Government militias routinely raid villages, killing the men and carrying off the women and children. The boys will be circumcised, and set to harsh manual labor. The females become household drudges, and concubines. It's a prim little word that conjures up images of satin gowns and breathless encounters. For a Sudanese slave it means being worked from sun up to sun down, sleeping on a dirt floor-when you do get to sleep and serving your master's sexual perversions until you are too used up and broken for him to be interested anymore.
Rape is common and so is genital mutilation.
Punishments for any slave male or female who break the master's rules are incredible. Among other things a slave in Sudan faces branding, castration or hobbling by having the Achilles tendon cut. In the small country of Mauritania, a former French possession, things are little better. It's estimated that one million Africans are in bondage there. Slavery has endured in Mauritania for 700 years and only officially ended in 1980.