Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the South Sudan Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
Taken as a slave at seven and held for ten years, he escaped, reached the United States, and became one of the most effective anti-slavery campaigners of his generation.
Francis Piol Bol Bok was seven years old, sent to the market at Nyamlell to sell eggs and beans, when militia raiders attacked during the Sudanese civil war. The adults were killed in front of him. He was tied to a donkey and taken north.
He spent ten years as a slave to a family in northern Sudan, sleeping with the animals he tended, beaten, called abeed, and told his own name was Dut. He escaped at seventeen, was recaptured, escaped again, and made his way through Khartoum to Cairo and then, as a refugee, to the United States.
He began speaking about it, and would not stop. He testified before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations — the first escaped slave to do so — worked with the American Anti-Slavery Group, and published Escape from Slavery in 2003, which did more than any report to make the abduction and enslavement of southern Sudanese civilians a subject the outside world could not treat as a rumour. He later returned to South Sudan after independence.
He spent ten years as a slave to a family in northern Sudan, sleeping with the animals he tended, beaten, called abeed, and told his own name was Dut. He escaped at seventeen, was recaptured, escaped again, and made his way through Khartoum to Cairo and then, as a refugee, to the United States.
He began speaking about it, and would not stop. He testified before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations — the first escaped slave to do so — worked with the American Anti-Slavery Group, and published Escape from Slavery in 2003, which did more than any report to make the abduction and enslavement of southern Sudanese civilians a subject the outside world could not treat as a rumour. He later returned to South Sudan after independence.
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