(وثيقة الرق في السودان ) الموقعون على الميرغنى والشريف يوسف الهندى وعبدالرحمن المهدى

Quote: FLASHPOINT FOR CONFLICT Slavery in the Sahel region of Africa is hundreds of years old, and Sudan was a very active participant in the slave trade until early this century. The south-western region of Bahr al-Ghazal was one of the most prominent centres of slave trading on the African continent in the late 19th century. South-western Sudan, on the border with the Central African Republic, is divided by the Bahr-al-Arab and Bahr-al-Ghazal rivers into two zones. With followers of Islam in the north and of Christianity and traditional religions in the south, it is a microcosm of the way the country itself is divided. It has long been a flashpoint for conflicts, often spurred by competition for resources, and compounded by racial, religious and cultural differences. For centuries northern Sudanese and Turco-Egyptian traders raided along the Nile, deep into Upper Nile, Equatoria and into the vast lands of Bahr al-Ghazal. Here African villagers were caught, beaten and roped together. Then they were walked and shipped great distances to be sold on as domestic servants, farm hands or concubines, in Northern Sudan, neighbouring countries like Egypt and Libya, or across the Red Sea. ENCOURAGING HOSTILITY Raiding and hostage-taking, slave-like conditions and child trafficking among rival Sudanese tribes existed before the arrival of invaders from the north. From the niid-1800s, however, foreign traders encouraged hostile tribal groups to raid each other for booty including ivory and slaves. The Baggara, Muslim cattle-herders who regard them- selves as Arabs, penetrated south into Bahr al-Ghazal, the land of the Dinka and other African, non-Arabised tribes. RISE OF THE JALLABA In the early 19th century, the "Jallaba", a group of northern Muslirn traders mostly from the Ja'aliyyin and Danagla tribes of the Nile valley, came in increasing numbers to southern Sudan, especially northern Bahr al-Ghazal, which became an important source of slaves. The Jallaba made their fortunes in the slave trade, although some also worked as boatmen and soldiers. They sent the slaves overland to markets in the north, and kept them in enclosures with thorny fences, called zaribas, en route. The Jailaba prospered, and became a powerful and wealthy community - with vested interests in slavery. To this day, Southerners sometimes refer to Northerners as "Jallaba" as if, to them, the merchant class represents the entire society VIVID MEMORIES The current inhabitants of Southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains and Ingessana Hills are the people whose forebears remained free. Their tribes and families have vivid folk memories of the slave-raiding "Arabs" which influence their relationship with the Northern Sudanese today. The bloodlines of many present-day inhabitants of Northern Sudan, by contrast, are an intermingling of Arab and African genes, and many are the descendants of enslaved Africans. POEM - My Cousin Mohamed - from The Myth of Freedom and other poems, by Sirr Anai Kelueijang (see also This Sudan!) Listen! You, Mohamed, and I, are not brothers. You're the son of my aunt - You're my cousin! Long ago your Arab father came, with the Holy Koran and his traditional ways, But without a mistress for his wife! You, cousin Mohamed in the Northern Sudan, are an offspring of my slave-aunt who in her wretchedness stooped to conquer - by blood-strength - a reality as large as the Imatong Mountains! You are no longer a pure Arab like your father. You are the hybrid of Africa The generous product of many years of bloody war on the African land Your African Motherland! My cousin Mohamed says he knows everything because he is educated. When I sing songs about Freedom, Justice and Equality, My cousin gets angry and shouts at me: "You Abid! You also want to be free, and be equal to me!" SEASONAL MIGRATION During the "hungry season" of the year, the semi-nomadic Baggara traditionally migrate southwards with their cattle to parts of Northern Bahr al-Ghazal, leading to occasional - but often intense - conflict with the pastoral Dinka tribes over the scarce resources of grazing land and water. Senior figures from both sides would periodically engage in conferences to resolve the worst of the conflicts and negotiate for the return of captives and slaves. Why are you after a soil as dark as the Dinka? What do you want from the dark soil of the Dinka? You are a people who simply go after grazing areas in the three months of the dry season. How can a person of three months' residence dispute the land with the settlers of all seasons? - Nazir Moneim Mansour to Nazir Babo Nimir at the Peace Conference in Abyei, March 1965 (source: Dr Francis M. Deng, Dinka Cosmology, p.265)