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Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival | 
 enlarge | Author: Jen Marlowe
Creators: Aisha Bain, Adam Shapiro, Paul Rusesabagina
Publisher: Nation Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy Used: $6.00
You Save: $9.95 (62%)
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Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 55851
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 1560259280
Dewey Decimal Number: 962.7043
EAN: 9781560259282
ASIN: 1560259280
Publication Date: October 24, 2006
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Condition: Publisher: Nation BooksDate of Publication: 2006Binding: Soft CoverCondition: GoodDescription: 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" 1560259280 Text clean & bright; binding tight; minor wear to covers. 259 pages.
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Product Description
In February, 2003, the Sudanese Liberation Army in Darfur (the western region of Sudan) after years of oppression took up arms against the Sudanese government. The government and allied militias answered the rebellion with mass murder, rape and the wholesale destruction of villages and livelihood, resulting in one of the world's largest humanitarian and political crises. Up to 2 million people were displaced; 400,000 people killed. In October and November, 2004, after watching woefully inadequate media coverage on the crisis in Darfur, a team of three independent filmmakers trekked to Darfurian refugee camps in eastern Chad and crept across the border into Darfur. They met dozens of Darfurians, and spoke with them about their history, hopes and fears, and the tragedy they are living. Refugees and displaced peoples, civilians and fighters resisting the Sudanese government, teachers, students, parents, children and community leaders provide the heart of Darfur Diaries. Their stories and testimonies, woven together through the personal experience of the filmmakers, and conveyed with political and historical context, provide a much-needed account to help understand Darfur. These are people whose lives, homes, safety and rights deserve to be protected as vigilantly as those of peoples all over the world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Accessible, heartfelt portrayal of a tragedy January 15, 2007
S. Fletcher
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This book presents an insightful, firsthand account of the experience of three Westerners seeking to document the atrocities in Darfur.
The ease with which the story is told--the tragic, the devastating, the joyous, and the amusing moments of a journey most of us would not even consider undertaking--makes it a "good read" as well as very informative about war, loss, and a geopolitical context that will haunt us for years to come and has probably changed a region forever.
The authors are candid in sharing their observations of a complex war, human suffering, and the people who choose to put themselves in the middle of it, themselves included. Most of all, Darfur's losses are conveyed far beyond the numbers dead or missing: this book shows us the losses of livelihood, culture and tradition, education, and family ties. It also shows glimmers of what has been left behind: kids smile, their parents do their best to see they get an education, and, somehow, people manage to continue to hope for a better future.
"If you read one book about Darfur..." December 20, 2006
David Morse (Storrs, CT)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Darfur Diaries offers a sensitive glimpse into the lives of Darfurians struggling at the brink of survival. It tells the story of three independent filmmakers who traveled into Chad and Darfur in November 2004.
At one level it is a book about the making of their film by the same name, which is available on DVD. But a another level it is a deeply human book in its own right, not only for its interviews with refugees, IDPs, and rebel fighters, but because Jem Marlowe and the other two videographers Aisha Bain and Adam Shapiro, show their own vulnerabilities in their quest to understand what is happening in Darfur.
Other books portray the history of the Darfur conflict with more authority. (Visit my web-site for reviews of Alex de Waal and Julie Flint's Darfur: a short history of a long war, and Gerard Prunier's Darfur: the Ambiguous Genocide. [...]But Darfur Diaries is no less authentic and no less ambitious. It is also timely, written after the failure of the Darfur Peace Agreement signed in May 2006, and conveying today's urgency as Sudan government planes bomb their own people, and as the violence spreads into neighboring Chad.
The writers are keen observers who care passionately about their subjects, and they are also willing to raise critical questions and to laugh at themselves. This is clearly a work of great love, and despite the tragic nature of their subject, there is something healing in getting to know the survivors.
If you are going to read just one book about Darfur, read this one.
