Hope and Paradox in Darfur

Has the Darfur movement failed?

On April 30, 2006, thousands of people gathered together in cities across the world to protest the genocide in Darfur. The genocide was in its third year, and we anticipated that world leaders would respond to the outcry of concerned citizens by swiftly ending the genocide. We were wrong. Last spring, we were filled with hope. Today, a troubling question haunts us: Is there hope for Darfur?

A friend of mine, who survived the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, recently wrote to me about her anguish over the plight of the people of Darfur. She is safe now, living with her loving family in Boston, and surrounded by friends. But she is overwhelmed by the inaction of the world to stop the Darfur genocide. She wrote:

"I can't be patient anymore, Lord I need more! America, I scream to you! Your leaders can't seem to fake it any longer; but certainly you took your moral leadership seriously, did you not? You have power! Please, oh please don't say the US or the UN won't act, that you rallied and nothing happened; that you care and just don't know what to do! Please God!

"I don't know what to say, America! All I know is that at three in the morning, I can't sleep. My whole life I have longed to know what happiness and peace feel like. I have tried very hard to find excuses for people's shortcomings, and somehow, I can't find an excuse for us not stopping Darfur.

"Two years ago I realized Rwanda did not matter now any more than it did 13 short years ago. My people had died in vain under those imported machetes.

"I covered my wounded dignity and nursed it back to life. I am handing it to you now, for the lives of my sisters in Darfur. Please give me the chance to go embrace them and tell them I love them. Give them the chance to raise their children. Treat them as you would want to be treated, they are you. We're it! Save your soul; my goodness, must I tell you that?

"I feel drained tonight. I let one roll tear down my cheek. Faces in the dark stop me. 'You are in a warm house, sitting comfortably, typing words. You have no right to be desperate; please do not deride us.'

"And so I pick myself up and beg some more. Help Darfur, please help us!

The US State Department conservatively estimates that the four-year- old genocide in Darfur has claimed more than 200,000 lives and displaced over 2.5 million persons. But the international community has shown an unwillingness to confront Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who continues to engage in systematic torture, rape, displacement and murder of civilians in Darfur.

Who will save the people of Darfur? Do you have hope or are you hopeless?

The principal mistake made by the Darfur movement in 2006 was to overestimate the power of government and underestimate the power of people. Since then, we have learned a difficult though valuable lesson: a civil movement to end genocide is created within the human heart and sustained through an indivisible human spirit. Clearly, the international community has a decisive role to play in ending the genocide in Darfur, but the struggle against genocide is the sacred responsibility of every human being.

Our hope is power.

We are the tears of God. Each one of us is a tiny rivulet streaming down the face of the world. But these tiny rivulets come together in little streams. And the little streams come together in a river. Three thousand years ago, an insignificant tree pruner named Amos wrote these words:

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.

Don't let the people of Darfur cry alone. Don't let my friend from Rwanda cry alone. Let one tear fall. You are only one person. But within you are living waters of God. Let them flow so that they becoming rolling waters of justice and righteousness.

Darfur is a paradox of despair and hope.

The paradox of Darfur is that we are witnessing one of history's greatest moral failures alongside a great moral awakening of individuals who have refused to be bystanders to genocide. Young people are the backbone of the Darfur movement. They realize their own future is threatened by genocide. Elissa Test, a Stanford student, said, "If we don't do something, who will?" The sense of determination to end the Darfur genocide spans generations. Gerri Miller, a retired teacher from Northern California, said, "We have no right to give up hope for the people of Darfur while they refuse to give up hope." The Darfur movement's diversity is rooted in the belief that every human being is endowed with certain inalienable rights. Unlike genocide, the Darfur movement is a "we", not a "them."

You are here today. Have hope.

The Darfur movement has produced many international campaigns that are growing in size and influence. A targeted divestment campaign, modeled on the anti-apartheid South Africa divestment campaign of the 1980s, is led by the Sudan Divestment Task Force. It focuses on companies most directly involved in propping up Bashir's government.

See hope!

The "Genocide Olympics" campaign, led by Sudan expert Eric Reeves, seeks to shame China (host of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing) into ending its immoral and illegal support of the Sudanese regime. See hope! A grassroots campaign for accountability, which supports the International Criminal Court's prosecution of those most responsible for the Darfur genocide, has united expatriate Sudanese with community-based activists in the fight for justice. See hope! And, an overarching educational and political advocacy campaign, led by Save Darfur, STAND and Genocide Intervention Network, has awakened the conscience of the world. Ruth Messinger, executive director of American Jewish World Service, said, "Hope comes from the possibility that large numbers of people committed to make a difference will succeed."

See hope!

Hope endures in the Darfur movement because the Darfuri people, by their very survival and longing for peace, teach us to hope. Our hope is a way to honor those who are suffering and dying in Darfur. The movement has not failed because it has not given up, and never will, and because the people of Darfur have not given up, and never will. David Swann, a Canadian physician who is active in the Darfur movement, said, "Despair is not an option."

Perhaps, the greatest challenge in the age of genocide is to recognize our own image in the face of a stranger. If, today, we allow a government to get away with genocide, who can say with certainty that another government will never turn us or our children into a new generation of genocide? Hope is a precious gift. We must use it to envision and create a world without genocide.

May God bless you with the gift of hope.

[Timothy Nonn is the Director of Judgment on Genocide. He lives in Petaluma, California. Read more: Judgment on Genocide.org
("Judgement" is a graphics-heavy site)]

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