Zlata’s diary begins as any other eleven-year-olds diary would:  talk of vacations, friends, school, teachers, MTV, pizza, Michael Jackson, and sleeping in on the weekends.  The first entry in fifth grade begins, “Behind me – a long, hot summer and the happy days of summer holidays; ahead of me – a new school year.”

It is just a short month and a half into her journal that the war enters her life:

There’s a real war going on in Dubrovnik.  It’s being badly shelled.  People are in shelters, they have no water, no electricity, the phone’s aren’t working.  We see horrible pictures on TV.  Mommy and Daddy are worried.  Is it possible that such a beautiful town is being destroyed?

Little does Zlata know but those words echo a prophecy that will soon come true in her own life.  It isn’t long before the war moves to Sarejevo.  She slowly watches the life that she knew crumble all around her.  She readily admits that she doesn’t understand the politics of the war nor why people have to be so cruel as to kill each other.

Zlata’s story is one that is difficult to summarize.  I’ve decided that I will randomly pick some passages from the book in a chronological order from beginning to near end.  No rhyme or reason to the passages picked.  Just opened the page and see where it took me.

I’m watching the American Top 20 on MTV.  I don’t remember a thing, who’s in what place.

I feel great because I’ve just eaten a “Four Seasons” Pizza with ham, cheese, ketchup and mushrooms.  It was yummy.  Daddy brought it for me at Galija’s (the pizzeria around the corner).  Maybe that’s why I didn’t remember who took what place – I was too busy enjoying my pizza.

I’m not going to school.  All the schools in Sarajevo are closed.  There’s danger hiding in these hills above Sarajevo.  But I think things are slowly calming down.  The heavy shelling and explosions have stopped. There’s occasional gunfire, but it quickly falls silent.  Mommy and Daddy aren’t going to work.  They’re buying food in huge quantities.  Just in case, I guess.  God forbid!

Two shells exploded in the street and one in the market.  Mommy was nearby at the time . . .  Daddy and I were besides ourselves because she hand’t come home  . . . We kept going to the window hoping to see Mommy, but she wasn’t back.  They released a list of the dead and wounded.  Daddy and I were tearing our hair out.  We didn’t know what had happened to her.  Was she alive? . . . I looked out the window one more time and  . . . I SAW MOMMY RUNNING ACROSS THE BRIDGE.  As she came into the house she started shaking and crying.  Through her tears she told us how she had seen dismembered bodies . . . Thank God, Mommy is with us.  Thank God.  A HORRIBLE DAY.  UNFORGETTABLE.  HORRIBLE! HORRIBLE!

I have another sad piece of news for you.  A boy from my drama club got KILLED!  A shell fell in fron the community center and a horrible piece of shrapnel killed him.

Today is Alma’s birthday . .  .  We had a super time, but . . . .I looked out the window and saw a flash. . . BOOM!!  Shattered glass, falling plaster . . . The birthday party wasn’t bad, but it would have been better if that shell hadn’t spoiled it.

. . . we are living in fear, we are suffering, we are not enjoying the sun and flowers, we are not enjoying our childhood.  WE ARE CRYING.

Well, I don’t want to write out the whole book for you but suffice it to say that this is a book that I will long remember.  And it’s one that I was constantly questioning what I was doing in my safe, sheltered life while Zlata was living a nightmare.  A nightmare of constant fear, hunger, coldness, hiding, and where getting water is a life or death feat.  I believe that I’m only a year older than Zlata so seeing the dates really put a perspective on the book.  She was even a huge New Kids on the Block fan!  Despite our shared commonality because Zlata lived in another part of the world her childhood was war torn while mine was much different.

Books like this are always worth reading.  Now I’m off to find out where she is now . . .