David Morse (independent journalist/Darfur activist)
A compelling chronicle of the genocide in Darfur January 9, 2007
Lost Boys
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I found "Darfur Diaries" to be both a compelling and easy to read chronicle of the genocide occurring in Darfur. I highly recommend it to teachers and students alike.
Written by three courageous filmmakers who put their own lives at risk to share this story with the world, "Darfur Dairies" gives readers and viewers a personal glimpse into the everyday tragedies and suffering of the Darfurian people. Through this book (and film), the authors have given voice to a people who have for so long have had no voice, calling for the world to intercede on their behalf. It is up to us, as fellow human beings, to respond and demand action.
We have seen the result of complacency in the South of Sudan where Civil War raged for over two decades killing approximately 2.5 million people and yet for the most part, the world remained silent. Let us not make the same mistake. My deepest thanks go out to Jen Marlowe, Aisha Bain and Adam Shapiro for this heartfelt and inspiring story.
Joan Hecht, author of- The Journey of the Lost Boys: A Story of Courage, Faith and the Sheer Determination to Survive by a Group of Young Boys Called "The Lost Boys of Sudan"
 Darfurians speak for themselves March 12, 2007
John Uniack Davis (West Africa)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a multi-layered, extremely readable and informative book. It is first and foremost a vehicle through which the authors allow Darfurians to speak for themselves regarding their travails, fears, hopes and dreams. It is also a fascinating travelogue of the authors' adventure, their experiences in eastern Chad and Darfur -- They had to overcome enormous logistical obstacles and take great risks to sneak into Darfur and document the havoc wrought by the Government of Sudan and its Janjaweed proxies. The book also includes rich reflections on technical challenges and ethical issues involved in creating a documentary film about events in Darfur.
Darfur Diaries is tender, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. It reflects the authors' courage without being self-glorifying, and it never loses sight of its most important objective, which is to allow Darfurians to speak for themselves. The Darfurians that the reader meets are eloquent and vulnerable, courageous and surprisingly positive in light of the living hell that most have experienced. Jen Marlowe and her collaborators do an outstanding job at putting very human faces on the victims of the ongoing Darfur tragedy and thereby giving them back their dignity. In the course of the narrative, the reader also meets a fascinating supporting cast, including United Nations staff and NGO workers, among others. While it is not a central focus of the book, one gets a sense of some of the challenges in conducting humanitarian work in a conflict zone.
The authors do a very good job of weaving in historical and social context and a bit of political analysis without undermining the book's readability, and the foreword by Francis Deng is helpful in this regard. As a result, this is a rare book through which one can get a rich, up-close idea of what is happening on the ground while also receiving a useful introduction to the big picture, the context in which the story unfolds. The book also has a number of decent, provocative photos as well as a simple but useful map.
In sum, I heartily recommend this well-written, engaging, and accessible book. This said, I have one major criticism and one minor criticism of Darfur Diaries. The major criticism is that the authors do a great job of depicting the rich humanity of the "African" Darfurians who are the primary victims of the current conflict, but "Arab" Darfurians who have historically been almost as exploited, manipulated and neglected by Sudan's central government remain two-dimensional. The authors recognize this failing, and it seems largely a consequence of limited time and lack of access, given that they had entered Sudan illicitly, with support from SLA rebels. Nonetheless, to fully understand the complexity of Darfur, it is important to understand that Arabs and Africans in the zone have tended to get along historically, and a big part of the current tragedy is the wedge that has been driven between them.
My minor criticism is that the book has no index -- there is enough contextual detail that it would have been quite useful.
Do Your Part: Read and Circulate This Book January 11, 2007
Susan Stein Quattrociocchi (Seattle, WA)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I gave this book to 15 people this past holiday season. I'm hoping that at least 10 of them buy more copies and help the authors with their mission to tell the unforgettable stories of the dignified and graceful people of Darfur and spread awareness of this raging genocide. I'm going to buy and circulate more copies as gifts for Valentine's Day. I hope you do the same.
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