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• Article on Mr. Bok
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Tavis: Francis Bok was just seven years old and living in southern Sudan when he was abducted and forced into slavery. After 10 grueling years he managed to escape, making his way to Egypt and then to the U.S. His remarkable story was the basis for his autobiography, 'Escape from Slavery.' He now speaks around the country for his work with the American Anti-Slavery Group. Francis Bok, nice to have you on the program.

Francis Bok: Thank you very much for having me.

Tavis: It's a pleasure to meet you. I wanna talk maybe a little bit later in the conversation, if we can, about what's happening in the Sudan today, and what your take is on what's happening in your country. But this story, your personal story, is so fascinating, I don't wanna lose any time by not jumping straight to it. Take me back to being seven, and where the story begins with your being abducted.

Bok: Well, the story began back in 1986.

Tavis: Eighty-six.

Bok: So by this time, it is, today, 15 May of 2006. I was captured on 15 May of 1986 in my former country, Sudan. I remember that day. It was evening time. My mother came to me while I was playing with my brother and friends from the neighbor. And she asked me to go to local market to sell the cooked eggs and peanuts. And that was my last time to see them and heard from them.

And we took a trip to local markets, and that day turned to become something else that I was captured at that marketplace that my mother sent me to, and eventually spent 10 years in captivity with the northern Sudanese Arab master who captured me at that local market and forced me to work for him for 10 years, from age seven to 17.

Tavis: So your mom sends you off to market to sell some eggs and peanuts to make money for the family. That's the last time you ever see your parents, your family, because you're abducted while you're at market.

Bok: Yes.

Tavis: Who were the folk who abducted you? Tell me more about them.

Bok: Well, who are these people? Well, Sudan's one of the largest country in geography in Africa. Less population living there, but it's split two parties, south and the north. And south is where Black Africans, the Christians, (sounds like) enemies believe. And that's where I am from. And northern Sudan is Arabs, Muslims. And the northern Sudanese in the capital of Sudan, Khartoum, who dominate everything in that country.

Sudan had sent these militias, armed militias. They armed them, the Sudanese government, and sending them to the south, in every state in the south, to kill the people and burn down their houses, and steal their women and children into slavery. And these were armed militia sent by the Sudanese government who captured me and kept me working as a slave, along with other many kids and women who were also abducted.

Tavis: So over a 10 year period, you are enslaved doing what, specifically?

Bok: Over the 10 years I served as a slave, my job was to take care of the cattle, and do other domestic jobs. And it is real amazing to, when I flash back these days, and all the time that I served there as a slave, to be a young person at home, and you're the first one who woke up in the morning, and the last one to go to bed. And that was my life routine, doing the same job daily.

Job that I never got any appreciation or thank you from the master or any of the family members. A job where I even got beaten. I didn't even make any mistake. And I served there for 10 years, attending these goats and cows and camels and horses, and that was my job.

Tavis: So over the 10 year period, you tried to escape two or three times, unsuccessfully. Tell me about your escape attempts.

Bok: Well, my escape attempts, I decided to escape when I turned the age of 14. This is after seven years I served as a slave there. And I realized that it didn't matter how long I would serve this master, or I realized also that I know they were never going to take me back to my family, and they were never going to treat me equal, like they treat themselves or other human beings.

But they were the people who totally have different belief in me, and believed that they were better off than I. And they were using me, and they never allowed me to really live my life as a human being. Someone who really has dreams like them. But I decided to escape when I was 14. And my first attempt, when I ran away early in the morning, because usually, I'm the one who woke up in the morning to take the cows to the forest, and take them into the river to get water.

And I left the cows nearby the house, and I was running in a direction that I didn't even know where I was going. And someone had saw me and brought me back, and I was threatened by my master that day after he beat me, telling me that if I attempted to escape again, he would kill me. But in my heart, I didn't give up. I said I would rather die than be a slave, and I escaped just two days, literally, after the first attempt.

And I failed my second attempt, as well. And I could tell you, for those who might have the ability to read my book, 'Escape from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity and My Journey to Freedom in America,' you will come across the details of that day, the second attempt. Because that day I remember after my master beat me, he recaptured me back, and I was tied up, my hands and legs were tied behind me.

And he grabbed his gun and pointed it at my head, saying that this is going to be your last day on the Earth, today. And I thought he was gonna shoot me. But with a miracle, God, he did not. I just closed my eyes while he was standing in front of me, and I said, God, please, don't let him kill me. I love my parents, and I have hope in the future. So he did not kill me that day, and that's the time I realized that (unintelligible) to escape again.

And I waited for three more years, until when I turned 17 years old that I finally made a decision that I'm not a little boy or seven years old anymore. I'm a 17 year old man, and I can defend myself. And successfully, I was lucky to manage to freedom.

