Francis Bok,

I am extremely glad you have decided to join Aweil people who are in quandary about their futures. We have a lot of confusion about many things that have gone dangerously wrong without being given attention. We are all here to look for possible ways to ride ourselves of anxiety and inveterate desperation our forgotten people have stumbled into. I sincerely hope you will be both an instrumental and informational for most of us who need answers for these disturbing questions.

As Kuot Kuot put it, we all know that the disturbing issue of slavery in North Bhar El Ghazel has been underestimated or it has not been broached at all for political reason. On the contrary, however, we now see the same people who didn't take any action to stop the slavery overexaggerating the issue of Darfur for the sake of politics. Do we have futures if we don't differentiate between humanity and  unrealitic politics?  Truely, what took place in Bhar El Ghazel has no comparison to overexaggerated genocide of Darfur. The problem we had was more genocidal than that of Darfur. But why was not addressed as the crisis?

Aher's

Dear all

I didn’t know Francis Bok personally but I came to know him when I got Sudan government was very bitterly condemning his book and terms it as Making Money out of Conflict. I was chock to saw such big lies and denial of the fact. I took the below statement to Aweil@topica.com and madingayuel@topica.com for discussion because the issue was focusing about out area as well as Francis Bok is our brother, and I thought Aweil@topica.com and madingayuel@topica.com were the right forums where there are numerous of our people who should come out collectively to condemn the GOS’s denial of   “Slavery” .but all were quiet. And not only that I tried my best also to print the GOS allegation and brought it in front of Aweil elders in Nairobi, however the responses of our people were contradictory, some like it & some don’t.

Below is the GOS document, please look at it and comment.

Thank you,

Tong Deng

PRESS RELEASE, OCTOBER 17, 2003

Making Money out of Conflict: Francis Bok and “Slavery” in Sudan

Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan
Washington, D.C.

(WASHINGTON D.C., 10:17:03): In the latest manifestation of the anti-Sudan industry that has sought to make money out of Sudan’s conflict, “Escape from Slavery” - a book said to be the autobiography of a Sudanese citizen Francis Bok - has been published in the United States. In it Mr Bok repeats claims to have been a slave, captured at the age of seven by “Arab raiders”, only to have then “escaped” after ten years, first to Khartoum, then Egypt and on to the United States. Mr Bok is a spokesman for the self-styled American Anti-Slavery Group - a group identified with deeply questionable claims about Sudan.

This is sadly the most recent example of claims about “slavery” in Sudan - some of them made by people claiming to have been “slaves”. These have been exposed as false. One such book which directly mirrors the sorts of claims made by Mr Bok was “Slave”, published by Schneekluth Verlag München in Germany. In this book a Sudanese woman, Mende Nazer, claimed that she had been a slave, captured at an early age by “Arab raiders”. She then claimed to have been brought to London by a Sudanese diplomat and to have then escaped from a life of “slavery”. Unlike many of the claims about “slavery” in Sudan that have been taken at face value, however, the truth of these allegations by Ms Nazer, were carefully examined in the course of a 20-month legal case in British courts, when her claims had been published in a British newspaper.. This British judicial examination concluded with a public legal statement that:

“All the defamatory claims…were totally and utterly untrue and should never have been published. Ms Nadir was about 30 in 2000, not in her early 20’s, and had worked in Sudan between 1986 and about 1996 as a maid and then for about 4 years as a tea seller in a market in Khartoum. At no time during this period, or any other period of her life, was Ms Nadir a slave or kept as a slave by any member of the Claimant’s family.

Ms Nadir was then employed by the Claimant in London from 13 June to 8 September 2000, as domestic help to his wife. At no time during this short period of employment was Ms Nadir kept as a slave or in any way treated badly or improperly by the Claimant or his wife. Ms Nadir also did not “escape” from the Claimant’s home. In fact, from 30 July to 8 September, the Claimant and his family were in Sudan and Ms Nadir stayed with another family. She then left the Claimant’s home on 11 September.”

Another clear example of the manipulation of the image of Sudan for personal and propaganda purposes has been the campaign surrounding a woman calling herself Kola Boof. The author of “Long Train to the Redeeming Sin: Stories of African Women”, Ms Boof’s “sudden” appearance on the Internet “several months ago” was noted by “The New York Times” in December 2002. Ms Boof came to prominence when she claimed that she had been made the subject of a Sudanese government fatwa allegedly sentencing her to death for being opposed to the Khartoum government and blaspheming Islam. Ms Boof claimed that she had been sentenced to be beheaded. These claims were carried by several media outlets.

