Spring 1994. Mende Nazer, 12, a girl from the Nuba tribe, in Sudan, ?one of the remotest places on earth?, is captured along with other children by the Mujahidin. The small village is ravaged, its inhabitants brutalized, the children snatched away amidst pandemonium, to be sold in Khartoum to well-to-do families. Slave (Virago Press, London, 2004) is the story of Mende Nazer as told to the British writer and filmmaker, Damien Lewis. The book recounts her ?soul-destroying life of drudgery?.

The violence is depicted with amazing precision: they ruthlessly pounce on victims, drag them to the ground, stab them with knives. Human dignity is flouted: ?The raiders were killing people as if they were animals, with a knife across the throat.? An 18-month child is left in a burning hut and a few slaughtered. The reader cannot but feel a sense of revulsion. Anyway, the tone is set. The rest of the book will not make easy reading. On their way to Khartoum, the girls are sexually abused; the irony is that they were ?too young to really understand what had happened?.

To the Arab family to which Mende is sold to work without being paid a single cent, she is ?yebit? - insulting term for slave. She is thrust into a world fundamentally different from hers: love, affection, care, consideration, kindness and fairness are denied to her, stripping her of what is most precious: human dignity. She is beaten up with a broom, a hosepipe, a belt, a skipping rope and what not? for the slightest mistake. Ironically, it is the mistress of the house who treats her so cruelly.

In this ?slave? world, there?s no answering back. Every day ?another bit of her spirit dies?. Even the children treat her with disdain. She feels she is treated ?worse than an animal: even dogs were patted and stroked?. She is given leftovers from their meals and Mende remembers that, in her village, dogs would be given what people couldn?t eat in a bowl in the corner of the room.

Sent to London to work as slave clandestinely. Mende is constantly torn between her present situation and her childhood memories. To a certain extent, her fond memories help her survive and avoid suicide. The thought of what her life might have been, had she still been in her family, comforts her. The recollections of happy moments with her parents and siblings are her therapy. They reveal her profound attachment to her family and her longing for what is lost.

At one moment she accidentally spills biscuits and milk meant for guests. On washing her cut finger under the tap, her mind takes her back to the time when she was nine and her mother was feeding her a gourd of hot milk, which suddenly slipped and went over her legs and the concern her parents showed for her. Thus her memories are intelligently used by the writer to provide a useful contrast.

She is lucky enough to escape with the help of a few people from her tribe. Other well-wishers fight for her right to asylum. Under international pressure, the British government grants it to her on 23 December 2002. Despite her freedom, coping with it will be ?a terrifying thing?. The transition from non-existence to recognition as a person and having to adjust to a new life will be an uphill battle.

Mende?s experience is of a kind that drives the reader to the edge of despair and hopelessness. Fortunately, Anti-Slavery International, Human Rights Watch and other NGOs militate for children deprived of their rights.

This book is about the abuse and manipulation of status and power, not just the woes of an innocent girl. Mende escapes, but we shudder at the thought of others, less lucky, who continue to be subjected to the worst cruelties in houses that deceptively look like ?magical palaces?. The account is a damning comment on the extent to which some individuals would go to terrify, humiliate and exploit children in a world so often touted as ?modern and civilized?.

<B>Suresh RAMPHUL</B>