Tragedy in Darfur (Alex de Waal)

[gottaB]

On understanding and ending the horror

Every genocide is hideous, each in its own grotesque way. Searching for the origins and distinctiveness of the genocidal violence that has convulsed the Sudanese region of Darfur in the last year—leaving tens of thousands dead and perhaps a million people displaced and in danger—we must go to the remotest desert-edge settlements in Northern Darfur near the border with Chad, to the basalt stubs of mountains that march southward until they fuse in the 10,000-foot Jebel Marra massif in the center of Darfur, and to Sudan’s capital in Khartoum, far to the east.

Geography helps to explain much. Darfur is huge and distant from the capital, and events in neighboring Chad and Libya have often exerted more influence over it than the national government, whose ignorance of its western region and indifference to the welfare of its inhabitants spurred a rebellion in 2003, organized by the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

This journey will introduce us to these Darfur rebels, including members of the Fur, Zaghawa, Masalit, and Tunjur ethnic groups, who have been the primary victims of the violence; to their neighbors, the Darfurian Arabs—including the branches of the northern Rizeigat (Jalul, Mahariya, and Ereigat), Beni Halba, and Salamat—some of whom have been recruited to the infamous Janjawiid militia, the perpetrator of the worst massacres in the conflict; and to the Sudanese Government itself, which has suppressed the rebellion with brutal tactics rehearsed in the recently concluded 21-year civil war with southern Sudan.

We will see that the story is not as simple as the conventional rendering in the news, which depicts a conflict between “Arabs” and “Africans.” The Zaghawa—one of the groups victimized by the violence and described in the mainstream press as “indigenous African”—are certainly indigenous, black and African: they share distant origins with the Berbers of Morocco and other ancient Saharan peoples. But the name of the “Bedeyat,” the Zaghawa’s close kin, should alert us to their true origins: pluralize in the more traditional Arab manner and we have “Bedeyiin” or Bedouins. Similarly, the Zaghawa’s adversaries in this war, the Darfurian Arabs, are “Arabs” in the ancient sense of “Bedouin,” meaning desert nomad, a sense that has only in the last few decades been used to describe the Arabs of the river Nile and the Fertile Crescent. Darfurian Arabs, too, are indigenous, black, and African. In fact there are no discernible racial or religious differences between the two: all have lived there for centuries; all are Muslims (Darfur’s non-Arabs are arguably more devout than the Arabs); and until very recently, conflict between these different groups was a matter of disputes over camel theft or grazing rights, not the systematic and ideological slaughter of one group by the other.

Tragedy in Darfur....

alternative link: http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=5901

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This essay is, to date, de Waal's most thorough formulation of his views on the crisis. De Waal maintains a solid grasp on the ambivalences evident in the situation, its singularities as well as its more global implications. Not surprisingly, therefore, he is widely quoted by both supporters and critics of the governement of Sudan, often with little regard to the overall context of De Waal's arguments. It pays to read his views in full.

De Waal received a doctorate from Oxford in social anthropology. If I had to guess (and I am guessing), I'd say he studied under Wendy James. Most of his work has been what some call "applied anthropology," namely applying the conceptual tools and methods of social antrhopology to problems of economic development, food security, public health, human rights, and democraticization. He is currently a fellow at Harvard's Global Equity Initiative, and the Director of Justice Africa.

De Waal has written several books (none of which I've read, but will now be looking for), including Famine that Kills: Darfur, Sudan, 1984–1985. He has also written about AIDS, the Rwandan genocide, the problem of humanitarian interventions (especially with regard to Somalia), militarism, and most recently he edited the volume Islamism and its Enemies in the Horn of Africa. His writings concerning Darfur which are available online include:

• Counter-Insurgency on the Cheap
  
• Darfur's Deep Grievances Defy All Hopes for an Easy Solution, alternative link: http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/sudan/2004/0725deepgriev.htm
  
• Prospects for Peace in Sudan, from Justice Africa. This bulletin is updated monthly. An excellent resource.
  

Related dynamics in other regions of Sudan:

• "The Road to Peace in Sudan: Prospects for Pluralism in Northern Sudan" (pdf). See other studies from the conference A New Approach to Peace in Sudan, sponsored by the United States Institute for Peace (USIP). The USIP may be regarded as more or less a bipartisan propoganda enterprise. Their charter and organization seem transparent enough.
  
• Creating devastation and calling it Islam: the war for Nuba, Sudan
  
• Massacre in the mountains while the world looked the other way. Not de Waal's most thoughtful writings on the Nuba genocide, but useful for showing his biases and the development of his perspective.
  
• Human rights seminar, an interesting talk delivered in 2000.
  

A few interviews:

• Same Difference? Comparing Sudan's Famines
  
• "Asking The Right Questions About Darfur, Sudan", Part XI, Exclusive Q & A With Dr. Alex De Waal and Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, Directors, Justice Africa. See the whole series from Cedric Muhammad's BlackElectorate.Com . Also see the pieces featured in Black Commentator, which have been very good.