On the basis of these and other previous claims Ms Boof quickly emerged as a darling of the anti-Sudan campaign, and was embraced by activists such as Joe Madison and Maria Sliwa of “FreeWorldNow”. Building on her anti-Khartoum theme, Ms Boof also stated in interviews for example: “I am a political activist, a soldier in Dr. John Garang’s Sudanese People’s Liberation Army”.

Every one of her claims unravelled under examination. “The New York Times” (December 11, 2002) took the trouble to check her claims. The newspaper discredited the fatwa claim. The newspaper spoke to Sheikh Omar Bakri, a senior judge of the Islamic Sharia court in London, and someone noted for his forthright views. Ms Boof claimed that he had been party to the fatwa. He stated that “nobody issued a fatwa against Kola Boof”. A Sudanese diplomat had criticised Ms Boof in a newspaper article but as “The New York Times” (December 11, 2002) observed “criticism isn’t the same as a fatwa”.

Ms Boof’s claims about her early life were similarly flawed. She alleged that Murahleen tribesmen killed her parents in Omdurman in 1978. These horsemen are only found in southern Kordofan, several hundred miles away from Omdurman. It is the equivalent in American terms of being attacked in a Washington-DC suburb by a band of Oklahoma cattlemen. She also claimed that the SPLA were in existence in 1977. It is also a simple matter of record that the SPLA was founded only in late 1983. Ms Boof’s claim that her father was murdered in 1978 for speaking “up against…the brutish Islamic government of Sudan” similarly jars with reality. In 1978 Sudan was resolutely secular, governed by President Jaafar Nimeiri, a close American ally whose government was one of the largest recipients of international American economic and military assistance. The present government in Sudan only came to power in 1989!!

Ms Boof made a number of other claims about herself. In August 2002, she claimed to have been shot at outside Los Angeles by Arab Muslim gunmen, and that she shot back. Boof further claimed to be under FBI protection. “The New York Times” (December 11, 2002) reported that the FBI “had no knowledge of Ms. Boof”. Ms Boof was also said by “The New York Times” (December 11, 2002) to have claimed a four month affair with Osama bin Laden, having met him in a Senegalese restaurant “the only place in Marrakech where they knew how to cook lion’s meat” (one of her “favorite” dishes).

In an interview with “The New York Times” (December 11, 2002) Ms Boof admitted to being manipulative: “I can’t deny that I’m a conniving person…I have to manipulate the system, and I don’t mind if you publish that…” Ms Boof was dropped by her publisher at the end of 2002.

And, despite having been warmly embraced and extensively publicised by the anti-Sudan lobby within the United States and elsewhere, Ms Boof’s claims soon became even too outrageous for all but the diehard fringe. The SPLA has distanced itself from Ms Boof. “The New York Times” (December 11, 2002) reported that the SPLA “embraced her and then backed away, as Ms. Boof’s personal, if not literary credentials have been called into question.”

Deng Ajak, secretary-general of the anti-government Sudan Commission for Human Rights, was also initially supportive before stating that: “This could be one of the most impressively spun and choreographed pieces of fiction that one could imagine”.

“The New York Times” (December 11, 2020) reported that Ms Silwa has also “distanced” herself from Kola Boof’s claims, quoting her as stating: “I don’t think it behooves our human rights interest to connect ourselves with someone who is inconsistent and can’t prove her identity.”

In February 2002, in an international focus, “The Irish Times”, London’s “Independent on Sunday”, “The Washington Post” and “International Herald Tribune”, published articles exposing the deep fraud and corruption at the heart of claims of “slave redemption” in Sudan. “The Independent on Sunday” reported that it was able to “reveal that ‘redemption’ has often been a carefully orchestrated fraud”. In an open letter in 2000 senior SPLA commander Aleu Ayieny Aleu stated that “slave redemption” had become a “racket of mafia dimensions”. Aleu declared: “It was a hoax. This thing has been going on for no less than six years”. In May 2002, the CBS “60 Minutes” programme independently confirmed the unreliability of CSI’s claims of “slave redemption” in Sudan.

