For many in the first world, slavery appears to be a thing of the past. We read about it in history books and watch documentaries about it, but we think that it is no more in our modern world.
Sadly, slavery still exists. In Sudan, civilians were captured and enslaved the during the Second Sudanese Civil War.
Francis Bok was one of those enslaved. Captured as a young boy in the 1980’s, he escaped as a teenager and eventually found his way to America.
He recalls his experience in his 2003 memoir, Escape from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity and My Journey to Freedom in America. Until the age of seven, Mr. Bok lived a happy life with his family in Southern Sudan. Then Arab raiders attacked his village and took him and hundreds of others as slaves. Successfully escaping at the age of seventeen after two previous attempts, Mr. Bok landed in Egypt before arriving in America.
I loved this book. It was both scary and thrilling at the same time. It was scary because I honestly believed the slavery no longer existed. It was thrilling as he finally made his way to freedom after years of treated as less than human.
I recommend it.
Writergurlny 