OLD CHATHAM – A Columbia County woman, who is a native of a West African country, is seeking justice 20 years after she said she was kidnapped, enslaved and forced to marry an American man.
She is being aided by the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement.
Alima Bonsa went public on Thursday, telling her story of being bought for money and livestock by the first white man she ever saw back in 2001. She was 18 at the time.
She called the man, Allen Stack, a trafficker.
“I call it trafficking because I was bought like an animal, and been abused and bought my family,” she said. “When we came here, nobody is allowed to have their own documents. He had everybody’s passport, birth certificate, everything. That is what a trafficker does. He just buy people like an animal. That’s why I call it a trafficker because he is.”
Stack could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
During her ordeal, he moved her to New Orleans, Italy, Washington, DC, Montreal and Canada before settling on a farm in Old Chatham where she said she and her family were forced to work the land.
During her lengthy ordeal, she gave birth to three children, now 13, 11 and eight.
Bonsa, who has an order of protection against Stack, said the legal system has continually failed her.
