Daoud Hari > Quotes

“The best way to bury your pain is to help others, and to lose yourself in that.”
― Daoud Hari

“You have to find a way to laugh a little bit each day despite everything, or your heart will simply run out of the joy that makes it go.”
― Daoud Hari, The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur

“You have to be stronger than your fears if you want to get anything done in this life.”
― Daoud Hari

“They are among the three hundred million Africans who earn less than a dollar a day, and who are often pushed out of the way or killed for such things as oil, water, metal ore, and diamonds.”
― Daoud Hari, The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur

“Because of my schooling, my fate would always be a little different from my friends.”
― Daoud Hari

“If the world allows the people of Darfur to be removed forever from their land and their way of life, then genocide will happen elsewhere because it will be seen as something that works. It must not be allowed to work. The people of Darfur need to go home now. I write this for them, and for that day, ... and for those still living who might yet have beautiful lives on the earth.”
― Daoud Hari, The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur

“What is more important for the world right now than preserving ways of living in balance with the earth?”
― Daoud Hari, The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur

“Did you know that Darfur was a great country long ago, so great that it was both in Sudan and also in Chad? Did you know that the French who controlled Chad, and the British, who later controlled Sudan, drew a line putting half of Darfur in each new nation? Did you know that? What do you care about this line if you are darfur men? What business is it of yours if the British and the French drew lines on maps? What does it have to do with the fact that we are brothers?" The boys were moved by this...”
― Daoud Hari

“I know most people want others to have good lives, and, when they understand the situation, they will do what they can to steer the world back toward kindness. This is when human beings, I believe, are most admirable.”
― Daoud Hari

“Chad has oil wells, so there are a few grand hotels for rich, who come to quickly take the money away before it ruins the charm of our mud and straw cities.”
― Daoud Hari, The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur

“However, nothing is all too bad, and there were many good people to meet in prison from all over Africa with interesting stories for us to listen to as we stood through the nights and days, stepping on roaches and scratching lice but at least getting to learning something interesting about other countries and other people.”
― Daoud Hari

“Often, then, the stories came pouring out, and often they were set before us slowly and quietly like tea. These slow stories were told with understatement that made my eyes and voice fill as I translated; for when people seem to have no emotion remaining for such stories, your own heart must supply it.”
― Daoud Hari, The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur

“I did not see where the bullets were going, but little songbirds flew down from the trees, confused and worried. They perched on my shoulders and then hid in the folds of my robes and shawl. But then I saw they were falling dead from me, their hearts broken by this noise.”
― Daoud Hari, The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur

“(Husbands and wives have separate huts, which makes for long marriages.)”
― Daoud Hari, The Translator: A Memoir