Is There Something More - To The Conflict In Darfur?

[Freshinit]

Any informed individual should have no problem conceding that one issue has taken the back-seat in mainstream media. The perpetual tension in Darfur alludes itself to a similiar occurrence of the 1990s; the Rwandan genocide. Despite the general resemblances, the ethnic violence occurrent in both decades diverged from dissimilar inducement. Unlike the massacre of 1994, Darfur has an underlying characteristic that will suppress any possibility of peace in the region, even if an International coalition were to intervene. In order to understand this ordeal, it is necessary to indulge the efforts of the environmental community.

Sudan is a country located in the Sahel region of Africa. Historically this region has always experienced marginal rainfall, the most of which has came from seasonal storms called ‘monsoons’. Each year, vast bodies of water evaporate from the Indian Ocean and condense, forming clouds. These clouds, with some help from the great aerial winds , whisk away into sub-Saharan Africa, where the Sahel region is located. Here, the clouds precipitate and deliver much needed water to the crops of African farmers, and to the grazing grounds of Arab herders. It is under this system, that a thin layer of vegetation has maintained itself throughout history, making the region inhabitable to human beings for millennia. The earliest of anthropological records show evidence of kingdoms ruling in the country from as far back as 4600 years ago.

Unfortunately for these ancient cultures, early in the 1960s these monsoons stopped coming. Throughout the majority of the proceeding decades, devastating droughts have ravished the area season after season. The last four decades of the 20th century saw a civilization draining its ecosystem of its only remaining energy. Each year, Arab herders would have their goats graze on fields until they were dry, and each year less and less of the fields would grow back. As the time kept ticking, these Arab nomads were forced to migrate their herds closer and closer to African crops. Eventually these Arabs were forced to feed their herds by closing in on the African crops.

As a result of these inconvenient set of circumstances, tensions between the Arabs and Africans went political. Having more influence in the rest of the country was the Arab population. Thus the rebel militia group ‘Janjaweed’ was created as a solution to the herder’s problems. If Arab herders could somehow rightfully claim ownership to African crop lands, then their people could sustain life in the country for at least a little while longer. With evident support from the Government, ‘Janaweed’ militias officially sought ownership of African crops unrightfully throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. As such, a rebel group, compiled mostly of native Africans was formed in response to the lack of enforcement by the Sudanese central Government. However, by early 2003 the rebels had yet to bring about change, thus war commenced. Despite the official declaration of war coming from the rebel group, the aggressors in this ongoing conflict has been the ‘Janjaweed’ militias., or Arab herders. Presently, the conflict in Sudan has escalated to the point of genocide, and despite the ‘Darfur Peace Agreement ‘, supervised by the ‘African Union Mission in Sudan(AMIS)’, no end to the conflict is in sight.

Of the little attention that this issue has received over the past three years in mainstream media, all of it has focused on pseudo-facts. In light of this, the genocide in Sudan reveals far more about our world than a typical conflict should. In observing this situation we start to understand the ever increasing role censorship plays in our media, we begin to recognize the repercussions of our day to day lifestyle and the general authenticity of our democracies whither away at the face of hypocrisy.

So is there more to the conflict in Darfur? Certainly - and to avoid similiar catastrophes in the future, whether ecological, economical or social, we must rise up as individuals and take action. Democracy is a system which needs more than your vote once every four years, it needs your input every day of every year.

-Lee McMillan