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Paperback: 351 pages |
Slave
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Update| Where Are They Now
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Synopsis of Book
Mende Nazer's happy childhood in the remote Nuba Mountains of Sudan was cruelly cut short when raiders on horseback swept into her village. The Mujahidin hacked down terrified villagers, raped the women and abducted the children. Twelve-year-old Mende was one of them. Sold to an Arab woman in Khartoum, Mende was kept as a domestic slave, without any pay or a single day off. Her food was leftover scraps, and her bed was the floor of the garden shed. She endured this harsh and lonely existence for seven long years and was then passed on by her master to a relative in London. Eventually Mende managed to make contact with other Nuba exiles who, with British journalist and filmmaker Damien Lewis, helped her escape to freedom.
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Images
Including fascinating images from Mende Nazer's life today - her friends, work and fun times - plus some of the Awards and accolades she has received in the UK, Germany and elsewhere.
View Slave Image GalleryReaders Reviews
Readers reviews of Slave from Amazon.co.uk >>>
Media & Press
“Nazer provides beautiful and at times heart-wrenching accounts of the Nuba’s traditions…an important reminder of the real, lived terrors of thousands of black southern
Sudanese whose stories will never be told, and whose freedom may never be won.”
—The Washington Post
“Harrowing...[Nazer] describes being sold into servitude...a fate shared
by more than 11,000 people each year in Sudan alone."
—People Magazine
“[Nazer] dwells on her Nuba childhood with a childlike quality…Ultimately
[she] celebrates…rebellion against injustice and the triumph of the
human spirit.”
—The Economist
“A clear, compelling, first-person narrative that conveys [Mende’s]
young voice with powerful authenticity… the details are unforgettable,
capturing both the innocence of the child and the world-weariness of one who
has endured the worst.”
—Booklist
“Few [memoirs] are as starkly powerful as this one: Nazer tells her
story with lucid simplicity, deftly evoking her earlier self to convey that
girl’s innocence, violent loss, and compromise with survival.”
—The Onion
“Ultimately, Slave is the compelling memoir of one woman's
struggle to hang on to her humanity and of her continuing fight to stop others
from losing theirs.”
— The Kansas City Star
“Mende Nazer’s spirit echoes that of Sojourner
Truth’s during her journey from slave to freedom fighter… told
in a childlike voice that conveys innocence and honesty.”
— Orlando Sentinel
“[Nazer] tells her story of individual dignity combined with uncommon
courage.”
— The Denver Post
"Told with clarity and dignity... Surprisingly, a book about such a horrible
subject is uplifting: Slave is an inspiring testimonial to one young
woman's remarkable courage and unbreakable spirit."
— The Roanoke Times
“A shocking, true story of contemporary slavery… [Mende Nazer’s]
eventual and incredible journey into freedom is told simply and with grace
even under the circumstances.”
— Knoxville News-Sentinel
“By telling her story, Mende has managed to shed much needed light to
the plight of the rest of our African sisters and throughout it all, her strength
and beauty never fade.”
— Waris Dirie, author of Desert Flower
“An eye-opening account of the atrocities that can and do happen when
one nationality believes it is superior to another, and an unforgettable plea
for all people of all nations to focus on the importance of human rights and
to understand that we are all equal, all part of one human race, and therefore
should all be treated equally.”
— Norma Khouri, author of Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan
"Slave constitutes an act of tremendous courage. A solitary
and profoundly moving voice emerging from the most silenced of quarters."
— Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane
“A straightforward, harrowing memoir that’s a sobering reminder
that slavery still needs to be stamped out…a profound meditation on
the human ability to survive under virtually any circumstances.”
— Publishers Weekly
“The shockingly grim story of how the author became a slave at the end
of the 20th century—mercifully, it has an ending to lift the spirit…Revelatory
in the truest sense of the word: told with a child-pure candor that comes like
a bucket of cold water in the lap.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"As you read about Nazer's enslavement and her eventual run to freedom
in September 2000, you will weep, rage, and shout for justice. I couldn't put
it down."
— Libby Manthey, Riverwalk Books Limited, Chelan, WA
"[celebrates]...rebellion against injustice and the triumph of the human
spirit."
- The Economist, February 19, 2004
"Born into the Karko tribe in the Nuba mountains of northern Sudan, Nazer
has written a straightforward, harrowing memoir that's a sobering reminder
that slavery still needs to be stamped out. The first, substantial section
of the book concentrates on Nazer's idyllic childhood, made all the more poignant
for the misery readers know is to come. Nazer is presented as intelligent and
headstrong, and her people as peaceful, generous and kind. In 1994, around
age 12 (the Nuba do not keep birth records), Nazer was snatched by Arab raiders,
raped and shipped to the nation's capital, Khartoum, where she was installed
as a maid for a wealthy suburban family. (For readers expecting her fate to
include a grimy factory or barren field, the domesticity of her prison comes
as a shock.) To Nazer, the modern landscape of Khartoum could not possibly
have been more alien; after all, she had never seen even a spoon, a mirror
or a sink, much less a telephone or television set. Nazer's urbane tormentors-mostly
the pampered housewife-beat her frequently and dehumanized her in dozens of
ways. They were affluent, petty and calculatedly cruel, all in the name of "keeping
up appearances."
The contrast between Nazer's pleasant but "primitive" early life
and the horrors she experienced in Khartoum could hardly be more stark; it's
an object lesson in the sometimes dehumanizing power of progress and creature
comforts. After seven years, Nazer was sent to work in the U.K., where she
contacted other Sudanese and eventually escaped to freedom. Her book is a
profound meditation on the human ability to survive virtually any circumstances."
- Publishers Weekly
"The shock of this title is that it refers to what is happening
right now, in Sudan, Africa, and also in the West. Ten years ago, when Mende
Nazer was about 12 years old, she was captured in an Arab raid on her remote
Nuba village, and, with about 30 other black Muslim children, she was sold
into slavery. For eight years, she toiled as a domestic worker for a wealthy
family in Khartoum, beaten and abused by her vicious owners, who then sent
her to work for a relative in London, an important Sudanese diplomat. With
only broken English and no friends, she remained locked up and isolated until
finally she managed to escape and tell her story. And it doesn't end there:
the U.K. refused her asylum ("Slavery is not persecution"). Now
in 2003, the British government has given in to the global pressure of human-rights
groups and allowed her to stay. Journalist Lewis helped her escape, and he
spent months interviewing her. He tells her story in a clear, compelling,
first-person narrative that conveys her young voice with powerful authenticity.
Her memories of childhood in her Nuba village are idyllic (except for her
brutal circumcision, described in graphic detail). But the core of the book
is her daily labor and abuse as a house slave. The details are unforgettable,
capturing both the innocence of the child and the world-weariness of one who
has endured the worst."
- Booklist Hazel Rochman
KLIATT, July 2005
"A story of the triumph of the human spirit against oppressing odds."
Excerpt
Prologue: The Raid
The day that changed my life forever started with a beautiful dawn. I greeted the sunrise by facing east and making the first of my five daily prayers to Allah. It was the spring of 1994, at the end of the dry season. I was about twelve years old. After prayers, I got ready to go to school. It would take me an hour to walk there and an hour back again. I was studying hard because I wanted to be a doctor when I grew up.... Read More