A new anti-slavery movement with a strong Christian base is growing as it targets slavery practices in Africa.
Nat Hentoff writes in the Washington Post (Dec. 1) that this liberation movement aims to free Christian and animist slaves in Sudan. So far, 15,447 slaves have been freed, largely through the work of the Swiss-based Christian Solidarity International and the Boston-based American Anti-Slavery Group. The latter organization has “begun a national campaign aimed at companies investing in Sudan, whose National Islamic Front government in the north is accused of encouraging the slave trade.
Aside from such influential groups as a national pension fund for professors and other college employees divesting in companies, a prominent leader in the movement is Rev. Chuck Singleton, pastor of the 10,000 member interdenominational Loveland Church near Los Angeles. UNICEF and others have charged that buying back slaves can encourage slave traders to capture more victims. But chiefs and elders from the villages involved in slave raids say there has been no increase in the slave trade and that raids have decreased.