Slavery in Sudan

There had been slavery in Africa for a very long time but it was only minor in certain regions of Africa. When Islam spread through Africa in the seventh century there was a sudden increase in slavery and slave trade. There were prisoners of war in Africa and Muslim rulers said non Muslim prisoners can be bought and sold as slaves. Affecting 17 million African slaves to be transported to Muslim lands such as North Africa and South Asia.

Slaves and slave trade has been a paramount part of history for a very long time. In the years of the British thirteen colonies in North America, slaves and slave trade was a very consequential part of its development. It even carried on to virtually 200 years of Coalesced States history. The slave trade of the thirteen colonies was a paramount part of the colonies as well as Europe and Africa. In order to supply the thirteen colonies efficiently through trade, Europe developed the method of triangular trade. It is referred to as triangular trade because it consists of trade with Africa, the thirteen colonies, and England.

Perhaps the first sociological construct demonstrated in the film was the effects of Dependency Theory. Much of Africa has a history of being colonized by Europe at some point in its history, and in the case of Sudan, it was largely under British control. Under British rule, Sudan was essentially divided into Northern and Southern regions. While the North continued to practice its traditions and language, Christianity and the English language began to spread throughout the South. When the British left Sudan, the superpower attempted to prepare the country for self-government by establishing a parliament. The problem was that this new government was established predominantly in the North with little representation of Southern Sudan. After the British left, years of conflict quickly arose and eventually lead to civil war.

The Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice Equality Movement took arms against the Sudanese government, which was later named “The War in Darfur”. Which sparked the anger of the government and sent their military to begin murdering many villages, that were non Arabs. In many accounts reported about 2 million were killed over 2 decades.Scarce resources played a huge role in the mass killings of Sudanese (non arab).

Slavery in the Americas was the action of human imprisonment, where all rights and freedoms were taken, that lasted over a thousand year. It was brutal and affected many people. The Arab slave trade was a major part of the imprisonment also and the beginning of slavery which started in 700 AD (1). The Arab Slave Trade was the practice of capturing and selling slaves in the “Arab World”. Since the Arabs controlled the sea routes it was easy for them to transport and trade. The Arab traders captured Africans known as “Bantu”. Then these Africans were sold throughout the Middle East.

Students explore the experiences of people of Southern Sudan during and after the Second Sudanese Civil War.

The Sudan is home to two civil wars taking place dating back hundreds of years. “The older of the two, pitting the Muslim revels from the south, has claimed 2m lives in the past two decades, and spurred 4m people to abandon their homes.”(Economist 11) Although the two sides in this old war are close to a peace resolution, a new insurgence has begun in the region pitting “Arabs” against the “black Africans”, in an effort to attract peace concessions from the Sudanese government just as the older rebels did years before. An uprising by rebel groups against government targets sparked this new war because they felt neglected by the Sudanese government. But the response of the government to the new revolt falls extremely short of peace concessions, and instead perpetuates an environment of violence, torture and depression. The government has given its own militia, the janjaweed, free reign to pillage, rape and kill black civilians in a futile attempt to squelch the revolt. This can be see as an “ethnic cleansing” in which the government feels that the killings of blacks will hopefully rid the country of the rebels given that the Darfur rebels are mostly black Africans. Thus, the Sudanese

Why: There is a civil was going on between people that support the President, Salva Kiir, or his fired deputy, Rick Machar.

Throughout the history of mankind, a vast variety of achievements can be noted. Whether it be the discovery of fire, electricity, democracy, etc., humans have mastered the art of advancing themselves toward modern civilization. However, the history of mankind is also burden with many acts of darkness. Centuries ago, the slavery system was created and this hateful act continues to haunt the world to this day. A common miss conception of slavery, is that it began with the Europeans kidnapping Africans and taking them to the New World for agricultural purposes. However, slavery stretches much farther than the early developments of the United Sates. For example, the word slavery is derived from the root word “Slav”, which originated from the the Slavic people who were subjugated by other Europeans in the early developments of mankind. (Azumah) Western slavery is often connected with being the most heinous act towards the African people in history. With that said, many people are unaware of the Arab Muslim slave trade that occurred which resulted in the deaths of millions of more African lives than American slavery. (Azumah)

The second civil war started in 1983 because of longstanding issues uplifted by then President Jaafar Nimeiri's choice to implement Sharia law. Arrangements between the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, or SPLM/An of southern Sudan occurred in 1988 and 1989, however were deserted when General Omar al-Bashir took power in the 1989 through military coup. The Fighting over resources, southern self-determination, and the role of religion in the state raged between the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A for over two decades. The war left two and a half million people dead and four million people displaced. (Enoughproject.org)

This Law seriously violated the 1972 peace agreement, forcing the south to adopt Arab culture, language and the religion of Islam. The Nimeiry government was strengthening Sudan’s ties to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as economic hardships drew it away from the Soviet Union and closer to western nations. During the 1980’s, strikes, riots and shortages of goods and services had devastated the nation. The discovery of natural resources, such as minerals and petroleum that were discovered in the south added to the problem. Although the discovery of natural reserves should have helped Sudan’s economic situation, it became another source of conflict between the north and the south over who would control it.

When organizations pay slave traders to liberate slaves, the natural rights of these violated people are regained. Living life with the freedom to chose is a liberty that most take for granted. However, for plenty of Sudanese indigenous folk, the opportunity of this free diminishes. As the civil war raged between North and South Sudan, the Dinka, the people of South Sudan, are forced miles up to the north to become slaves. Families are ripped apart during these raids due to the war. The women and children are herded north like cattle by Arab Militiamen for the purpose of slaves in terms of payments, domestic work, farm and herd work, or as concubines (Olson). Since this practice restarted in 1983, organizations have strained to end this resurgence

While still struggling to achieve peace with Sudan since its independence in 2011, South Sudan is now rife with inner-conflict. Rebel forces led by the former Vice-President Riek Machar want to overthrow the South Sudanese government, led by President Salva Kiir.

From 1972 onwards, the government “usually ran Darfur through officials brought in from other parts of Sudan, mainly from Khartoum” (Darfur: Origins). What Britain did basically doomed Non-Arab Darfur to “a future as an underdeveloped colony of Sudan’s Arab-speaking Nile Valley heartland” (Darfur: Origins).

The origin of the war between these two regions goes back to the 1950s when the country, which was previously two separate nations, was made one after World War II by the west. Shortly after this union, Sudan was emancipated from England. 1983 marks the beginning of the violent relations between the North and South Sudan. The initiation of this conflict was brought forth by the Islamic Sudanese of the North, invading with military force the Southern Sudanese Christians . From 1983, it is estimated that at least two million people have been killed in the violent duration of this genocide, most of whom are of the Christian faith and lead non-violent civilian lives. Attention on human trafficking was brought into the international community’s scope with close proximity to the beginning of the violence as two professors from the University of Khartoum shed light on the subject. Ushari Ahmad Mahumud and Suleyman Ali Baldo learned about the genocide and enslavement being practiced on the Dinka people, a tribal group in the southern Sudan, and upon this discovery they dicided to investigate it further. What they found was that raiders from the north were killing the Southern Christian men and kidnapping the women and children to be sold into slavery. The most disturbing part of this discovery was the newfound knowledge that this had been going on for over two years. Professors Mahumud and Baldo