Slave Redemption FAQ

What is slave redemption?
By purchasing the freedom of slaves, aren't you creating a market?
What happens to the slaves after emancipation?
If you release them back to their homeland, won't they be recaptured or re-enslaved?
I'm still not convinced.

What is slave redemption?

Sudanese slave redemption campaign is run by Christian Solidarity International, a Zurich-based international human rights organization. Over 80,000 women and children have been smuggled or purchased out of bondage through the local "underground railroad" of traders and chiefs and emancipated since 1995. Our funding supports this operation. top

By purchasing the freedom of slaves, aren't you creating a market?

Concern over slave redemption in Sudan stems from the economic truth of supply-and-demand. But slavery in Sudan is not economic. It is a terror-weapon revived in 1985 by the Northern government in its civil war against the South.

As part of the country's on-going civil war. Northern and Northern-allied militias, armed by the government but not paid, are instructed to raid Southern villages to terrorize the local population. Villages are targeted for their strategic military value. Women and children become booty for the militiamen, who also seize grain and cattle.
During 2000, the slave redemption program liberated 20,000 slaves, more than ever before in a one-year span. But the number of people abducted into slavery has actually decreased, because Southern villages have improved their defenses.
The slave redemption program was initiated by local tribes who made peace. In return for being able to graze their cattle on Southern land, other tribes send undercover retrievers into the north, where they either pose as buyers and purchase slaves or help slaves escape.
Recently, some Sudanese Arab leaders, as part of a CSI-brokered peace treaty, have committed to emancipate slaves in their community without compensation. Read this press release more more information.

The masked men you see in pictures of mass emancipations are these retrievers - the program's real heroes - who risk their lives to free women and children. They must conceal their identity because they are targeted by the government. The retrievers are paid a flat fee for every slave they return. That fee - which cannot fluctuate - is 50,000 Sudanese pounds (roughly $35). This compensates the retrievers for any expenses and finances the Underground Railroad's network of safe-houses, assistant conductors, and other operational costs. top

What happens to the slaves after emancipation?

Freed slaves are returned to their villages and reunited with their families. If parents of the children or spouses of the women are not alive or cannot be found, they are cared for by their extended families. top

If you release them back to their homeland, won't they be recaptured and re-enslaved?

There is no evidence that any former slaves have been re-captured, but they could be as the war continues. Ask yourself a simple question: If it were your child enslaved, would you insist, "No, don't free them … They might be recaptured!" For Sudanese parents and spouses, redemption is the only immediate solution they have. There are also reports that enslaved boys often have their throats slit when they become adolescents - i.e., potentially physical threats to the master. So there is a life-or-death urgency to getting children out of the hands of slave masters and back into their villages. top

I am still not convinced.

You don't have to support the redemption program and "Underground Railroad." No one believes it is the solution to slavery in Sudan. But be wary of condeming the program. You are in effect arguing that those liberated should not have been freed. That it would have been better for women and children to languish in slavery. That their redemption has instead worsened the situation. As one woman told Rev. Al Sharpton at the moment of her redemption, "Now I am free. Is that wrong?" top