WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com)�The Rev. Walter Fauntroy, Akwuei Bona Malwal, an activist from the Southern region of Sudan, and the Rev. Anthony Swanston were among activists who squared off June 27 at Howard University in one of the first public discussions on the subject of slavery in the Sudan that included a representative of the Sudanese government, as well as prominent Muslims with knowledge of conditions in that country.

Anti-slavery activist Joe Madison was unable to participate in the debate as advertised, because he "had to move," according to the event�s organizers. Syed El-Khatib, of the Center for Strategic Studies, in Khartoum; Imam Muhammad Magid of Adams Center; and Hodari Abdul-Ali, proprietor of Dar Es-Salaam Bookstore, also participated in the lively discussion.

"We started out thinking that we were going to free some slaves," Leah Byndon, Women�s Wing vice president and one of the forum organizers told The Final Call. Their literature announcing the event in fact aligned their effort with the "very significant movement to end slavery in Sudan. But we ended up learning that there is more to this than what first meets the eye," she continued.

What was different in this exchange was that a variety of Sudanese from different political perspectives were heard from, along with a number of Muslims and Black activists from this country. All of them challenged the "conventional wisdom" concerning Sudan.

"This debate has to continue. We would like to have fair time," said Imam Magid, complaining that anti-Sudan talk show hosts have been going on for months, belittling his country on the air, talking about alleged slavery without giving an opportunity for anyone to offer a different point of view.

"I�m a Sudanese. I am a Muslim, a victim of this regime. I fled to the United States three years ago as a political refugee. I ran away from my country. For five years I haven�t seen my kids or my wife," said a man who identified himself as Dr. Farouk, a founding member of Sudan�s Ummah Party, as well as a member of Amnesty International.

"I want to state, there is no slavery in Sudan," he continued. At the same time he admitted, "I�m praying to Allah every day in my five times and more that, the next morning this regime is not there in Sudan."

He said he asked political figures whom he respects, including the father of Southern Sudan activist Mr. Malwal, if there was slavery in his country. He said they told him "no." Indeed, the elder Mr. Malwal actually served in a Muslim-dominated Sudanese government in the 1970s.

"Why this issue is raised now?" Dr. Farouk said rhetorically. "I propose to the United States government, there�s a flame in Sudan. There�s a fire. (But) instead of fueling fire, putting more gasoline there, you can kill this fire by a cup of water."

The flame is being fueled, according to the Rev. Fauntroy, by greed, and by huge oil reserves that were discovered all over the country, but especially in war-torn central Sudan.

"It has been the practice in Africa to gain access to resources with gang-counter-gang strategies that fuel conflict on both sides, and provide them a pittance of resources to purchase weaponry from (the West) to continue the divide-and-conquer thing," Rev. Fauntroy said.

"This war is about what has happened throughout the history of Africa, and the solution is ... for us to be reconciled with one another," said the Rev. Fauntroy, senior pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church. He did not, however, repeat his harsh characterization of slavery in that country.

Muslims present, while conceding that the Sudanese government is not "perfect", raised doubts that the struggle to control the country�s new-found oil-wealth is the principal motivation for the conflict. "This issue of slaves in Sudan is meant to separate North from the South," Imam Muhammad Magid insisted. "There is no slavery in Sudan, even (according to) opposition (leaders) who oppose the government.

"You have to remember there are some organizations targeting African American leaders and African American activists, to take them to the South of Sudan and have them see �staged slavery,� " he said.

There is a sinister reason why members of the Congressional Black Caucus, prominent civil rights leaders and other Black activists have been "targeted" by white, anti-Islamic groups for the "Black-slavery-in-Sudan" message, according to Syed El-Khatib, from the Center for Strategic Studies.

"This campaign in the African American community is preemptive," said Mr. El Khatib. Sudan�s enemies "know that the only way that this gigantic, superpower that�s called the United States can be stopped from hurting the people of Sudan is when the African American community mobilizes to say no."

Another speaker was even more emphatic. "Brothers and sisters," the rhetoric about "slavery in Sudan, (is) aimed at (arousing) Black men who hate slavery," the unidentified man said. The issue being raised about female genital mutilation, he continued, is aimed at Black women who are "coming to Islam in droves. All of this is an attack on Islam, and we wish that our brothers right here would have enough sense to know when we are being set up."

The man reminded the audience that even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was lied about in order to discredit his leadership.

As the debate boiled down, one side defended the Sudanese government as being the victim of a propaganda campaign that has mischaracterized the centuries-old practice of "abducting" members of rival tribes and then ransoming them back to their fellow tribesmen as being a "slave trade". According to the other side, however, the real reason the bloody civil war in which this practice�call it slavery or abduction�has continued for the last 18 years is because southern Sudanese "were afraid we would be abducted by the Sudanese Muslims in the North, and those Muslims wanted to actually subjugate the Africans into their way of life�Arabism and Islam," Akwuei Bona Malwal said emphatically.

His father served in the Sudanese government of Gen. Gaafar Numeiri following the Addis Ababa agreement that ended the first, 17-year civil war after independence from Britain. "Why did the war start again? Because Numeiri did not trust the Africans when the oil was discovered in 1970s by Chevron. When the oil was discovered in the center here, in Southern Sudan, Numeiri relaxed the Addis Ababa Agreement. That�s what the reverend is talking about, the oil exploitation.

"They labeled my father as the enemy of the country No. 1 because he was exposing these reports about Southern Sudanese being �abducted.� It�s about slavery. It�s about the Arabs trying to turn the whole Sudan from a diverse country, into an Islamic Arabic country," he said.

Attempts by succeeding governments in Khartoum to impose Islamic "Sharia law" on the entire population, are at the root of the rebellion of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army, Mr. Malwal said.

Others admit that there has been a "lack of balance" between the North and the South in economic development in Sudan, but insist "slavery is not one of our vices."