A Malicious Smile

by Aditi Mahesh

His face is red, covered with wounds, and his eyes are drenched with merciless cries, Moses sits in a cracked leather saddle on top of a horse. His wounded hands are tightly tied down with thick rope, the friction in which the rope produces scars his skin. Footsteps approach him, and a muscular man appears. His head is tightly wrapped with a black muslin scarf. He comes closer, and shoot Moses a malicious smile. It became evident that he was the owner of the horse. The owner hops onto into the horse, sitting in-front of him, just then he spanks the horse with ropes, and the world became a speedy blur of corpses. Children, women, and even men cried for mercy. Dinkaland was in sudden unimaginable trouble.

In the dark times of 1985-19891 the Murahaleen, Arab Tribesmen, raided Southern Sudan. The tribes of South-Darfur and South Kordofan created armed forces, known as the Murahaleen. By using the Murahaleen, Khartoum perpetrated crimes that have had blood curdling effects on the Southern Sudanese, as they have murdered, raped, and tortured innocent lives for a precious natural resource, oil . The Murahaleen lived in the Mid-Sudan region. They put the South of Sudan into a state of misery. Set fire to homes, destroyed acres of fertile land, contaminated wells, raided cattle and take the lives of many. These times were the most difficult for the residents of the Bahr-Al-Ghazal region. The Murahaleen depopulated the region, leaving thousands in fear.

Many children and women were kidnapped by the Murahaleen. At first the Murahaleen were only raiding cattle for pleasure. However, in 1986 Oil was found in the South Sudan. After much political dispute between the North and South, the North tried to redraw the border, so that the oil fields would fall into their land However, the North didn’t easily get away with doing so. Soon, the North created the “Murahaleen” as their own “Militias” to fight the South for the oil.

Every gust of wind that blows against Moses’s weak body, it forces him to turn sideways. With every tight whip the owner shoots, the horse gallops one notch faster. With his neck completely stretched to the side, he see’s Amath. Her striking features couldn’t be missed! As he concentrated on her more closely, he saw that she too was on the back of a horse, sobbing. Her hair is messy, and lash marks scarred her face.

Existence of slavery persisted the whole of the war. As many as 14,000 men, women and children were abducted and forced to work as slaves. 60 percent of those abducted were taken to the west Kordofan and Darfur to be sold as slaves in the markets. Many of these slaves were usually domestic laborers, cattle herders, agricultural workers, and many were forced into early marriage/rape. Many female domestic workers were concubines against their will.The Murahaleen sexually abused the slaves, and in the process mutilated their body bodies, in forms of lashing, cutting, and burning.The Murahaleen were ruthless and gave no respect to women, in the process making them lose their self dignity.

As Moses concentrates on Amath praying that she’ll have a better fate, a stampede of horses come racing from behind, this blocks Amath from view. Now she too was just another blur racing ahead. The horses took what seemed like a never ending journey, so long that at a point Moses had to throw up. Nausea dominated him and eventually, he let it go. The owner takes out the lash, and whips him across the chest several times. Occasionally the owner would take a break when streaks of navy blue appeared in the sky. Moses, was given the occasional shove of food in the mouth, he savored every bit. When he would come back to consciousness, the man would shoot him one of his hungry smiles. Nevertheless, the journey would continue.

Between 1955-1972 also known as the first Sudanese War (1st Sudanese war), Southern and Northern Sudan were having disputes and many shortages of natural resources. Later on in 1972 they came up with a peace agreement, the Addis Ababa Agreement. This agreement stated to share half of any natural resources which either north or south possessed. Khartoum, the capital of Sudan agreed to this, believing that the most precious resource in South Sudan was uranium. Quickly after the agreement was signed, Chevron discovered huge oil fields in the South. But here’s where the problem started, the Addis Ababa agreement didn’t cover anything about sharing oil with the north. Khartoum was devastated.

