Students raise awareness of genocide in Sudan

More than 100 students packed into Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library Wednesday night to see a video full of images of dead children who had been burned, tortured and raped in Darfur, the western region in Sudan, where more than 400,000 people have already been killed because of the mass genocide occurring in the area.

The video, “Voices from Darfur,” was just part of the Action for Africa put on by Apwonjo as a way to expose students to the real life events taking place in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Members of Apwonjo also handed out black balloons to students on campus Tuesday with each balloon representing 100 people who have already been killed under the Sudanese government.

Lindsey Mullins, a senior in New College and president of Apwonjo, said before this demonstration, the group brainstormed on different ways to represent 400,000. Mullins said 400,000 people didn’t really sound like a big amount, however, when you start to contemplate how to collect that many tangible things, the task became overwhelming.
“We started blowing up balloons at 5 a.m. and our goal was to blow up 4,000,” Mullins said. “We weren’t even able to do that many. That just shows how many people have died.”
Students who agreed to carry the black balloons around campus also wore stickers saying things like “100 toddlers died,” or “100 mothers died” to show what they were representing.

The film, “Voices of Darfur,” provided by the Darfur Association of the U.S. showed a series of survivors discussing the different ways they were tortured and showing their scars, wounds and missing body parts.

One girl had been raped, along with her 40 grade-school classmates and teachers, and left for dead by the Janjaweed, the radical group said to be responsible for the genocide in Darfur. The Janjaweed are divided into groups with each section responsible for a different action: raping, beating, shooting or burning, according to the film.

Another boy showed the scars where he had been stabbed throughout his torso while the Janjaweed killed his brothers, friends and father.

Yassir Mahmoud, from the Darfur Association of the U.S. spoke on the political and geographic issues of the Sudan. Mahmoud moved from Darfur to Birmingham as a child.

Many countries support Darfur because of the natural resources that can be found in the region.

“It is no secret that the government in Sudan is corrupt,” Mahmoud said. “It’s not even a democracy; it’s a military coup.”

The Darfur Association also brought pictures of their homeland to display at the event, including one of a newborn baby that had been shot by a Janjaweed radical.

Students at the event also wrote letters to send to the victims in the refugee camps in Darfur.

“It comes down to hope,” said Michael Wynn, a sophomore majoring in advertising and communication studies who represents the Creative Campus Initiative and worked with Apwonjo to coordinate the event. “We have to let people know that there are still people out there trying to fight the good fight of hope for them.”

Members of the Darfur Association of the U.S. will be translating the letters into Arabic then sending them to the camps in Sudan. Copies of the letters will also be sent to Alabama legislators to show them that this is something that people really care about, Mullins said.

The letter writing will continue today in the Ferguson Center where students can send letters to the victims of Darfur as well as postcards to President-elect Barack Obama to persuade him to put Darfur on his agenda for the first 100 days he is in office.

Director Mark Brecke also presented his film, “They Turned Our Desert Into Fire,” a documentary on the ethnic conflict and genocide.