I Am Not Your Slave

Tjipombo (a pseudonym) relates her experience of being abducted and caught up in a complex human trafficking network and brutally, repeatedly raped as she was moved from her home to Dubai, where a wealthy man who “collected” beautiful girls from around the world had “ordered” a girl from the Himba tribe in Namibia. Tjipombo, at age 16, was forced to work in his household as a maid by day and a sex slave by night. Her tale of 21st-century slavery puts a shocking face to dry statistics. Tjipombo tells how her well-to-do “owner” in Dubai shared her “services” with other wealthy men from around the world, including an American man who worked for the United Nations World Food Programme. She makes clear that her searing story is not unique; her fate was shared by countless other girls who had no hope of escape. Only courage and rare luck allowed Tjipombo to get away and share her story, which will haunt readers.