The Global Center on Human Trafficking
MATTALLA – MAURETANIA
Mattalla spent most of his life as a slave. He often watched his owners beat his mother and sisters. When he protested, they beat him too. Matalla’s job was to take care of livestock and make charcoal. His family lived in a small area of the owners’ settlement surrounded by cloth. They were given no food except for the occasional leftovers and often cooked and ate lizards they caught in the desert. Escape in the Sahara would almost always lead to death by hunger or thirst or at the hands of slave owners who would find them. Mattalla was beaten if he lost a camel, if he sat on the same mat as his owners, or if he disobeyed them. When Mattalla met some soldiers on the road, he told them he’d rather be shot dead than return to his owners. The soldiers helped him escape and receive support from a local NGO. His family remained with the owners. (Source)