Khartoum was immediately informed, and along with Chevron Khartoum decided to start digging for the oil. However, the oil would only be dug if there weren’t any inhabitants over the oilfields. So, this was when Khartoum decided to arm with the tribes that lived in Mid-sudan, the Murahaleen. They were turned into militias to help clear the civilian population in where the oil fields existed. They were encouraged to kill.

After riding for days, one dark evening, Moses is untied from the ropes. He feels as if weight was lifted off of him. His contracted muscles blossomed. Before he could get used to standing on two legs, the scarfed man gripped his neck tightly, and pushed him till he reached a small gated hut. The man thrusts him to the floor, and locks him inside. Exhausted, Moses’s eyes get heavier, until they close shut. He sleeps in harmony, until a sharp scalding pain behind his ear makes Moses scream awake. The owner of the horse is pressing a fire burnt metal rod to his ear. Moses said “The heat was so strong it seemed to be melting my hair and skull”. The number 8 stood out of his skin purple and fleshy. He was branded.

The pain was so terrifying that he passes out. Hours passed, and Moses is still lying on the cold floor until he hears footsteps. Not any kind of footsteps, the hollow sound of a boot stomping on the floor, the owner of the horse. He briskly walks in and lashes Moses hard in the hand, Moses rises into consciousness and shock. Moses is scooped up by the arms of the muscular man, and is carried out to a horse. He sits in the saddle and his hands are intricately knotted together once again. The man gets on the horse and they ride away, until the hut is only a speck.

After what seemed like days of riding, Moses opens his eyes. He is not on the horse anymore but on a smelly ground covered with dried grass, mud and rocks. He gets the faint smell of fish in the distance, making him fantasize about food. His eyes scan the surroundings. He’s in a barn. Around the barn he sees boys like him, he could tell that they too were also brought here by the Murahaleen. He brushes his bruised knees and attempts to go speak to a boy in the corner.
“Hello”.
The boy stares at him.
“I would like to know where I am, and why I am in this barn”:
“You will be traded soon” the boy replies patiently.
“I will be what!?”
“Traded.” The boy enunciates.
Moses freezes. Trickles of hope are suddenly expelled from Moses’s mind. He thinks of what the boy said to him, he was being traded!

As Moses waits in shade of the barn, he couldn’t help but try and escape. However he knew that if he did attempt, he would be caught. He waits until the sky turns a light shade of purple, when an Arab man walks in. He simply acknowledges Moses, and talks to the man in charge. With another glance, the Man motions Moses to come along with him.Fear grips him. As Moses’s shaky legs stand up, the man doesn’t wait for him, his skinny legs walk fast as if he had someplace to be. Moses follows him out the barn and into the village of Shendi. Seeing everyday village scenes brought back memories of his own town, Marial Bai.

Acids of panic kept flushing through him. The man simply walks out of the village carelessly. Moses is now confused. His head is spinning from the exhaustion of walking. The man didn’t carry around a lash or bindings, Moses starts to get a bit suspicious, and he is going to plan to escape if they hadn’t reached their destination by dawn. They walk until sunlight cracks the sky. Just then, Moses is about to escape, and he is going to start by distracting the man. But he didn’t need to. The man finally comes to a halt, and Moses doesn’t have a single breath left. When Moses lifts his head he is suddenly awestruck. 100 meters away, a magnificent plane stands, around it are many other boys his age. To Moses, it was truly breathtaking. The man then said “ You are free.The plane will take you to safety. Be free”.

Moses stares at him as if he is talking gibberish. What had just happened? He stays put, and thinks he heard something wrong. When he takes a closer look around the plane he sees that it there are people with pure white skin. Moses is first scared, the Man walks towards the plane, drops him off at the engine, and simply walks away. The whites happily invite Moses to join them as these people are working for an NGO to help save kids like him. Moses says happily “We were valuable to them, it was such a feeling!”.A smile suddenly paints his face golden, and without another look back, Moses walks into the plane.