Silent Terror: A Journey into Contemporary African Slavery

by Samuel Cotton

Silent Terror is the disturbing story of a black American's journey into the horrors of modern-day slavery in Africa. The author's odyssey takes him from New York to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, where he comes face to face with the Arab-Berbers' centuries-old practice of enslaving black Africans. Samuel Cotton's research exposes this heinous practice while documenting and analyzing the hatred that the Arab minority holds for blacks, both slave and free, in a country where everyone is Muslim.

Cotton takes the reader into the life of oppressed Africans and provides critical insights into the use of religion and language to successfully enslave blacks. He also shows the process by which Arab masters produce docile slaves. The narratives he recorded from those who escaped reveal the horrible truth of slave life, the despair and humiliation, and the slaves' capacity for hope and courage. Interviews with former slaves who have become abolitionist leaders show the path from bondage to freedom and offer the hope that this grim practice will one day be a relic of the past. Silent Terror examines why African nations have been silent on this subject and the role that neocolonialism plays in continuing an unspeakable practice.

This book is also a personal narrative. The author shares the impact of coming to grips with his African past and identity and his internal and external struggles to bring the issue of slavery to the American public. He sheds light on the growth of a modern-day abolitionist movement aimed at destroying the remaining strongholds of slavery and details the difficulty of getting the Black Muslim community to confront the idea of slavery in the Islamic world and to get black people in general to deal with this painful reality.

Genres: Africa, Nonfiction, History

170 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

Reviews

[Tinea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend finding and reading this. Cotton was a young journalist when he was assigned to follow a lead about the existence of enslavement in contemporary Africa. This book is the result of that research, which began with compiling reports from human rights organizations, and eventually drew him to Senegal and, in secret, to visit Mauritania where he interviewed escaped formerly enslaved people and activists who had been tortured for their work. His reporting uncovers a race-based hierarchy with a minority of lighter-skinned Saharan peoples (I don't have the book handy to find the accurate ethnic identification. Peoples related to Berbers and Arabs) controlling entire populations of darker-skinned Black Africans.

The book is phenomenal. Cotton documents everything carefully, but he chose to write from a personal angle, recording his secondary traumas as he listens to stories of torture and slavery. This is so powerful and honest, and it helps the reader to react to unbearable testimony, because the reader can relate vicariously as Cotton processes. He makes personal connections with the clandestine human rights activists he meets: Cotton's approach makes it clear he is a peer, not a savior. It's a powerful and rare act of solidarity.

Cotton reflects poignantly on his African American ancestry. The book is directed at his African American peers, with the purpose of inspiring a social movement of descendents of enslaved people to rise in solidarity with contemporary slaves. Cotton does not miss the fact that many African Americans are direct blood relatives of Black Africans from Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, and Niger, blood relatives of the currently enslaved. Yet, he shows us, few African Americans at the time he wrote were interested in hearing about these issues, or in learning about contemporary Africa. Cotton's article and activism fell on mostly deaf ears, with the notable exception of certain leaders in the Nation of Islam, who condemned his reporting as anti-Islamic propaganda. Cotton is shocked, since the Black Africans in the region are almost all Muslims themselves. It's a race issue, not a religious one, Cotton argued. Why did the Nation of Islam side with the lighter skinned Arab/Berber Muslims and ignore the Black ones?

Cotton died. He died of cancer a few yeas after this was published. The world lost a champion of a cause that has been inexplicably ignored by mainstream human rights activists and politics. His death is such a tragedy for the movement he was beginning to build. It is also a hollow sadness, because he made such deep relationships with the activists and survivors in Mauritania. He told the stories of some of them. But the follow up that his energy and spirit promised were denied by his death.

