Sudan Myths & Hopes

 

“Sending in U.N. troops will not help Darfur,” said a native of that region of Sudan who, as a child had spent three years in slavery. “You cannot keep the peace if you don’t have peace to begin with.” This was rather discouraging to those of us who had come to Luna Stage for a showing of “Darfur: Too Dark Too Far,” directed by Newark native, Hafiz Farid. But, as some of us learned a few days later, at a talk about Sudan at the Comboni Mission Center, there is a peace treaty currently in effect between the northern, Khartoum government and southern Sudan. A treaty is still needed between the government and the Darfur region.

 

Comboni Father, Michele Stragapede, spoke on Monday, August 6th about his six years as a missionary in Southern Sudan. Explaining to his audience that if only the people of China, India, and Brazil adapted our way of life and each family got a car, a house and a TV, we would need the equivalent of five planet earths for the resources required. Yet Father Michele discovered that in his first years in Sudan, he was attempting to impose his own, capitalist background onto a sustainable culture. It took him several years to realize that we should be learning from Africa to live in a sustainable way, “flourishing together as a common family of human beings.”

 

He, and Father James, a native of Sudan, told us that the northern land of Sudan, which is run by Sudanese of Arab decent, is increasingly arid desert due to mechanized farming, overgrazing and deforestation.  The south has many resources: as much oil as Saudi Arabia, large deposits of natural gas, one of the three largest uranium deposits and the forth largest copper deposit in the world. So, of course, though the media tries to pit the opposing forces as Arab against Black or Muslim against other, in fact, it’s all about control of the resources. That is why industrialized countries are interested in Sudan. “We are not there [in African countries] to help – we are there to help ourselves,” said Father Michele.

 

Father James told us about the conditions of the peace treaty between the north and south of Sudan. They include six years of self government for the south after which people can vote to be a separate country or join with the north. Another condition is that the north and south share income from the oil equally. The southern people do not want a separate government but they want their rights respected, “But,” said Father James, “the north has to convince us to stay with them.”  He said that the people in the Darfur region are still fighting for the same rights the south acquired through their treaty.

 

On a hopeful note, rebel factions concluding a meeting in Tanzania on August 6th, agreed on a common platform with which to approach negotiations with the Sudanese government. * Perhaps there will soon be a peace to keep in Darfur.

Nancy Taiani

*“Darfur Rebels Agree On Sudan Talks.” Media With Conscience, Http://Mwcnews.Net/Content/View/15902/0/

“The true and solid peace of nations consists not in equality of arms, but in mutual trust alone.”
Pope John XXIII

 

  

“Humankind has to get out of violence only through nonviolence. Hatred can be overcome only by love.” 

Gandhi.

 

 8/19/07                                                                                                           Issue 33