SLAVERY IN ARABIA

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3840, 30 November 1936, Page 3

SLAVERY IN ARABIA

GIRLS SOLD FOR £5. SOME STARTLING FACTS. ' A beautiful slave girl was offered to me quite recently in a town in the hinterland of South-West Arabia for the equivalent of £o (states a writer in an English paper). When I signified to the dealer that I was not interested he became enthusiastic. There is nothing except fighting' that an Arab loves more than a bargain. The dealer settled down to it. Here was an Englishman with the Eastern love of haggling'. Many cups of coffee and perhaps a few hours’ desultory talk-then a satisfactory sale. When finally he realised that I was not buying at any price he turned aw'ay, a disappointed man. In a wide tour of the country I found slavery rampant, flourishing as it did a thousand years ago, flourishing despite all the pressure of Western nations to suppress it—often practised openly. I discussed the slave question with a British official at Aden. He told me of the case of a beautiful native girl living in Mombasa, Kenya. One moonlight night she ventured alone down to a well to draw water. Suddenly five huge black figures rose from the deeper hues of the surrounding gloom, and the song she

was singing was smothered in the folds of a coarse sack. Five years later a British Political Officer, travelling through Murat, in Southern Arabia, recognised the girl. She was working as a slave and told him her story. Strange Contentment. Western people shudder at the very word “slavery” because of the tales of physical cruelty, tales of plantation life in the Southern States of North America before Abolition— Uncle Tom’s Cabin stories. Both in the case of the Arabian or Mohammedan slave, it is different. Many of the slaves are treated well by their masters. Too many are contented. And there is the danger. Only the more prosperous among' the Bedouins or nomadic Arabs own a slave or slaves. A sufficiency of water and pasturage for his camels, coarse tobacco, black coffee, several young wives, plenty of rice, dates, and an occasional dish of camel flesh would satisfy the most luxury-loving Bedouin. It is the sedentary Arab of the town or village who is the main instrument for the present slavery conditions. Slavery is congenial to the Arab character. The Arabs are patriarchal people. A man’s wives, children and servants are all very much under his sway. He pays no direct wages to his servants. He prefers them to come and sue to him for a new garment, a

weapon, a beast of burden, or a dole of money. It is natural for a dependent who scents a chance of gratifying his selfinterest more effectively elsewhere to leave his good patriarch, go away and improve his prospects. This is very disconcerting to the benevolent patriarch, who, therefore, decides it is best to buy his servants outright rather than hire them. Mecca itself, the holy city, meeting place of the Mohammedan nations, pattern to devout Moslems all over the world, is the principal slave market of Arabia; but there are others. The Slave Market. Passing down the streets towards the centre of a town 1 frequently passed Abyssinians, negroes and halfcastes, some badly and some well dressed, attending their masters or acting as a bodyguard. These were all bondmen. But nothing is ever seen of the hundreds of younger slave girls who are kept close in the shuttered houses of the city. Most of these towns have in their centre a slave market. The slave dealers arrange benches in front of their houses for the displaying of their merchandise. Are they wretched? No. Many whom I saw in various towns were laughing and even joking. The customers arrive, file slowly past, keenly surveying the slaves, discussing the while their needs with the dealers. On the invitation of a dealer, cli-

ents drift into the houses, where they view the slave-girls. Slaves have been known to rise to high estate. The local governor of Hajarein, in the Hahramount (Southern Arabia), is none other than Übeid bin Salim, an African slave. He had obviously well pleased his patriarchal master, who in turn felt disposed to honour his worthy servant.