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Liberian Woman Flees 15-year Captivity By :Cheechiay Jablasone Courtesy: Liberian Observer May 4, 2009  A
15 years old captivity Liberian woman freed by a United Nations Sudanese
staff, returned to the country last Wednesday, April 22, 2009 illiterate
and traumatized from abuse and enslavement.On June 27, 1994, a Monrovia Judge, F. Nyepan Topor, of the Monthly and Probate Court, granted a petition by one Rose Sieh of Monrovia filed on her behalf by Cllr. J. McDonald Krakue to surrender parenthood of her 10-year-old daughter to one Elmag Eltayee Eltahir as his adopted daughter. Mr. Eltahir, a Sudanese, took Facia to his Sharia-governed state where adoption is outlawed. Speaking to the Daily Observer in Virginia near Hotel Africa, Facia told a chilling 15-year tale of enslavement, during which she was maltreated and flogged by her master when she was between 13 and 16. Speaking mainly Arabic through an interpreter, Facia said when she and her adopted father flew out of Monrovia, they did not go directly to Sudan, but flew to Cairo, Egypt. “We were in Cairo for two weeks. He asked his wife to come and meet us there and she taught me how to tie Aljaab (head gear). “From Cairo, we went to Omdurman (Sudan) where we stayed for three years. Although I was asked to leave my clothes back in Monrovia because my adopted father promised to buy new clothes for me when we got to Sudan, all I got were used clothes from his grandchildren. I was made to scrub the floor and wash the dishes. “As a child I wet bed at night. I was not well treated but made to sleep in the storeroom on the floor. Whenever I was sick, they did not take me to hospital. They just got me pills. Unless I was critically ill, I would not be taken to hospital.” Facia was a 3rd grade student at the New Era International School on Jamaica Road at the time of her adoption and that was all she had for education. She said after Omdurman the family moved to Emirate in Sudan for a year before settling at El Mamoura, a district in Khartoum where her master had completed a three-storey mansion. At 13, she said she tried to run away and was caught and falsely charged for trying to run away with a man, a major crime in Sudan. “My adopted father maltreated me and beat me when I was 13 up to the time I was 16. When I complained to his wife she would not believe me and joined in beating me. When he realized at some point that no amount of beating would allow me to have sex with him, he beat me for every little thing. Sometimes he would just say that I have delayed in bringing his tea and he would beat me,” Facia further told the Daily Observer. When the family moved to El Mamoura, Facia added, she was kept indoors and not allowed to leave the house. She said she did all sorts of household chores. She disclosed that although her master had promised to educate her during the time of adoption in Monrovia, she said every time she mentioned to him about going to school, he played down the matter. Facia said all of her travel documents were seized including her Liberian papers, an Egyptian passport acquired for her by her master and naturalization papers as Sudanese. The young woman said every day was the same; she got up and worked around the house from dawn until bedtime. She said she was only taught Arabic by her master's wife at home for communication purposes. Facia said some months ago her master died and during the preparation of his feast, some of the workers who came to assist inquired who she was. “When I told my story, they told me to go to the police and I could get help.” She stated that after the death of her master, the family wanted her to marry a security guard at their compound. “One day I was working and noticed the main door opened. I escaped and went to the police and told my story. The police tried to convince me to return to the house but I refused. I spent 12 days at the police station. They fed me and at night I slept in the detention center with the female inmates.” Facia said when the police contacted the son of her deceased master known as Omar, they mandated him to send her back to Liberia within three to five days or face punishment. She said that same day Omar released her Liberian and Egyptian passports. The police, she said, also asked the family to compensate her for the period she had been held in captivity. Omar, according to the young woman, argued that his father had spent a lot on her and so he was not willing to compensate her. Facia further disclosed that Omar returned to the police and retrieved her passports and told the officers that he had bought her some things and wanted her to spend some time with the family before she returned home. Facia said that was an opportunity for the family to have her beaten one last time. She explained that at the house she was charged of being ungrateful for all the good things their late father had done for her. “I was beaten,” she said. Facia said her Egyptian passport was returned but the Liberian one seized. Omar took her to the airport by 1:00 am and wrote a paper that she was married. His intent, she explained, was to bar her from traveling as under Islamic laws a married woman must be accompanied by her husband or brother. Facia said she traveled via Kenya Airways and arrived in Monrovia last Wednesday. At the Roberts International Airport (RIA), in Margibi County, she said security doubted that she was a Liberian and gave her three options: to choose deportation, detention or surrender her money. She said she surrendered the money to them and they seized her travel documents. She could not, however, say which of the security at the RIA to whom she had surrendered her money and the total amount involved before she was allowed to enter Liberia. Meanwhile, Facia is currently at the home of one Ahmed Abdallah, a Sudanese who knew both Eltahir and Facia's mother back in 1994 when the story began. Facia told our reporter that when she arrived in Monrovia, she did not know where to go so she directed the taxi driver to her old school on Jamaica Road. The driver took her to the school's new campus around Zone 1 on Bushrod Island. At the school, she said she told the school authorities that she was a student at the school in 1994. They checked the records and found her name in the school records. Facia also had two photographs, one of her master and the other of Mr. Abdallah's son. When she displayed the photographs the school staff recognized Abdallah's son and told her that the father had been to the school only a few days earlier. She was directed to the Abdallah's house in River View, Virginia, where she now resides. She told this reporter that she had tried to trace her family and was yet to locate them. Interestingly, Abdallah said his son, who was a classmate of Facia, was back in Sudan and would earn his first degree this June. |
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