Save Darfur

Darfur Now!!! Recently, a lot of people have been on their moral high horse and jumping on the save Darfur bandwagon. This recent trend doesn't exactly set well with me. I have been immersing myself in the subject of Darfur for about three years now. There have been a plethora of literature (mainly movies and books) created to promote international awareness on the current genocide in the tumultuous Sudanese country. My only concern is that a lot of newly baptized proponents of the Darfur conflict are not properly informed on the issues that are central to the genocide itself.

A lot of random facts and figures are thrown out on a daily basis that either try to downplay or hype up the conflict. Roughly, 300,000 Africans in Darfur have lost their lives at the hands of the corrupt leaders of their country. Several figures from African institutions sympathetic to the Janjaweed, armed crusaders of Darfur, have claimed that only 10,000 Africans have died. The fact that African institutions are seemingly turning a blind eye to the Darfur conflict speaks volumes about a deeper and darker problem that exists in Africa. It should come as no surprise that African countries have been at odds with each other for centuries (note the fact that the African slave trade was promoted by African tribes themselves). In order to properly diffuse the genocide in Darfur, we should look to the past and try to take steps to reverse this distrubing trend of human suffering.