We Are All Zaghawa Now

I have made it all the way to page 103 of the Translator, and something that has been nagging at the back of my mind finally came into focus.

The day after the attacks of 9-11, Jean-Marie Colombani, writing in the French newspaper, Le Monde, said "We Are All Americans Now". What a beautiful way for him to say that world stood with us in our loss, our hurt.

I think we must all be Zaghawa now. Zaghawa, one of the many indigenous tribes of Darfur, is the tribe of Daoud Hari. Hari, who used his literacy as a means to tell the story of his people, all the people of Darfur. Hari, who witnessed, and brought witnesses to testify to the horror, the genocide.

Hari is Zaghawa. We must all be Zaghawa now. We must use our literacy to witness, and bring other witnesses to the crimes against women, against children, against humanity. We must bring witnesses until the whole world cries out: "No More!"

We Are All Zaghawa Now.

What a wonderful thought, Pandababy. I've already got a few friends begging me to borrow the book (I'm not passing it on until I finish my review) and I look forward to sharing it with many others.

Someone else mentioned that it was amazing how Daoud Hari used the concept of tribal family and even family across the human race to find mercy from his captors. I think that idea can easily extend across countries and continents as well. Any atrocity committed against another human should be met with the same attitude as if that horror was committed against a family member.

Sadly we are almost always willing to look the other way rather than confront issues that do not seem to touch us personally in those places where we live. Remaining ignorant of unbelievable situations and indignities allows them to continue and implies condoning the world's worst behaviors. Unfortunately, it often seems to be in part decided by the value we try to place on different cultures or groups of peoples. For instance, anti-Semitism was rampant in Europe between the world wars and many hundreds of thousands of people did nothing to speak out against the murder of millions of Jewish people. The people who did speak out often died with the Jewish people. We are so fortunate to live in a country where speaking out does not bring danger - only pig-headed confrontation or dismissal. Another problem is that your average person (not a star or wealthy person) often feels incapable of bringing about change in worlds far away. I know I often feel this way and only hope that my caring makes a difference - no matter how small.

I did not get the Translator book, but hope to read it soon.

LibrarysCat

LC - It's release date is March 18th but if my copy makes the rounds and back to me before then I'd be happy to send it along. :)

I think it's important to believe that every voice makes a difference. Maybe I'm too much of an optimist or I read Horton Hears a Who too much as a child, but I keep going back to the quote (regretfully the author escapes me) that says "All it takes for injustice to occur is for good men to do nothing". I always think it's good for one person to write to a congress(wo)man but if that one person asks one other person and so on and so on - soon enough one letter becomes two dozen becomes two hundred becomes a thousand and it really does get hard for Washington to ignore!

It's also interesting to think that maybe someone reads a book like The Translator and they are moved by it. Even if they are too timid to take up political activism, passing the book along or recommending it to others is still a positive step towards starting a movement.

el, I think it is wonderful that you have already talked with many people who are motivated now to read Hari's book.

I would like to see copies of Hari's book in our local library. I'm not a librarian (although I've probably spent as much time in libraries as one).

I wonder if it would be welcomed by the library if my friends and I held a fund-raiser at our annual up-coming garage sale, to be used to by copies for the public library, high school libraries, etc. in our town? I'm not sure how to approach them and don't want to presume that they automatically would say yes, when they couldn't have read the book yet, may not have shelf space to assign to it, etc.

Ideas on that, anyone?

Libraryscat - your comment gave me an idea. I belong to BookMooch, and I think I'll launch a copy of the Translator there, but with the condition that anyone who mooches it has an obligation to pass it on. I wonder if that would work. Normally we're free to keep books we mooch if we want to.

I am a librarian at a university in a Curriculum Materials Library (with books and manipulative materials meant to be used by our education students in planning lessons for K-12) and we accept donations all the time. I know that our main library on campus also accepts donations. If we feel they are not appropriate for the collection, and I cannot imagine this work being inappropriate, then we sell them at very discounted prices to our college students. If you contact the libraries and they cannot guarantee you that the money will be used to purchase this book, then buy them yourself and donate them to the library in the name of your group of friends. With state budgets being what they are, we are always excited to have books donated.
LibraryCat

Thank you for the suggestions LibrarysCat.

This is such a beautiful thought.

One of the things that came to mind when I read it is the part of the book where Paul is angry at Hari because he believes he has been referring to him as a spy, when in fact, Hari has been using a word that means "white man" and has a positive, affectionate connotation.

When they are reconciling, Hari tells Paul that he considers him to be a brother. That kind of thinking is what makes us reach out to each other and help each other rather than turning the other way.

#8 - I thought that part was really touching as well.

It really bothered me that the only reason Daoud and the driver could get a fair trial was by joining their case to Paul's. It really messes with the notion that justice should be blind.