The Translator - Daoud Hari

Title: The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur
Author: Daoud Hari (as told to Dennis Burke and Megan McKenna)
Country: Sudan/USA
Year: 2008
Pages: 200
Rating: 5 out of 5

In 2003, fighting broke out in Darfur as a result of the government's systematic campaign to move non-Arab Sudanese in Darfur off of the oil-rich land. Sudanese government forces and armed militia (known as "Janjaweed") began attacking civilians who are members of the same ethnic groups as the rebels. Countless villages have been destroyed. The rape of women and young girls is used as a tool of war. Hundreds of thousands have died, and over two million people have fled to refugee or IDP (internally-displaced) camps.

Much to my delight, I recently received an ARC of The Translator--a memoir by Daoud Hari, a Sudanese refugee--from one of the marketing managers at Random House.

Daoud Hari, a Zaghawa tribesmen from Darfur, had recently returned to his village after living abroad when his village was attacked by the Janjaweed. He lost his beloved brother, Ahmed, in the attack, but helped his family and many of his relatives and fellow villager cross the desert to reach the relative safety of a border refugee camp.

Daoud Hari is not a person to stand around and do nothing. Despite the danger, he felt compelled to put his English skills to use as a translator for genocide investigators and reporters, in an attempt to get the word out about the genocide, to bring the ethnic cleansing of his people into your living room, so their voices could be heard. His memoir largely follows his work from 2003 until 2006, when he received protection as a refugee in the United States. It is a remarkable story of one man's determination to help his people, risking his life over and over again to fight the injustice that he has witnessed.

Daoud's story is the story of his people. It is also the story of millions of refugees living in border refugee camps around the world. They encounter many of the same problems that Hari witnesses: inadequate shelter, women and girls raped when they have to leave the camp to gather firewood for fuel, and people unable to earn any income when their host country forbids them from working. It is a story that must be read, and that needs to be heard. I believe one of Hari's goals in writing this memoir is to encourage people to take action. It is a lesson I took to heart. Since leaving my work in the refugee field to become a stay-at-home parent, I have wondered how to fill that void. Reading Hari's memoir gave me the impetus I needed to seek out volunteer work with the Stop Genocide Now organization. Thank you, Daoud.

The Darfur genocide is still taking place today. It may come and go in the news, on the whim of large media outlets, but it has not gone away. Ineffective peace agreements often make the situation worse. As Hari points out, as long as the Sudanese government attacks villages or provokes others to do so, there will be more people that join the rebel groups and fight back. In recent months, as predicted, is threatening to create a broader regional instability. In the beginning of this month, fighting broke out on the border regions of Chad and Sudan, threatening refugee camps, as well as the city N'Djamena.

Darfur links:

• Sudan: The Passion of the Present Blog
• Stop Genocide Now
  
• Save Darfur

Recent news:

• A letter from the world's Nobel Laureates to China: You must act on Darfur (Feb 14)
  

• Chad: Bombing close to Sudanese border forces UNHCR to withdraw for the day (Feb 19)

• Sudan: Government must end attacks on civilians (Feb 10)