Sudanese Guide-turned-author Speaks About Experiences in Darfur

Daoud Hari and his co-author, Meegan McKenna, speak about his experiences as a guide to journalists and refugees in Darfur. (photo: ArmenianWeekly.com)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–On April 3, 2008, Daoud Hari, a Sudanese author and professional guide and translator, spoke at the First Parish in Cambridge about his experiences growing up in Darfur and writing his memoir, The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur (Random House, 2008).

The Harvard Bookstore and SaveDarfur.org sponsored the event.

Co-author and refugee advocate Meegan McKenna spoke and answered questions from the audience alongside Hari in a discussion-style forum.

McKenna gave context to Hari's life, explaining that he had grown up in the Darfur region of Sudan, and eventually migrated to Cairo and Israel to seek employment.

"Sudan was and is a very poor country," Hari said. "I was born and raised in northern Darfur. It is all desert and mostly camel herders. I would return from school vacations to be with my camels....You have to leave to feed your family."

He spoke of his time in Cairo in 1996: "Egypt is a very big country in my life. I saw many movies and learned first about the world's international problems." It was also where he began to learn English.

"In 2003, I entered Israel from Egypt illegally. I spent four months in an Egyptian prison. After my release, I chose to go to Chad, where there are very complicated policies in place" on transnational prisoner deportations and border arrests.

He said that after the massacres-that became a genocide-in Darfur , he used his knowledge of Darfuri and Chadean geography and culture to escort women and children refugees back to Chad.

He thus fell into his work as a guide/translator gradually as the genocide escalated.

"All I knew was that some journalists were coming to Chad to see the crisis and show the international community."

Since 2003, he explained, "I've worked with the journalists and NGOs. Between Darfur and Chad we have a very long border."

He contexted the importance that water played in the genocide, saying, "Everyday the Sudanese were sending bombers. We helped the refugees get to the camps. We have to support the people to get water from water points-and they are never close together."

"Every camp has 35,000-40,000 refugees. I decided not to pick up a gun and fight. I've been into Darfur [illegally] six times. It's very dangerous, there are at least six rebel factions," Hari said.

He praised the journalists he had ushered into Darfur and Chad, including New York Times correspondent Nick Kristoff and Chicago Tribune correspondent Paul Salopek; he was captured with the latter and imprisoned for 35 days in a Sudanese prison for illegal escorting into Darfur.

"The journalists are braver than me," Hari said. "I'm doing it for my people. They don't have to be here."

"I worked with Kristoff in 2006. We drove a long way to the Chad-Darfur border. We saw three villages that had been attacked by the Janjaweed. The vendors [often the only armed villagers] defended themselves and captured two [Janjaweed] child soldiers."

He said of Darfur, "It's a very bad moment now. We left people in villages we knew would be killed when we left."

Kristoff had asked him, "What can we do for these people?" Hari had answered, "If we stay with them, we'll be killed or captured."

Hari was candid in stating that "maybe 70 percent of what I do is being a guide so they [the journalists and aid workers] are not captured. It's very easy to be killed for little money."

Asked why he continues to engage in such dangerous work, Hari said, "I don't want to see any journalists killed by any rebels or governments. I need to keep them safe."

Source: ArmenianWeekly.com

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