They work from dawn to dusk without pay, are passed on in marriage and are sometimes beaten and raped by their masters. Yet most are resigned to their fate because their status "cannot be wiped away", as one young slave -- or "ata" -- Kanisius Kanyali Hambarita told AFP.Slavery has been illegal in what is now Indonesia for more than 160 years, but it survives in Sumba's rigid caste system, particularly in the island's east.Kanisius and his master Umbu Ana Rara, 31, who is three years younger than him, live in the village of Tenggedu, whose turquoise waterfalls draw intrepid tourists looking for a "hidden tropical paradise".
People stand near mangrove trees during sunset at Walakiri beach in Waingapu on Sumba © BAY ISMOYO / AFP
It is a place out of time, reached by a rocky road between arid hills and the sea where you have to dodge stray cows, goats and wild horses. There's no mobile phone signal and food is cooked over a wood fire. Umbu Ana said he treats his slave "like a member of the family" as the two sat chewing betelnuts -- a mild stimulant that stains the gums red -- in the late morning heat, with chickens and geese wandering at their feet.Both master and slave sleep on mats on the floor of one of the village's towering traditional thatched houses -- built to resemble buffalo horns -- that are often grouped around the tombs of the masters' ancestors. Umbu Ana allows his "ata" to earn a little money as a motorcycle taxi driver and to grow his own food on a small plot of land.
