Darfur: Twenty Years of War and Genocide in Sudan

by Leora Kahn

Even by conservative estimates, the situation in the Darfur region of the Sudan is grave. There are 3.5 million people who are hungry, 2.5 million who have been displaced by violence, and 400,000 individuals who have died since the crisis began in 2003. The international community has failed to take steps to protect civilians, or to influence the Sudanese government to intervene. The spread of violence, rape, and hate-fueled killings across the border into Chad is simply the latest atrocity. Call it war. Call it genocide. Call it famine. There is no single word to describe the plight of these people. They face all of these horrors at once.

In answer, Media for Social Justice, Amnesty International, and the Holocaust Museum of Houston have partnered to create Twenty Years of War and Genocide in Sudan . The book covers three periods in the Sudan crisis, including images shot in 1988, when an estimated 250,000 Sudanese died of starvation; images from 1992 and 1995 that capture the atrocities of a civil war, when hundreds of thousands fled their homes to other destinations in Sudan or left the country altogether; and images from 2005 and more recently, bringing to light the severity of the humanitarian crisis underway, with the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias committing systematic violence on the people of Darfur.

A handbook is included that provides website links and additional resources for readers to pursue. It specifies measures they can take to make their voices heard so the people of Darfur do not feel forgotten.

All proceeds from the book will benefit Amnesty International and Genocide Intervention Network.

Genres: Sudan, Photography, Nonfiction, Africa

136 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2007

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

In one of the few brief comments included in this grim collection of photographs, Nicholas D. Kristof, the New York Times reporter who has done so much to draw world attention to the atrocities being committed in Sudan, writes:

Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of Darfur isn't that gunmen on the Sudanese payroll heave babies into bonfires as they shout epithets against blacks. It's that the rest of us are responding only with averted eyes and polite tut-tutting.

This book, with photographic contributions from eight world-renowned photojournalists, is meant to refocus that gaze, to force us to bear witness to a terrible and painful reality. It is a work meant to stir our outrage and compassion, and to rouse us to action. Proceeds from sales go to Amnesty International and The Genocide Intervention Network, so it is also a book intended to raise money for a most worthy cause...

This is not the place to look for an introduction to the subject, as it provides only the most elementary outline of the progression of events which led to the current human catastrophe. No, this slender volume is more intimate - it sucks the reader/viewer into the real human suffering behind the sound-bite news headlines. Utterly heartbreaking.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really illustrates the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." I purchased this because I realized that I am at a point in my life where I am ignorant or misinformed of things that I should be aware of simply because I am a global citizen: things like atrocities, genocide, human rights abuses. Things that are outside of my little suburban USA bubble; things that only flash across the biased news screen.

This book really illustrates the people of Sudan and narrates the political and social problems that have been tormenting them for over 20 years. Some of the time-lines are daunting, but informative nonetheless. The pictures are amazing, though. One of the most memorable were of lines of people (literally hundreds, perhaps thousands deep) awaiting food and water. They sit in bright colored clothes, but their faces are gaunt and their eyes are sad. Another is of a young girl being held by her mother in a hospital where only the severely malnourished are admitted. There are even pictures of the militia groups who tote dusty machine guns and train amid dead bodies in the dirt.

In all, this is definitely a more informative read that tugs at the heart strings when you realize all the atrocities that exist in the world.

[AndreaD'A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. This book gives maps, timelines, and shows unique relationships some people would find shocking. But mostly this is book gives real stories and pictures about day to day life in Darfur. Most pictures are tragic, saddening, and awful, but must be share and seen so we can truly embrace the phrase, "we will never forget.".