Tavis: I'm sitting here listening to you, and I'm thinking on your second attempt to escape, we're in the nineties now. We're in the 1990s when you are a slave trying to escape to freedom. It puts it in context, when you consider how recent this travesty was. What do you say to people who think that slavery, certainly here in the States, where you live - you live in Kansas now, so you've become accustomed to our ways here, and the way we think here.

When we think slavery here in the United States, we think Abraham Lincoln; we think Harriet Tubman; we think way back when. I don't think anybody thinks of slavery in a contemporary sense.

Bok: Well, this is something that I have learned. I was very shocked and surprised how a country like the United States, wonderful people, like, these lucky people, the people of the United States are not aware of what has been going on in my country for over two decades that cost the lives of two millions that we lost. Two million of our brothers and sisters in southern Sudan. That includes my family, and I almost died in that situation, as well.

But I'm glad that I have managed to survive and escape, and eventually, today, speak about those days that I spent as a slave. So people here need to wake up, and they need to realize that slavery's not history. They need to know that slavery's not ended. They need to learn that in 1996, if you invited me to come, I would have come here and been on your show, Mr. Smiley. I was still struggling to get away at that time, in 1996.

That's my last attempt that I was lucky enough to manage to escape, and eventually, made it to the United States in 1999. I did not know even there was a country that existed called the United States, or a state that existed called California, where I am today. So, I was totally living in my own world. And today, more people are still not aware of this situation. Contemporarily, there are actually 27 million people still enslaved worldwide.

Tavis: When did you learn what, in fact, had happened to your parents, and what did, in fact, happen to your parents while you were in slavery for 10 years?

Bok: I have not learned anything about my parents, actually, when I was there, until literally when I came to the United States, and two years after I'd been in the United States, in 2000, I have heard about my parents, and I have heard about other family members, that they were killed on the same day that I was captured back in 1986. And all this time because there's no communications.

There's no way to communicate with someone in southern Sudan or northern Sudan, or in other parts where people had suffered. We have all people running in different directions. We have a lot of Sudanese people in Kenya, Ethiopia, as well as Uganda and some other places. And even Cairo, Egypt, where I'd been for a year and a half, and then to the United States.

So I never heard nothing until someone who worked with us who's the director of CSI, Christian Solidarity International, it's a Christian organization based in Switzerland, had went to Sudan and met one of the distant cousins who had told him that my parents were killed on the same day. Because he went to my village, and that's when I heard about them. And I wasn't surprised, 'cause I'd met a lot of victims from the refugee camps in Khartoum and even in Egypt who lost their family and children.

Tavis: You gave me some sense a moment ago of what it is that you do now, what is it you're saying to people about the issue of slavery, so I have a better idea now of how you spend your life now, empowering people and enlightening people around this issue. Let me close by asking what your sense is of what's happening in your former country, your homeland, today.

Bok: Well, today in Sudan, the thing (unintelligible) a little bit. And I'm very glad that we have really at least pushed ahead, or have a static base to the victory. To all Sudanese people. Today, things have changed a little bit in Sudan, as I said, because early last year in January of 2005, the Sudanese government and the south Sudanese rebels in the south had signed a peace accord.

And we were very excited about that. I should have said we are absolutely excited about it. I wasn't, because I remember when south Sudanese in Massachusetts, when I still lived there, were celebrating that peace agreement, I was asked to say something. And I said to them, I'm not gonna speak, because that peace doesn't guarantee the final victory for all Sudanese. Because it has been peace agreement before, in 1956.

Tavis: Are you hopeful that this new round of peace agreements, though, will?

Bok: Well, now I heard, because we have people behind us, we have the United States behind us to push this, both parties to really bring the final victory to all Sudanese, because we are tired of the war. War has been going on for all this decade. I mentioned 20 years, over 20 years. And now there's a new war going on in the same country. And I wasn't really agreeing with that peace, because it can't be peace in the same country while war is going on in another part of the country. Because in Darfur regions, our brothers and sisters in Darfur are dying every day. In western Sudan.

Tavis: The story has a happy ending for Francis Bok, given that he now lives in Kansas with his wife and his child. But again, so many still suffering in his region, in that region of the world. The book by Francis Bok is 'Escape from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity and My Journey to Freedom in America.' Francis, thanks for the work you do, and glad to have you on the program.

Bok: Yes. Actually, I wanna mention one thing. I wanna thank the wonderful organization here in the L.A. area, and also I wanna thank Facing History, the organization that actually worked to bring me here for this tour to speak out, as well as the Allstate Foundation.

These are the wonderful organizations that do a wonderful job, and I really wanna thank them and acknowledge them to the public so they can support them, and support their jobs. And I also invite those who wanna know more about me or about Sudan to visit iabolish.com, the American anti-slavery website.

Tavis: You just did. And glad to have you here.

Bok: Thank you.

Tavis: Thank you, Francis. That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International, check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.