Former Sudanese Slave Tells Tale of Bondage, Torment and Eventual Freedom

Former Sudanese Slave Tells Tale of Bondage, Torment and Eventual Freedom

Tears and shudders started early in Francis Bok’s presentation, as he told a University of Central Florida audience the moving story of his capture at age 7 from his village in southern Sudan in 1986. He would spend the next 10 years toiling in forced servitude, living in a shack and facing regular beatings.
Bok addressed a crowd of about 425 at the Fairwinds Alumni Center last week in a forum sponsored by the Global Perspectives Office. A decade after his escape, Bok said he cannot rest because nearly 30 million people remain enslaved around the world today.
One of his worst memories, he said, is that of seeing another slave who was missing part of his leg because the man was not working quickly enough for his master. At the age of 17, following two failed attempts to escape, Bok finally succeeded in becoming free. In 1999, he was granted United Nations refugee status and eventually was relocated to the United States.
Bok is now an associate at the American Anti-Slavery Group in Boston. He wrote about the experience in his book, “Escape From Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity – and My Journey to Freedom in America,” and uses his slave-turned-abolitionist role to raise awareness about human trafficking in the 21st century.
Bok urged students to take action, even if that involves simply being informed on the current issues and debates about slavery and genocide. But what exactly can be done?
Bok acknowledged that there is no clear-cut answer to the problems facing his country but stressed the Sudanese government’s inability to handle the situation. Millions of people are suffering, and not enough has been done to help them, he said. Bok also asked why the international community was quick to act in the Balkans and slow in Sudan’s Darfur area.
In addition to the Global Perspectives Office, sponsors of the event were UCF’s Office of International Studies, Office of Undergraduate Studies, Student Government Association, Metropolitan Center for Regional Studies, Political Science Department, Center for Multilingual Studies, International Services Center, College of Education and Career Services, as well as the Orlando Sentinel and the Global Connections Foundation.