Francis Bok

Francis Bok (born February 1979 in South Sudan ) is a former slave and now an anti- slavery activist . Its original name is Francis Piol Bol Buk .

At the age of seven he was captured by Arab militia in 1986 during an attack and taken to northern Sudan , where he was forced to do slave labor for ten years until 1996 . After escaping and seven months in prison, he fled to Cairo . Today he lives in the USA and fights against slavery in the American Anti-Slavery Group .

childhood

Francis Bok, a Dinka , spent his childhood with his family in a small village in South Sudan on his father's farm, where he played with other children or helped his father on the farm. Despite the civil war in South Sudan , his family was comparatively wealthy.

Capture and Slavery

At the age of seven, Francis Bok went alone to the nearby market town of Nyamlell to sell goods. On that day there was a raid by Murahaliin militias, in which he saw his people being murdered. He and other children were captured by the Murahaliin and taken to northern Sudan as slaves. A Murahali woman named Giemma Abdullah took him to his farm in Kirio village, where he learned for the first time that he was now an Abeed , a "black slave". He had to sleep with the animals, eat spoiled food, and work hard. Giemma Abdullah regularly beat him with the whip and threatened to chop off his leg if he wasn't working. Francis Bok had seen other slaves lacking legs or arms, so he worked with all his might for his tormentor for ten years.

Escape and re-imprisonment

After seven years, Francis Bok could no longer stand it in captivity and decided to flee. However, his attempt to escape failed - he was recaptured and beaten for his attempt and threatened with losing a leg if he tried again. Nevertheless, he tried to flee again the next day. But this attempt also failed, and he was threatened with death. But Giemma Abdullah let him live because his work was very useful for the farm owner. Francis Bok made his next attempt to escape three years later, in December 1996. He was 17 years old at the time and was significantly taller and stronger than the last attempt. The attempt to escape succeeded and he was able to flee to the nearby city of Matari ( Abu Matariq ), where he turned to the police. However, this did not support him, but let him work unpaid as a kitchen boy. He therefore fled to a refugee camp near Khartoum . There he was arrested by two government officials after talking to other camp residents about slavery. The Sudanese government believes that there is no slavery in Sudan, which is why Francis Bok was imprisoned for "lying against the government".

Living in the USA

When Francis Bok was released from prison after seven months, he managed to escape to Cairo with false papers. The maker of his forged Sudanese passport misspelled his name as Francis Fioul Bul Bok , which is why he has been called Francis Bok ever since .

In Cairo he was recognized as a refugee by the UN . He then went into exile in North Dakota , USA . On September 28, 2000, Francis Bok was the first escaped slave to testify before the US Senate , and on October 21, 2001, he was invited to the White House to participate in the signing ceremony for the Sudanese Peace Act . Today Francis Bok campaigns against slavery in order to spare others the misfortune he had to experience.

Books

• Francis Bok, Escape from Slavery , Lübbe ISBN 3404615409

Abstract:

One evening I asked Giemma in his own language: "Why does nobody love me?" He stared at me as if one of his goats had suddenly spoken. "And why do I have to sleep with the animals?" I asked further.

"Where did you learn that?" Roared Giemma. He hit me, then left. Two days later he said: “You want to know why nobody loves you and why you have to sleep with the animals? Because you are an animal. "

See also

• Slavery in Sudan

Web links

• Literature by and about Francis Bok in the catalog of the German National Library
• American Anti-Slavery Group (Engl.)
• Biography (English).