Father David Bohnsack, a Comboni missionary who spent more than 10 years in Darfur, spoke about his experience in Sudan at Lake Forest College in Chicago. He shared photographs taken of smiling people, kids playing games and climbing trees, people dancing.I can relate to these photos. I'm just like these kids.
Father David reminded us that, in spite of genocide, Darfuris are strong, and they still find ways to dance and smile.
Human nature leads us to look at the top photo of the dying girl and think "that child has been condemned to death. She has no chance. (and thank God MY child doesn't look like that)." But tell an American the smiling girl below might be raped and shot by the Janjaweed, and see how they react differently.
So how do we convey the urgency and ugliness of the conflict while still preserving the dignity of Darfuris?
(by the way: I don't have the answer. It's why I'm asking. So you should share your comments)
2 comments:
It's an interesting challenge... I posted last week about 3 articles I had found that showed positive sides of Sudanese society. It was remarkable to me because really it was the first time in a long time I had seen articles like that! One thing I would encourage students to do is to host/participate in events like Darfur Feast (http://www.standnow.org/events/darfurfeast) to celebrate the wonderful aspects of Sudanese culture.
I really don't know... What is in first position?, Dignity?, or urgency?.
Maybe we got to preserve Dignity first. But here it goes again, we can't preserve dignity while the conflict's still growing.
It's a circle.
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