Posted on 11/06/2004 1:59:36 AM PST by piasa
Assibit, 50, describes life as a slave in Niger, where 43,000 people are estimated to be in bonded labour, as the Timidria organisation which helped her escape wins an award in London.
"I was my mistress's slave - that was my identity," says Assibit, 50, who ran away from her master in June of this year.
Assibit is pressing charges against her former master After walking 30 kilometres to the nearest village, she was taken by locals to the Timidria office in Abalak.
Assibit was born into slavery - as was her mother, her husband and her five children.
The government says it is trying to clamp down on slavery - and has introduced laws so that slave owners can be punished - but still there are estimated to be tens of thousands of people in Niger in bonded labour.
Assibit's whole family served a member of the Touareg tribe.
Assibit would begin work at 0530 - pounding millet and milking the camels. She would then prepare breakfast for her master and his family - she and her family ate the leftovers.
Shade for mistress
While her husband and sons tended the cattle and camels, she and her daughter did all the household chores. These included moving the heavy tent four times a day to ensure her mistress could sit in the shade. Assibit prepared lunch and spent the rest of the day collecting water and firewood.
"We were never paid. I was only given one tenth of the camel milk I milked," she said.
He youngest sons ran away and begged her to join them.
"I have never known happiness until this... freedom," Assibit said.
She says she can now go to bed and get up when she wants. She can milk her goats when she wants. Since she has escaped, she has secured the release of her mother and daughter. She is pressing charges against her former master on several counts of slavery.
Timidria is receiving the 2004 Anti-Slavery Award on 3 November at Chatham House in London from Anti-Slavery International for fighting slavery in Niger.
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SLAVERY IN NIGER
Traditional part of Niger society Estimated 43,000 slaves in Niger Slaves subject to rape, torture and abuse New law means slave owners can be punished
UK's anti-slavery movement
paging Ambassador Wilson and assorted French mining companies...
Continuing slavery in Africa.
Koffi Anan.
Miserable Failure.
I wonder how many of these slave owners are white?
Paging Rev-rend Jack-son. Paging Rev-rend Jack-son!
Well, I think the Taureg are pretty light-colored.
I wonder how many of these slave owners are white?
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Ummm... can you say ZEE ROW ???
Problem solved, see?
Just like John Kerry said.
Nevermind all those slaves behind the curtain.
Not all Tauregs are into slavery by any means but evidently there are those who are. Just about every culture has practiced slavery of one kind or another. It's amazing, though, how slavery is ignored by Jesse and others who like to be protrayed as human rights activists- EXCEPT when Jesse is seeking reparations for himself.
The UN is a terrorist organization. Its property should be seized, its delegates sent to Gitmo where they should remain until their governments pay their NYC parking tickets. Then they should be sent home. In orange jumpsuits.
Slavery still exists in many parts of Africa. But the UN has other priorities.
Tuaregs are multi-racial. They started out in North Africa--as a semitic people. But they captured slaves from the South of Africa because they were nomadic.
The blacks were their slaves, but intermixed with the original people. Only the top families would not intermix.
Then these slaves were given the opportunity to get an education. Many left their tribes and now work as teachers, in government, etc. The original socially-elite semitic people considered themselves too cool for that. They stayed with their herds and lived in their tents.
Now the former slaves are doing better than their masters.
The last thing the UN is trying to do is reduce slavery throughout the world!
There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The modern commerce in humans rivals illegal drug trafficking in its global reach and in the destruction of lives.
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