Genre:  Young Adult, Non-Fiction/Diary
Publisher:  Scholastic.  January 1994
Paperback, 200 pages.  ISBN:  0590487922
Zlata’s Diary, A Child’s Life in Sarajevo is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom

Harriet Tubman relied deeply upon her faith in God.  Her journey back and forth is very much a spiritual journey, as the voice of God guides her.  Told in a lyrical text that incorporates the voice of both Harriet and God, the story flows well.  I also loved the use of font.   Enhancing the reading experience is a comprehensive author’s note that details the life of Harriet Tubman as well as a forward putting the text into context.

The illustrations by Kadir Nelson are dynamic, beautiful, and striking.  Well deserved of the Caldecott.  A picture book that should be read to all especially to introduce the story of one of the Underground Railroad’s most inspiring figures.

Visit Carole Boston Weatherford website and Kadir Nelson’s website.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom is part of my themed reading for the month of February which celebrates Black History Month.  Join me this month as I explore books that celebrate the history of African-Americans.  Also reviewed this month: Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russel Freedman, Letters from a Slave Girl, The Story of Harriet Jacobs by Mary E. Lyons, The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles, The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox,  Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope by Nikki Grime, The Well by Mildred D. Taylor,  Freedom Walkers, The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman, Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges and  Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson.  Other reviews of interest:  A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg, Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman.

The publisher synopsis:

Marian Anderson loved to sing.  Her deep, rich voice thrilled audiences the world over.  By the mid-1930s she was a famed vocalist who had been applauded by European royalty, welcomed at the White House, and adored by appreciative listeners in concert halls across the United States.  But because of her race, she was denied the right to sing at Constitution Hall, Washington’s largest and finest auditorium.

Though Marian Anderson was not a crusader or a spokesperson by nature, her response to this injustice catapulted her into the center of the civil rights movement of the time.  She came to stand for all black artists   and for all Americans of color – when, with the help of prominent figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt, she gave a landmark performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that broke racial barriers and hastened the end of segregation in the arts.

Drawing on Anderson’s own writings and other first-person accounts, Newbery medalist Russell Freedman shows readers a singer pursuing her art in the context of the social and political climate of the day.  Profusely illustrated with contemporary photographs, here is an inspiring account of the life of a talented, determined artist who left her mark on musical and social history.

Now, I know ZERO about music.  When I was in elementary school my dance teacher told me to lip synch the words to a song we were singing.  My confidence was thrown out the window at that very moment.  I seriously CAN NOT carry a tune.  I don’t understand notes, octaves, etc, etc, etc (because those are the only two words I can even think of!).  I really do sound awful.  I like to listen to music, I’m a fan, but because I don’t go out of my way to learn about music, I had never even heard of Marian Anderson before.  Reading The Voice That Challenged a Nation was learning something completely new to me.

And I learned a lot!  Although, I must admit, Marian Anderson is a contralto and I went the whole book wishing there was an explanation of what a contralto actually is.  According to Wikipedia, a contralto is “a type of classical female singing voice with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano.”  Still no clue what that’s supposed to mean but it goes on to say “the term is used to refer to the deepest female singing voice.”  Okay, that I can latch onto.

Marian Anderson was beautiful!  And she had a beautiful voice.  Her community was especially supportive in raising funds for her education and her career.  I was particularly struck with the fact that she literally traveled all over the world to many foreign countries and sung in prestigious halls and for heads of countries.  But it was in her own country, the United States, that she was denied the privileges that should have been afforded her.  Barred from music halls, singing in front of segregated audiences, and traveling through the deep south catapulted Anderson to a postion that she never thought she would be in and that was to make a difference in the civil rights movement.  By her example and actions, she led the way for all the artists who would come behind her.

The Voice That Challenged a Nation was well laid out,  had great photos, and great stories.   I enjoyed learning Marian’s story and was grateful that I took the time out to do so.  I only wished that the pages of the book would sing to me!  Highly recommended.

Marian Anderson singing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in response to being denied entrance at Constitution Hall:

A book well worth checking out.

Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights is part of my themed reading for the month of February which celebrates Black History Month.  Join me this month as I explore books that celebrate the history of African-Americans.  Also reviewed this month: Letters from a Slave Girl, The Story of Harriet Jacobs by Mary E. Lyons, The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles, The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox,  Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope by Nikki Grime, The Well by Mildred D. Taylor,  Freedom Walkers, The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman, Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges and  Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson.  Other reviews of interest:  A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg, Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, and Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis.

Links of interest:  Visit the Marian Anderson Historical Society.  More book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Juvenile Non-fiction, approx age 9-12 (although this adult loved it).
Publisher:  Clarion Books.  May 25, 2004.
Hardcover, 128 pages.  ISBN:  0618159762
The Voice that Challenged a Nation is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Six-year-old Ruby Bridges is the first black child to attend an all white elementary school during the civil rights movement and of desegregation in New Orleans in 1960.   The Story of Ruby Bridges recounts Ruby’s move from Mississippi to New Orleans at a very young age, their hard working family, and their faith in God.  It explains that at the time black children and white children went to separate schools which was against the law.  A judge ordered the schools to be desegregated and Ruby was one of the first chosen to make this happen.

Angry crowds gathered for her first day of school, pulled their own children out of class, and continued to do so for months.  Ruby was all alone in school.  Her teacher Miss Hurley recounts that Ruby was a wonderful child, eager to learn, but also lonely.  The book ends with Ruby uttering a prayer among the crowd which was:

Please, God, try to forgive those people.
Because even if they say those bad things,
They don’t know what they’re doing.
So You could forgive them,
Just like You did those folks a long time ago
When they said terrible things about You.

There seemed to be a few discrepancies between Through My Eyes, written by Ruby Bridges herself and this one, The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles (who was her psychiatrist during this time).  In Through My Eyes, it came across as Ruby being much more ignorant of what was happening.  She didn’t know why she was going to a new school, she didn’t know why the crowds were there at all.  She also drove to school with the federal marshals each day.  In this book, she is shown as walking to school.  I know, I know.  It doesn’t much matter.

I liked the illustrations by George Ford with the exception of his rendering of Miss Hurley, Ruby’s teacher.  She looks to be African-American but she’s really white.  It’s very unclear in the book which she’s supposed to be and I think it’s important to note that she was a white teacher who cared very deeply for the education of Ruby, especially at a time when many others were unwilling to take the job.

Overall, this book was very informative and is an excellent resource for younger readers.  Since writing my review of Through My Eyes I have rented the Disney movie Ruby Bridges and enjoyed it very much.  I would recommend pairing both Through My Eyes and The Story of Ruby Bridges with the movie.

Ruby Bridge’s website.

The Story of Ruby Bridges is part of my themed reading for the month of February which celebrates Black History Month.  Join me this month as I explore books that celebrate the history of African-Americans.  Also reviewed this month: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox,  Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope by Nikki Grime, The Well by Mildred D. Taylor,  Freedom Walkers, The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman, Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges and  Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson.  Other reviews of interest:  A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg, Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, and Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis.

Based on Barack Obama’s memoir Dreams From My Father, Nikki Grimes has created a simple biography for young readers.  A mother sits with her young son as he asks her who is that man on TV.  She tells him Obama’s story from his beginnings in Hawaii to his arrival in Washington D.C. I think that this is a great introduction to learn the basic background of Obama.  It is not in any way unbiased though.  Barack Obama is portrayed in only the most positive light.  Fans of Barack Obama will enjoy this book, those who are not probably won’t.

As far as the illustrations by Bryan Collier they are very artistic. But personally, it’s not a style that I liked.  Collier says “Each page is created in watercolor and collage, which acts as a metaphor for piecing different parts or issues together to make something new, whole, or complete.”   So I understand it, I can appreciate it, but in this case I didn’t care for it at all.

Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope isn’t for everyone.  I think either you’ll like it or you won’t.  I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more with a slightly different execution.

Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope is part of my themed reading for the month of February which celebrates Black History Month.  Join me this month as I explore books that celebrate the history of African-Americans.  Also reviewed this month:  The Well by Mildred D. Taylor,  Freedom Walkers, The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman, Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges and  Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson.  Other reviews of interest:  A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg, Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, and Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis.

Freedom Walkers is a wonderful introduction of how the 381-day boycott of the Montgomery Bus system spearheaded the civil rights movement.  Did you know that Rosa Parks was not the first woman to refuse to give up her seat to a white on the bus?  It’s just that she was the first perfect person who would look really, really great in court.  Did you know that a black individual had to get on the bus, pay their ten cent fare and then get off and go around to the rear entrance?  Sometimes the bus driver would take off leaving them behind.  Did you know that during the boycott, donations poured in from across the globe, enough to purchase more than 30 cars to donate to the carpool, which blacks were using as an alternative to riding the bus?

I also learned that blacks weren’t even asking to desegregate buses.  They simply were asking that the line separating blacks from whites not be fluid, that once seated they could not be asked to move when the whites ran out of seats.  Of course, once the case was taken to the Supreme Court, they won a whole lot more than that, the entire bus was desegregated.   I also learned that prior to the Montgomery Bus boycott Martin Luther King hadn’t played much of a role in community affairs.  He proved himself as a natural born leader who would go on to make great strides during the civil rights movement.

Okay, so I feel as though I’m rambling.  I just wanted to share with you the small insights that I had while reading – so in that case, you should just go read it!   Freedom Walkers was a perfect blend of personal stories, historical fact, and photos to take me back to a time and place that I am in utter disbelief  existed in our country.  I walked away with a heartfelt appreciation  for the men, women and children who stood up for their rights and demanded that they be treated as equals.

Russell Freedom concludes:

Parks’s defiance on that December evening in 1955 set in motion a peaceful revolution that led to the death of Jim Crow segregation in the South and brought black Americans into the nation’s political life.  But the success and true impact of the Montgomery boycott depended on the sacrifices and determination of thousands whose names are lost to history – maids, laborers, teachers, students, cooks, and others – ordinary people who rose above the safe routines of their daily lives to become actors in an historical drama that changed a nation.

Highly recommended for younger readers and adults alike to be introduced to the beginnings of the civil rights movement.

Freedom Walkers is part of my themed reading for the month of February which celebrates Black History Month.  Join me this month as I explore books that celebrate the history of African-Americans.  Also reviewed this month: Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen, Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges and  Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson.  Other reviews of interest:  A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg, Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, and Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis.

In 1954, the year that Ruby was born, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the end of  “separate but equal” education for African-American children.  Schools in the deep south ignored the ruling.  Louisiana was given the deadline date of September 1960 to integrate schools in New Orleans.  They would begin with just Kindergarten and integrate one school year at a time.  Ruby Bridges was just one of five black children who passed a test to determine which children should be sent to the white schools.  The test was set up so children would be unable to pass.  Ruby’s family made the decision to stand up for their rights and enrolled Ruby into the first grade at an all white school.  She would be the only black child there.

Ruby arrived for her first day of school in the escort of four U.S federal marshals and to a sinister crowd of angry housewives and teenagers.  Ruby honestly thought the crowd must have been for Mardi Gras.  Furious mothers took their children out of school claiming that they would not return until Ruby had left.  It was a promise they did good on.  For the entire school year the school taught only about five students.  Ruby and four other white students.

Lucille Bridges, Ruby’s mother recounts,

Ruby was special.  I wanted her to have a good education so she could get a good job when she grew up.  But Ruby’s father through his child shouldn’t go where she wasn’t wanted.

There were things I didn’t understand.  I didn’t know Ruby would be the only black child in the school.  I didn’t know how bad things would get.

