outsiders who have claimed that not all the slaves are genuine have ever produced the name or other details of a false slave. Such allegations remain today unsubstantiated. CSI openly encourages anyone that might have credible evidence of wrongdoing to present it to us in detail so it can be properly investigated and appropriate remedial action taken. So far, no one has presented CSI with such evidence.

CSI’s field staff interviews and photographs each liberated slave. Once the documentation is complete, each slave receives a survival kit, including a mosquito net, a blanket, a plastic sheet, a water container a cooking pot, a sickle, fishing hooks and food rations. The freed slaves find their way back to their home areas through the chieftainship network. Most slaves find their relatives. The few who do not are taken in by a chief or the church.