Customer Reviews

Silent Terror: A Journey into Contemporary African Slavery

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Samuel Cotton's account of his own awakening to the issues of slavery in Africa falls into four sections.

1/ The commissioning of a journalistic article, which leads him to examine available documentary evidence about slavery in Mauritania,

2/ A trip to see for himself,

3/ His return to the US, where he delivered evidence to a US Congressional sub-committee.

4/ A call to arms.

An African-American, his commitment is plainly sincere ("I had found my history. I had found my future. I had found myself.") He has achievements to show for it - his own anti-slavery organisation "CASMAS", and success in changing official US policy through a Congressional resolution based on evidence gained from his field trip.

In giving voice to the people that he met in bondage in Mauritania and Senegal, he has borne witness to lives that need and deserve all the help they can get.

He also accurately identifies the failure of so many Muslims of otherwise good standing to put pressure on regimes that nod and wink at the practices of slavery. Sudan is an appalling offender through its sponsorship of slave-raiding militias that attack the black, Christian South.

But it is Sam Cotton's very emotiveness - understandable as it might be - that weakens his argument. He is guilty of extreme sloppiness. At one point he accuses the US Ambassador to Mauritania, among others, of having their silence "bought" by "plenty of envelopes passing under the table" from the Islamic government. This is a scandalous charge, which if proven would have the Ambassador doing time in jail, but Cotton offers no evidence whatsoever to support it. It is purely an expression of his frustration.

And while he resolutely stands by his evidence that Arabs still persist with chattel slavery in Mauritania, he quickly dismisses evidence that black Africans also keep black African slaves. "It is a thing of the past...a charge that does not stand up to inspection," he insists, refusing to apply the same tests (are they paid? are their children educated?) that he applies to the "slaves" of Arabs.

On the material Cotton (and others before him) have gathered, Mauritania certainly has a case to answer that slavery still exists. Furthermore, it should be required to answer it, and the world should not tolerate any fudging.

Cotton has added something to the fund of knowledge, and deserves acknowledgment for that. But his writing is too cliche-ridden, too unexamined, too hasty in seeing what it wants to see. And Cotton, inexperienced in African conditions, also overlooks another reality of life on that continent. People do what they must to survive. Millions work in terrible conditions for no cash return. Millions of their children go without food, let alone education. I little doubt slavery exists in Mauritania. I have seen it myself, and written about it, in Sudan. Beating it, however, requires a discipline of approach that is not enough in evidence in this otherwise worthy account.

Samuel Cotton has displayed in this book what many poeple around the world ignore-truth, anguish, submission, and power. Contaray to what some readers may think, Mr. Cotton did not just take a trip to Mauritania and say "Oh I wanna exploit slavery here, I heard about yeay", he does much more with this information. He does a great job at explaining the previous research he sought out about this issue and the inner emotions that were embedded into his heart and mind throughout his life connecting to the African Struggle. I believe that any person that stands for any ideal on this planet should confront this book. I found it to be most inspiring and beneficial as a woman interested in politics, society, and the benefit of our brothers and sisters all over the world not just in Africa. Government officials should be challenged with the facts that Mr. Cotton has exploited and try to figure out an answer to why this tradgedy continues to occur in this part of the world along with any other nation (even the USA). This book is true, it's real. Why else would a man risk his life?

Slavery - the crude ownership of a person and his exploitation like a beast of burden - has two major venues in the contemporary world, Sudan and Mauritania. The Sudanese practice results in large part from a war conducted by Muslims against Christians; when the former conquer the latter, they frequently enslave them (and often convert them to Islam). Mauritania has no war and no religion other than Islam-it close to being a purely Muslim country - but it does have a racial divide of (light-skinned) Arabs and (dark-skinned) "Negro-Africans," as they are known. Out of a total population of some 2 million, some tens of thousands of Mauritanians are enslaved. When Cotton, a graduate student at Columbia University and part-time journalist, learned about this situation, it horrified and absorbed him. His short but intense trip to Mauritania in early 1996 showed him first-hand of the existence of this foul institution; and as a black American, he felt the servitude of the black Mauritanians with special poignancy. Cotton began his researches as a reporter, thinking that the mere exposure of facts would affect other African-Americans much as they did himself, as they startled at the racism and servitude in Mauritania, somewhat akin to the experience of their own ancestors. But they did not. He found that black leaders (Louis Farrakhan, mainstream black American Muslims, former congressman Mervyn Dymally, and academics at Howard University) not only pooh-pooh the issue but in many cases actively apologize for the slave system. So he became an activist. Thus far, he has found, even his seeming successes, such as passing a NAACP resolution condemning slavery, turned out to have no operational significance.

