trying to catch up on the reading challenge....

 

Slave: My True Story
    by Mende Nazer and Damien Lewis



At age twelve, Mende Nazer was stolen by Arab raiders from her family and sold as a slave to a family in Khartoum.  When did this happen, in the nineteenth century?  Last century?  In the dark ages?

1993.  And this was a girl who could read and write, who was attending school and hoped to become a doctor some day.  It seems nearly impossible, yet it happened.  She was isolated and afraid; had no place to go for help and no confidence that help would come even if she tried.

I am convinced that the only way to stop this sort of atrocity is to cut off the demand.  In any European country and--I think--and country in the western hemisphere, the idea of anyone owning a slave was repugnant.  Hiring a Hispanic housekeeper and not paying social security--well, that's still socially acceptable.
Other than the bare outlines of the story, the book is not that exciting.  Like many of these "shocking" memoirs I have read, it has a sweet, idyllic beginning--a perfect childhood in a rural environment, loved, protected and adored by a close knit family.  Then violent collision with the evil outside world.  Then a rather long, boring day-to-day description of life as a domestic slave.

I was really hoping for something deeper. Especially at the end.  Didn't get it.  It's too bad that non-fiction writers are restricted to reality and can't invent a smashing ending.  But even without taking license to exaggerate, he could have tried harder to show us the internal revolution that must have happened as Mende began to realize her freedom.