I remember being afraid on the first day Ruby went to the Frantz school, when I came home and turned on the TV set and I realized that, at that moment, the whole world was watching my baby and talking about her.

At that moment, I was most afraid.

Ruby, however, was in just a class of one and was unaware of any other children in the school.  The school really did stay segregated inside it’s own walls.  Those white parents who tried to stand up and take their kids to school, were harassed so badly that they gave up.  Luckily, Ruby had a teacher Mrs. Henry who loved and adored her.  Unluckily, she had a principle who hated the idea of segregation and made things as difficult as possible.

Ruby recounts what it was like to be dropped off each morning and to leave each day in the midst of a very angry mob.  She also tells of the stress that it brought upon her family, as her father lost her job because she attended a white school.  There were highlights though, as she tells of the amazing outpouring of love, and monetary support they received from strangers outside of the state who recognized what an important stride she was making.  Of course, Ruby was only six, so much of what she understood was very limited.

It wasn’t until Ruby Bridges was an adult that she even knew that she was the subject of a famous Norman Rockwell painting or written about in John Steinbeck’s Travel’s with Charley.  She’s also the subject of a picture book entitled The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles, who was her child psychiatrist at the time and a Disney movie called Ruby Bridges .

Ruby now travels the country making public appearances speaking out about her experience, the power in an education and race.  I appreciated her thoughts that schools, mainly inner-city schools, are being segregated all over again and who difficult it is to offer students the same opportunities they would receive in some of the suburban schools.

A great video introduction to Through My Eyes:

Through My Eyes was an excellent insight into a pivotal event in history as seen through the eyes of Ruby Bridges.  A great resource for all ages.  Ruby Bridge’s website.

Through My Eyes is part of my themed reading for the month of February which celebrates Black History Month.  Join me this month as I explore books that celebrate the history of African-Americans.  Also reviewed this month:  Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson.  Other reviews of interest:  A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg, Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, and Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis.

Genocide in Darfur is easy to read, has an excellent format and great photos.  It’s split into five sections:  a brief history of genocide in general, Sudan’s timeline and the events that lead up to the genocide, the actual genocide, insight into the victims and aggressors, and how the world is responding to the genocide in Darfur.  At the back of the book, there is a timeline, a glossary, resources for more information and further reading, and a bibliography.

While I didn’t find any of the content original (all the stories referenced other books which I had already read), Genocide in Darfur is a great reference book that I’d recommend as an excellent introduction for children and teenagers to the atrocities in Darfur.

Another book for children, but at a younger reading level, that I would recommend about the genocide in Darfur is The Sudan Project: Rebuilding With the People of Darfur: A Young Person’s Guide by Melissa Leembruggen (read my book review and an interview with the author).

Other books I’ve reviewed about Darfur:
Darfur Diaries:  Stories of Survival by Jen Marlowe
The Devil Came on Horseback, Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur by Brian Steidle and Gretchen Steidle Wallace
Not On Our Watch:  The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond by Don Cheadle and Jon Prendergast
The Translator, A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari
Guest Post:  Dennis Burke, Co-Author of The Translator, A Tribesman Memoir of Survival in Darfur
Tears of the Desert, A Memoir of Survival in Darfur by Halima Bashir with Damien Lewis

After the film was released, Jen wanted to tell the back story of what it was like to actually make the film and set out to tell their story.  From the onset of learning about the genocide in Darfur, to securing funding, and setting off to Africa, the reader follows the filmmakers as they must improvise, conduct interviews, and deal with the emotions that are difficult to push aside.  Both the book and the film do a great job at having the people of Darfur tell you their story in their own words.

There were a lot of great quotes and insight from the book.  It was hard to narrow it down to just a few.  From the preface, written by Paul Rusesabagina (played by Don Cheadle in the movie Hotel Rwanda):

How many more must die, be raped, watch their homes burn, have their livestock stolen, be turned into refugees?  What has the world learned from Rwanda?  Rather than learning from history, we are allowing it to repeat itself.  “Never Again” is an empty slogan as “Again and Again” unfolds. . . Genocide is happening today, in Darfur.  Now that you know, what do you plan to do?

