The dialogue begins when Sa´id meets Bakhïta and asks her where she is now working, and she answers that she has no work, and that she wishes they were still slaves, still being cared for and fed by their masters. Sa´id reminds her that they were also regularly beaten by these same masters, and Bakhïta concedes that she finds pleasure in freedom. But still she laments, “We came from our country like beasts [zay al-bahä´im], and it was our masters who taught us about Islam [al-kaläm wa al-hadïth] and taught us about cleanliness, food, drink, how to dress and how to speak properly, since we spoke in a way that no one could understand.”

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 682