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BUYING BACK SLAVES: Christian Solidarity International's John Eibner conducted the organization's first slave redemptions in Sudan in 1995. Since then, CSI has freed nearly 8,000 slaves in the southern state of Bahrel Ghazal. Armed with U.S. dollars from supporters such as Vogel's young abolitionists that he exchanges into Sudanese pounds, Eibner travels to Sudan every two months. Until 1997, CSI paid about $100 for each slave to a trader. Now, the organization pays about $50. A few other groups also engage in slave redemptions, such as Britain's Christian Solidarity Worldwide (associated with Baroness Caroline Cox), but CSI remains the leader in terms of the large number of slaves recovered at one time and the total number of slaves redeemed.

Although chattel slavery has existed in Sudan for centuries, the Khartoum government, led by the fundamentalist National Islamic Front party, has used slavery as an instrument of war to destabilize and Islamize the south.

With the mandate of jihad (holy war) to subjugate the African "infidels," government-backed militias raid the ethnic Dinka villages, burn homes, steal food, destroy crops, and slay animals and men.

Women and children are captured as booty and relocated hundreds of miles to the north. Some raiders keep their human prizes as slaves or sell them on the open market in the north. Eibner says the slaves are often beaten, starved, given Arabic names, and forced to recite Muslim prayers. Women are used as concubines and often subjected to female genital mutilation.

Sudan, the largest and arguably poorest country in Africa, has been em broiled in a devastating civil war since 1983 (CT, Aug. 10, 1998, p. 24). With the discovery of oil fields in the south, the Khartoum government ended southern autonomy and reignited its campaign to forcibly Islamize the Christian and animist south (CT, April 29, 1996, p. 52- AOL only). The south rebelled, forming the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) to fight government troops and government-backed Popular Defense Forces. Humanitarian groups estimate nearly 2 million southern Sudanese have died from war and famine since 1983.

In the face of such horrific conditions, Eibner is convinced of the morality of redeeming slaves. "We have the means to free them," he says. "We must do everything possible to get them out of bondage."

Because some of the slaves are Christians, Eibner is shocked that American Christians have not rallied around the cause sooner. "They are part of our body," he says. "Through them, we are being persecuted. We should be suffering. But are we? Where is the outcry?"

HIGH COST OF FREEDOM: Like Eibner, Christian Freedom International (CFI) head Jim Jacobson is outraged at the proliferation of slavery in Sudan. Jacobson had served as the U.S. director of CSI for three years before an internal dispute caused the unraveling of affiliate organizations Christian Solidarity World wide and Jacobson's CFI, which he formed last year.

As recently as last year, Jacobson traveled to Sudan and personally redeemed a dozen slaves. "This is such an emotional issue," he says. "If I can save the life of one individual, I'm going to do it."

But after eye-opening trips to Sudan in February and April this year, Jacobson reversed CFI's policy: he is now firmly against redemptions, which he says are fueling both a slave economy and the war with their investment of Western money. He says the going rate for a slave in northern Sudan is $15, making it more profitable for traders to sell slaves to redeemers for $50 to $100. The profits are being used "to buy more guns, to hire more people, to abduct more innocent people," he says. A four-page May letter from Jacobson to CFI supporters calls the policy switch a "painful decision," adding that donations for slave redemptions will be reimbursed or reassigned to other CFI projects.

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August 9 1999, Vol. 43, No. 9