Former Sudanese child slave visits UCF to speak about modern day slavery - Central Florida Future

by Liset-Valle Jimenez

Contributing Writer

Published: Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Updated: Tuesday, February 1, 2011 23:02

Liset-Valle Jimenez

After 10 years of subjection and dehumanization, Francis "Piol" Bok of the Sudanese Dinka tribe finally became a free man after his relocation to North Dakota by the United Nations in 1999. On Tuesday, Bok arrived at UCF's Pegasus Ballroom to talk about the current issues facing his country and his life story as an ex-Sudanese child slave.

Mark Freeman, UCF's Global Perspectives public affairs coordinator, said the university feels passionately about human trafficking or modern day enslavement and often tries to bring speakers in to discuss the subject. Bok's last visit to UCF was on Nov. 16, 2006.

Bok, now in his early 30's, vividly remembers the Arab militia that raided his village when he was seven. After the murder of his mother, father and all but one sibling, he was forced to serve a master,Giemma Abdullah,as chattel in a blatant display of 21^st century enslavement.

Bok recalls how he witnessed genocide and how it impacted him at such a young age. He compares his life to a scene in the movie "Hotel Rwanda" and his encounters with those of Holocaust survivors.

"The bodies were on top of one another as if resting and blood ran like water in a river at my feet," said Bok.

"My age didn't allow me to comprehend what was happening in front of my eyes."

However, the tone of the forum was one of jubilation as Bok rejoiced for the future of an independent South Sudan.

Bok thanked his audience for their support and with arms raised and hands open, he expressed his appreciation of all things American and encouraged his listeners to take part in the future of a free South Sudan.

"You have to talk to your community, but first it takes education," said Bok. "They will listen because you are their future leaders."

Among the audience was Michael Fitzwater's eighth grade class from South Seminole Middle School.

"In our leadership class we learn traits and apply them to global issues," said Fitzwater.

Roughly 28 students came to hear Bok speak and learn more about human trafficking, a topic they have been focusing on in class. The group also raised a few hundred dollars for the Free the Slaves foundation.

Even though Bok is grateful, he does feel that the current U.S. government has not done enough to help the conflict between North and South Sudan.

"This is not a short term relationship," said Bok. "We need each other."

He added that it is naïve to think that what happens overseas doesn't impact you here.

Mechanical engineer major Curtis Gordon, 28, said he wanted to see Bok because after reading so much about slavery while in Jamaica, he had to see for himself someone who had actually been through it all.

The Francis Bok Foundation hopes to begin its development of new South Sudanese high schools in June of this year. Donations can also be made to the American Anti-Slavery Group's website, iabolish.org.

"After I arrived in 1999 as a refugee I said to myself that I would not live my life as an individual," said Bok. "I decided to dedicate my life's story — I will not be free until all my people are free at last."

Source:  centralfloridafuture.com
Former Sudanese child slave visits UCF to speak about modern day slavery - Central Florida Future

The Daily Free Press - Human trafficking still exists, yet receives little attention, panelists say

Image via Wikipedia

By Jacqueline Lacy

Monday, March 29, 2010

More people are enslaved around the world than ever before, panelists said Thursday night in a lecture at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square.

More than 100 community members attended the panel and discussion titled Modern Day Slavery, which was sponsored by Primary Source, a nonprofit educational resource organization based in Watertown.

Panelists included scholar Zoe Trodd, former slave Francis Bok, co-founder of anti-slavery organization Polaris Project Katherine Chon and internationally known journalist Benjamin Skinner.
Each lecturer spoke on the difficulties and importance of defining what slavery is. Trodd gave estimates on the magnitude of slavery in the world.

“Twenty-seven million slaves are in the world today,” Trodd said. “They are enslaved in a variety of types of slavery: chattel slavery, debt bondage slavery and contract slavery.”
The price of a slave in current economic terms is approximately $40, making slaves today the cheapest they have ever been in history, Trodd said.

Bok told the audience stories of his personal experiences with slavery. He was enslaved as a young boy in 1986 after his mother asked him to go to a local market and sell eggs and peanuts.

“I was just a little boy and I was happy and I used to play games,” Bok said. But that night he did not return to his village in southern Sudan. While at the market, a group of Arab militiamen surrounded him and took him to northern Sudan. He said his captors were from the same group who conducting the genocide in Darfur.

“I am happy to have my life back, to live my dreams, but my heart is always in my village, in those places where slavery still exists. There are 27 million people, and more people are still held in bondage. While we actually say it is horrible, we don’t take action,” Bok said.

“Slavery does not happen just to young women or children, it’s an equal opportunity exploitation,” said Chon, who addressed how gender relates to the slave trade.

The final speaker, Skinner, spoke about his challenges of telling stories and raising awareness through various personal anecdotes.

“Some 225,000 children are domestics in Haiti . . . typically coming from desperately poor families,” Skinner said, recalling his most recent visit to earthquake-stricken Haiti. “[They] wind up with richer families in the cities and they are forced to work. They are treated in almost every instance violently and they cannot walk away.”

Skinner also discussed the increase in sex-entertainment slavery around the stadiums being built for the South African World Cup and said he also saved one girl from a prison-like brothel.
Development and Outreach at Primary Source Director Jennifer Routhier said the variety of panelists helped keep the discussion balanced.

“We wanted a scholar who is a historian to frame it, a victim of slavery to talk about his experience, an activist and expert in sex-trafficking who could speak to the gender aspects of the issue and a journalist who is trying to raise awareness and follow the stories of slavery,” she said.

During the question-and-answer session at the end of the presentations, many audience members spoke of ways that people could get involved with fighting human slavery.

Eric Goodwin, a master’s student at the Harvard University Extension School and a member of the Human Trafficking Student Association at Harvard, said he is trying to motivate students and faculty to get involved in the subject.

“We have 42 laws across the U.S. but we still need more,” Goodwin said. “We need a lot better laws. We put the cart before the horse. Usually the laws follow the social movement, but now we need a social movement and we need academics at the beginning of that social movement.”


The Daily Free Press - Human trafficking still exists, yet receives little attention, panelists say

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