Reflection
For ten years , they beat me every morning . They made me sleep with the animals , and they gave me very bad food . They said I was an animal ... But every day I prayed to God . One day , I asked my master a question : “ Why do you call me ‘ abeed ’? [ Related to eved , the Hebrew word for slave .] And why do you feed me bad food all the time and make me sleep with the animals ? Is it because I am black ?” My master was very angry . “ Where did you learn to ask this question ?” he said . “ Never ask me this again .” And he beat me and beat me . When I was 17 , I decided to escape . I would rather die than be a slave .
-Francis Bok , a former slave in Sudan who escaped in 1999
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