One Darfurian, Salih Bob said

I’m quite sure if this happened in Los Angeles from your own government or in newcastle from the British government . . . all the world will hear you and help would come.  But our case is different.  Nobody is listening.

To one teenager, they asked, “If you could give a message to the kids in America your age, what would it be?”  His answer, especially the ending makes me so sad:

‘I will wish them peace and I will tell them we are here in Darfur.  Our villages were burned, we are in a very bad situation.  We ran to the Sudan Liberation Army.’  He paused, trying to think of what else he could ask his peers in America.  ‘How are you guys doing?’

How are we doing?  Right now we seem to be pretty well off, considering that the majority of us are living from the shade of one tree to another.

After the film came out, the filmmakers were asked “How can anything we do possibly make a difference?”  Their answer:

When the horror is so large, there is a tendency to buy into the fallacy that since you can’t do everything, then it’s pointless to do anything.  If we allow ourselves to fall into that trap, we become completely paralyzed.  A phone call to your congressperson isn’t going to halt the Sudanese government.  A letter to the editor of a newspaper isn’t going ensure access to humanitarian aid for displaced people.  We know this film isn’t going to stop a genocide . . . But it all feeds into a larger effort.  Perhaps it’s true that we can’t possibly do enough.  But what we do does matter.  It matters to people in Darfur and refugees from Darfur who are here.  It’s important for them to know that there are people in the outside world who care about them, who are standing with them and working on their behalf.

They went on to say,

 We wanted to encourage audiences to first learn all they could about Darfur, going past the simplistic portrayal the mainstream media offered, and then to suggest that they research different organizations in order to determine how they wanted to get involved.

I echo that statement and in fact that’s what I had in mind when I started this Darfur Awareness campaign.  I wanted people to learn something, anything, about Darfur that they didn’t know before.  Let that knowledge change them in such a way that they felt the need to get involved.  Even if that involvement was simply to tell a friend or a neighbor what it was that they learned.

So get involved.  Learn something.  Read this book.  Watch this documentary.  Doing something to make a difference is simply that easy.

Would you like to win a copy of Darfur Diaries, Stories of Survival?  Nation  Books has graciously donated two copies to be given away in conjunction with my Darfur awareness campaign.  Click here for details on how to get involved and entered to win. It’s really easy! Check back (you are subscribed to this blog, aren’t you?!) at the end of the month to put your name in the hat for this one.  Prizes will build up throughout the month.

Other resources on this blog about the genocide in Darfur:
Darfur Book Recommendations
Book review of The Translator by Daoud Hari
Book review and author interview of The Sudan Project by Melissa Leembruggen
Book review of Not On Our Watch, The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond by Don Cheadle and John Prendergast
Book review of The Devil Came on Horseback, Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur by Bridan Steidle and Gretchen Wallace Steidle
Videos and links about Darfur
Reading & Blogging for Darfur campaign

When Brian Steidle retired from the Marines, he started looking for a job in which he could utilize his military skills.  While browsing the classifieds, he came upon an ad from a civilian contracting company overseeing a cease fire in the south.  With naivety, he quickly accepted thinking that he had just landed his dream job.  It wasn’t long after his arrival in Sudan, that Brian transferred to Darfur, working as the American representative in the African Union.  A monitoring force of only 300, the African Union’s mandate prohibited them from taking any action to actually protect civilians or arrest perpetrators.  Their only job was to “observe, inquire, and write reports.”

Can you imagine?  You’re dropped into the middle of a genocide, where the the government of Sudan has killed hundreds of thousands of its own people through aerial attacks on the villages and  the Janjaweed (meaning devil on horseback) raiding them from the ground and the only thing you have is a pen/paper and a camera?