Cotton's account of the Mauritanian scene is harrowing, his personal story moving, and his report on African-American reactions depressing. Some two centuries after the great American abolitionist effort, a new iteration is needed, this time focusing on the Muslim world.

Middle East Quarterly, December 1999

If you're sceptical about the notion that old-fashioned chattel slavery still exists, read this book. Cotton presents well-documented evidence that slavery exists in Mauritania, and yet relates this evidence in a tone that is personal and moving.

Have you ever aksed yourself, 'What would I have done if I had been alive 200 years ago and had been confronted with slavery?' Cotton brings this question to us on the eve of the 21st Century.

I salute Samuel Cotton for his courageous and principled mission to expose the entire world to the evils of slavery in Africa. Mr. Cotton risked his life to bring the plight of enslaved Africans to the attention of the world. I just hope the courageous Africans who guided Samuel's Cotton's journey are still alive and well. Their courage and commitment to resist slavery in Mauritania is truly remarkable and inspiring.

This book challenges continental Africans and African Americans to stand up and support our enslaved brothers and sisters in Mauritania, Sudan and other parts of North Africa. Black Muslims are duty-bound to challenge the Islamic world to live up to the pious ideals of their religion. I strongly recommend this book to all freedom-loving people. This book is a must read for Pan-Africanists throughout the world. Dr. John Henrik Clarke and Dr. Chancellor Williams would be proud of Samuel Cotton's important book.

...an excellent book that begins to examine the very complex nature of politics and people on the diverse continent of Africa. I applaude the author's courage at bringing the issue to the attention of our government and hope that he continues his work. Mr. Cotton's book should be required reading for students of African as it will give them a beginner's view of what this wonderful, but yet frustrated, part of the world has to offer.

I would have given this work 3 stars but for the author's balanced treatment of the well researched issues inside Mauritania. I thought his work, and this book, lessened by Mr. Cotton's efforts to readdress the issue of slavery from within the contexts and expectations of what he wanted Africa to be. Likewise, it has been my experience that the notion of African brotherhood simply doesn't exist here in the manner that some stateside pundits wish it to be. Although African American leaders will espouse this rhetoric for their own political ends, the truth is, I've never really seen it.

Lastly, my family and I have lived in Africa for nearly two decades now and I believe that the author would do well to spend some more time looking in other corners and countries. My wife and I have traveled extensively across this continent and I hope that Mr. Cotton continues his work of exposing social inequities in Africa. There are a whole lot more stories out here Mr. Cotton but I don't know that you'll like what you see. Many of them are worse than those you've described in your book...are you ready to see it from their eyes?

The information is interesting and thorough. The writing style is awkward, so it takes some effort to decode some of it. All in all, I would still recommend it if you are interested in the topic.

I am a recently returned Peace Corps volunteer from Mauritania. During my service I had the privilege to integrate myself into all aspects of Maurtanian society, Arab-Berber (Moor) and black African (comprising mainly three ethnicities-Pular, Soninke, and Wolof). Any foreigner traveling in Mauritania is immediately struck by the complexity of the multi-layered social structure. It is easy to see how Mr. Cotton's brief trip to Mauritania resulted in such an erroneous and disappointing book.

Although slavery did exist in Mauritania and it's legacy is still painfully evident (as it also is here in the USA), slavery (i.e. the commercialization of human beings) is no longer practiced in Mauritania. What continues is the same intense social and economic inqualities glairingly evident throughout the developing world. Unpaid servitude still remains, but under no circumstances can it be truthfully claimed that involuntary servitude still exists. This important distinction seems to have been lost on Mr. Cotton on his quick trip to Mauritania. It is unfortunate that the young nation of Mauritania, painfully struggling overcome the grips of poverty, should fall victim to Mr. Cotton's irresponsibility.