[Read for the Great African Reads book club]

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heart-sickening account of the widespread slavery in Mauritania and surrounding nations. Slaves make up a significant percentage of the Mauritanian population and have spilled into Senegal, Libya etc. as well. I had been aware before that slavery existed in Mauritania and Sudan, but I have never read a detailed journalistic description of it before. I was absolutely horrified by the stories and accompanying photographs. The Mauritanian slaves are treated every bit as badly as black slaves in America had been -- perhaps even worse. Most disturbing of all, however, is the attitude of many of the slaves: they, like their masters, see it as just a fact of life, part of the order of things. Allah made masters and Allah made slaves and never shall the two be equal.

This is not only a factual account but also a memoir. The author, a graduate student in sociology and a part-time journalist, started off on a one-time assignment to write a magazine article about a problem that may or might not exist in a country he'd never heard of. He wound up becoming an activist, testifying before the Senate, visiting Mauritania, etc., because he was so moved by the facts he uncovered in his research. Alas, it's been more than a decade since this book was written and I don't believe things have changed much for the slaves in Mauritania. More yet remains to be done.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slavery-right now-today-not just the sexual kind either- in 2014- unbelievable -shocking-and sickening.
Now I more completely understand parts of A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul. There has always been slavery on the coast of Africa & it seems as if there always will be...the sudden death of this courageous author makes things even harder to accept, knowing how much he wanted to and no doubt was going to help those enslaved persons.

[Joe Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very sad, but more so an important and relevant read for the 21st century. Watch ‘I am slave’ on Amazon prime (2010). A great film depicting the issues described in this book.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Cotton is deceased now, I found that out on the Internet. It's sad really, because I felt like I got to know him when I read his book Silent Terror in 2013, fifteen years after it was published. I learned as much about the storyteller as I learned about modern slavery in Mauritania. It's not like he just wrote up a report about slavery and set it on the table. He told the story through his eyes; shared his beliefs, first impressions, his views, his emotions, and the people he met during his visit to Africa. His account makes the reader trust his facts. He offered readers a list of possible actions to eradicate slavery in the world. He mixed actions with the words he wrote for The City Sun,/i>, a weekly African-American New York newspaper. Very good book for people who want to know the inside story of modern slavery.

[Michael Haase · Rating 5 out of 5]

A singular account of a disturbing reality, both commendable for its intentions and mortifying for its implications. A Modern Max Havelaar. A book that fails to shock, disturb, and move to great emotion only the most heartless and jaded readers. Silent Terror: A Journey into Contemporary African Slavery is at once a treatise, a memoir, and a lament, remarking on the cruelties committed on Africans, the dissolution of African culture, the world-wide political suppression which keeps Africa in its crippled state, and the hypocrisy of African people both in Africa and across seas in failing to take action to stop these things from happening.

It's the kind of book that puts the world in perspective and reshapes the way you live and think. After reading this book, all your decisions and activities will be from that point onward accompanied by the lingering thought that people are suffering the pain of bondage somewhere in the world. How can one fully enjoy ordinary things knowing such a thing?

And another thing that is painful besides is just how little impact and how small a reader base this book has had. So much devotion and was put into its making, so much effort and anxiety; Samel Cotton poured his heart and soul into it but to pitifully little effect.

It's a shame. This is a book I believe everyone in the world today should read. It should be made a part of standard curriculum. Slavery is just not something a civilized world can look past with dignity.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Samuel Cotton reveals the atrocity of the trading of black slaves occurring in North Africa countries of Mauritania and Sudan in Silent Terror.

Silent Terror is not for the faint of heart. Cotton is detailed in the plight of slaves and the barbaric and cruel treatment many experience from their owners. Silent Terror is also part memoir of Cotton's personnel connection felt thru his travels in Africa connecting with his roots. Deeply moved by witnessing the inhumanities of slavery Cotton became an activist against slavery leading to testifying before the Senate.

Silent Terror is graphic, educational and heartbreaking. A subject matter often ignored and hidden enters the forefront in this compelling read by Samuel Cotton. A reality the entire world should be aware of and advocate its abolishment.