After a village attack, Brian met a small baby named Mihad who had been shot in the back, with gaping entry and exit wounds.  The baby’s aunt (her mother died) tried to have Brian treat her.  Brian couldn’t do anything, “I shook my head and swallowed with half-hearted acceptance that there was nothing I could say or do to change the situation.  I took photos and made notes for my report.  Silently fuming, I moved on, clutching my camera a little too fiercely.”  He did this time after time.

Brian writes about the frustration that comes while witnessing the atrocities of a genocide and not being able to do anything about it.  What’s worse, is that the world wasn’t doing anything about it either.  Darfur is the world’s most crucial humanitarian crisis in the world right now.  But do people even care?  While back home for a few weeks, Brian had this conversation with a bartender.

“Darfur is a region of Sudan.  There’s a genocide going on there – the government has already killed a few hundred thousand of its own citizens.”

“Whoa.  That’s intense.  So, like, isn’t everyone in Africa killing each other, if they’re not starving already?” he asked.

Annoyed, I tried to give him a quick summary of the conflict.

After a few minutes he broke in.  “So, why do we have Americans like you there?  What do we get out of it?”

“What?  Nothing,” I told him.  “You get nothing.”

“So, why should I care?”

I almost knocked my beer over.  “Shouldn’t we care about massive killing?”

“So what?  Africa is a mess.  I don’t really care if they keep killing each other,” he said.

What!?  Wouldn’t you care if people were being killed down your street?  Wouldn’t you care if people were being killed in your city?  Wouldn’t you care if people were being killed in your state?  In your country?  What’s the difference between a 100 miles, a thousand, or three thousand?

There’s a  lot of argument over the word genocide.  I totally agreed with this statement:

Every nation had an obligation to prevent such atrocities.  To me, whether or not to use the word genocide wasn’t what was important.  People were dying in large numbers and we had the means to stop the violence.  Unfortunately, we did not have the will.  They are ‘just Africans,’ someone said to me once.  It made me sick.

I highly recommend reading The Devil Came On Horseback, Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur for those wanting an insiders view.  It was well written and kept me engrossed the whole time.  Before reading this book, I watched The Devil Came on Horseback documentary based upon Brian’s time in Darfur.  If you don’t read this book (which I think you should) than I highly recommend that you watch this documentary!  It’s one of the best that I’ve seen but it’s also one of the most graphic.  It’s not for the faint of heart, but I think that’s the point.  It’s a call to action.  My husband and I cried through this film, especially when you see Brian break down on camera.  He’s very sincere.

The official trailer:

More about Brian:

Why am I doing this?  Surely, my efforts are hardly going to make a ripple in the big picture.  But when I read Brian’s following words, it was a confirmation to me, that I’m doing the right thing.

Sometimes when I am talking to people about Darfur, they ask me how they or the United States will benefit from getting involved in the issue.  I can feel my anger rising.  I tell them:  You get nothing!  You get nothing from helping these people – except to know you did something good, that you did the right thing.  You helped people who couldn’t help themselves.  Every human being should have a chance to grow up without violence, to make independent choices in life, to drink a glass of clean water, to be free of fear – the fear or rape or a bullet in the back during the simple task of collecting firewood for daily meals.

I then point to my photo of Mihad and say:  If these reasons aren’t enough for you, I give you her.  Shouldn’t she have the right to grow up surrounded by peace and love?  What child deserves to be shot at age one?

What nation can allow genocide to continue?

What person can turn their back on the victims of such hatred?

When the genocide in Darfur has ended, what will you say you did to stop it?

Don’t forget to get involved in the Reading & Blogging for Darfur campaign taking place all September.  Visit www.globalgrassroots.org an organization founded by Gretchen Steidle Wallace (Brian’s sister), and www.thedevilcameonhorseback.com for information about the film. 

When the genocide in Darfur has ended, what will you say you did to help stop it?