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Luindy Espinal
Dr.Unyierie Idem
Reading and Writing 4
15 Mayo,2016
Effects of Slavery on Mende Nazer
Mende Nazer’s book slave related her own story of slavery, beginning with her
normal and happy child life in Nuba mountains, Sudan. Next to the form how the Arab
soldiers take the children and sold them to make them slaves, yet it is practiced for many
years affecting much generations. In this specific case a man called Abdul Azzim took
Mende and four more girls around the ages from ten to twelve and transferred them to his
own house a place where he keeps the children while he finds a buyer for each one. The
time for Mende to star her life as a slave was ready when an Arabic woman named Rahab
chooses her to make her abda giving to Abdul Azzim much money for her. This is how an
innocent child begins to live the most hellish years of her life and how every abuse,
punishment and exploitation affects the rest of her completely life for suffered slavery.
“Slavery is the status of the person who is under control of another subject;
therefore, does not have freedom” (Definition.com). Mende suffered many abuses on her
life that made huge changes on the way of how she views the world and of course slavery
affects her physical and mental states. Then some of the effects are:
Mende loss her self-esteem, when she arrived at Rahab’s house she did not know
what is going on, but from the first time she started to feel so ignored. Everybody around
her behave like she did not exist and she noticed each contempt. She said “It was as if I was
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invisible” (page 137). At Rahab’s home Mende has to do everything, cleaning, cooking,
washing clothes and taking care of Rahab’s children; Although she did everything well
without any pay she never received any word of gratitude. In contrast she was exclude of
everything; Her master gave to her separated dishes and table to eat the leftover of the
family treating her like an animal. The room assigned to her for sleep was a dirty and small
cellar outside the house. She was not allowing to go outside only to work at the garden. She
could not replay back to anybody and even take a sit at the living room. All of these ill
entrenched for many years began to be part of her life to the point of thinking that that was
what she deserved for the color of her skin and that Arabs were above all of people like her
making of their lives what they want.