It should also be noted on the sorts of claims made by CSI – and repeated by Freedom House – that in a submission to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Anti-Slavery International observed:

“Unless accurately reported, the issue can become a tool for indiscriminate and wholly undeserved prejudice against Arabs and Muslims. [We] are worried that some media reports of “slave markets”, stocked by Arab slave traders – which [we] consider distort reality – fuel such prejudice.”

Sadly, Sudan has been troubled by conflict for many years. Propaganda often accompanies conflict and Sudan has been no exception. It is clear that Mr Bok, Ms Nazer and Ms Boof have willingly or unwillingly been caught up in one of the propaganda campaigns that have consciously attempted to distort international perceptions of Sudan and Sudanese affairs. They have sought commercial advantage from Sudan’s suffering. It is disappointing that several media outlets and publishing houses have seen fit to publish these and other deeply questionable claims about Sudan.

It is particularly regrettable that this propaganda campaign comes at a time when genuine advances toward peace and reconciliation in Sudan are being made. Such deliberate distortion only serves to prolong conflict in our country. It also provides outside observers with a clear example of how partisan claims about Sudan and Sudanese affairs must be treated with considerable caution.

Dear all,

whenever you are doing fine job, people will attempt to smear you but so long you are sure of your convictions, you got be steadfast on your journey. Francis had been on that course and however much Arabs or NIF Regime in Khartoum with their allies defame him, he will not back down on his convictions to speak out for victims of slavery in Northern Bharel Ghazal whom some are still under the yoke of slavery. Francis is a fantastic guy and had made his strong case on most interviews and forum he is invited to as speaker. I remember his past interview with MNSBC news with Alan Keys "Making Sense Studio" together with Sudan Ambassador to Washington D.C where he made Ambassador fool in front of American audiences by making his point drawing his life exprience with substantial evidents that put Ambassador on defensive position.

Francis Bok role as activist in this country has bore many fruits. Sudan peace Act was direct result of his speaking out against slavery. Above all he create a strong voice at Washington where slavery, forceful immigration, blood oil among others top Washington agenda for peace in Sudan.

Lastly, let me welcome Francis Bok on the Board. Greet seeing you are sir.

Dhor.

Dear all

Thank you very much for your encouraging comments towards slavery in Northern Bahr El Ghazal. I am currently busy with so many things on my desk to clear. I will represent my comments may be tomorrow or during the weekend.

Have a nice time

Thanks

Tong Deng

Dear all

First of all I would like to thank all of you for your encouraged acknowledgement that you have shown to me. I would also like to thank the you for your positive contribution you have made toward Francis’s Book and and the issue of slavery in our home area Mading Aweil in particular and Northern bahr el Ghazal in general.  The issue of slavery is affecting all of us in one way or another.

I concurred with Kuot Kuot on his statement which I have quote here  Fellows, making the case for the existence of slavery in our homeland require a relentless effort from the “walad el home” whose relatives are in captivity serving Arab masters. I am confident in what we can do as a team. We can not afford to sit back and hope that some miracle will happen some day which will make the suffering of our people heard. That task lies squarely upon our shoulders. But I do hope that, justice will be done at the end of it all.

It is true; the slavery in Northern Bahr El Ghazal is something to be combated by indigenous people in its primary level and then the outsiders at the secondary level. I can say the slavery in the said area is now being known to world leaders and it was part of “Sudan peace act” through the initiatives we made to brought it up to these levels. This was our own efforts. It is our work; we the people affected by slavery to exert our efforts to ensure that slavery is eradicated in northern Bahr el Ghazal and elsewhere in Sudan.

We the people at home have repeatedly past out cries and messages to human right organizations like CSI and CSW whom have been imminently reporting our suffering to the world communities. Our Brother Francis Piol Bok’s book has contributed to eradication of slavery significantly. I strongly recommended that it is a duty of all Aweil citizens to jointly fight whoever attempt to condemned Francis’s book. Some people tried some years back to terminate the services of CSI to people of northern Bahr El Ghazal but it wasn’t easy, all of us stood behind CSI, we wrote very strong letters and signed by our community leaders to justified their work of CSI.  

To conclude, we shouldn’t keep quiet, both us at home and Diasporas should continues to pressurize and ensure the issue of slavery is brought to the table of Sudan peace talks and sure that our human rights organizations supporters such CSI other enjoy freedom to work feely in our homeland to keep updating the world on the existing situation.

All the best

Tong Deng