anyone else manage to?
Mende Nazar - Slave
a true story of a Sudanese girls, abduction, enslavement,brutality, freedom and finally asylum. very harrowing, beautifully and simply written. It a story very relevent as this is happening today...not 300 years ago.

very sad...loads i could go into but i'd prefer to discuss with someone whos read it.

ok i guess no one else read it

I finished it as well.

I think one of the most painful parts was after Mende was sent to London to "work" for Rahab's (that bitch) sister, Hanan.

Rhaba and her husband are the ones who bought Mende from the slave trader.

At first Mende was relieved to be away from Rahab's cruelty and grateful that her life was somewhat easier...but as she began to despair of the work that she had to do and the realization that this was just more of the same for her, she actually started longing on some level for her life back in Khartoum, with Rahab's children etc.

I think that just showed how deeply she had been broken...

msserendipity said:

Have patience!

Also, maybe the saddest part was when Mende had to briefly "train" her replacement at Rahab's, Numa (was that her name?).

I wonder what ever happened to her. She probably never got her freedom.

But when Mende found herself telling Numa the saem things that she was told: "always obey," "never talk back" etc...

2 the 9's.
how she felt she was worse then a dog...because at least a dog gets affecton and attention.

but the moments i also remember are the sweeter bits like when she first saw a car and a motorbike understanding them to be like childern, the cars the parents giving birth to the motor bike kids!. and also thinking lamp posts are trees with light fruits.
we take so much for granted, our freedom and knowledge.
it makes me sick to think that mendes family are probably suffering due to her telling it how it really is.
it makes me sick to think that these "diplomats" and moneyed people pride themselves in have slaves who are obedient.

msserendipity said:

Yeah, there were many sweet bits, like her cat when she was in the Nuba village and how it would follow her around.

It was also pretty shocking towards the end when there was some question of whether Mende would actually get asylum in England, because they didn't consider slavery to be "persecution."

To quote rdhull:

2the9s said:

british justice to think if she did not have the media behind her...she would have been deported. how many ppl in her exact situation have been sent home to their deaths.
this was the same situation a few years back about female mutilation...it was not considered a crime against a women and so asylum was never granted. only after a huge mdeia campaign did the laws change. so many people suffer.
i just hope menes story will make many people aware. nothing will change over night..but it will change.