The Skeletons of the Zahara

When I was into reading the "Skeletons of Zahara" , I could not stop comparing it with "Roots" of Alex Haley. They both have a similar base - Slavery. Both of those describe about the incidents leading humans to slavery, how mean human 'masters' can treat their fellows in captivity, and the struggle enduring the hardships with hope for a better tomorrow.Human race never failed to exploit the helplessness of their fellow beings thus, proving that we are animals no matter how civilised we try to appear or live.

How are the books different? Those are 2 different incidents happened to 2 different races - Skeletons of Zahara is about American sailors stranded in the Great African desert Sahara and caught by Arabs. Roots is the saga of an African tricked and captured by whites when he took the guardpost of his village at Africa one moonless night, transferred to the ship while he passed out , brought and sold in America.


The Skeletons of the Zahara is about the american Sailors stranded on the desert of Sahara when their brig ( A ship with 2 square rigged masts) called "Commerce" shattered to pieces after a fierce Hurricane,and were left stranded on the Sahara Desert. Caught as Slaves by the Arabs (when the sailors had to voluntarily surrender to them for drinking water hardly found on that desert land) who tried to sell them off to the richer Arabs, the story narrates the hardships endured by the sailors in the scorching heat with limited water and food. Few kinder Arabs agreed to take these stranded sailors till Morocco where they can claim money in exchange to free the sailors with the office set up by the Americans and British at Morroco's market that oversees the foreign good transactions.To reach Morocco, they had to travel partly on foot and ride on camels. It is not a smooth journey after all with the other Arab teams waiting for every chance to snatch and claim these westerners as their slaves.

A good read for a weekend that can leave you thirsty for more!

You can find the hard copy in any public library.

Madhu