The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur

published	March 18th 2008 by Random House
binding	Hardcover
isbn	1400067448 (isbn13: 9781400067442)
ebook
pages	224
description	I am the translator who has taken journalists into dangerous Darfur. It is my intention now to take you there in this book, if you have the courage to...more [close] I am the translator who has taken journalists into dangerous Darfur. It is my intention now to take you there in this book, if you have the courage to come with me. The young life of Daoud Hari–his friends call him David–has been one of bravery and mesmerizing adventure. He is a living witness to the brutal genocide under way in Darfur. The Translator is a suspenseful, harrowing, and deeply moving memoir of how one person has made a difference in the world–an on-the-ground account of one of the biggest stories of our time. Using his high school knowledge of languages as his weapon–while others around him were taking up arms–Daoud Hari has helped inform the world about Darfur. Hari, a Zaghawa tribesman, grew up in a village in the Darfur region of Sudan. As a child he saw colorful weddings, raced his camels across the desert, and played games in the moonlight after his work was done. In 2003, this traditional life was shattered when helicopter gunships appeared over Darfur’s villages, followed by Sudanese-government-backed militia groups attacking on horseback, raping and murdering citizens and burning villages. Ancient hatreds and greed for natural resources had collided, and the conflagration spread. Though Hari’s village was attacked and destroyedhis family decimated and dispersed, he himself escaped. Roaming the battlefield deserts on camels, he and a group of his friends helped survivors find food, water, and the way to safety. When international aid groups and reporters arrived, Hari offered his services as a translator and guide. In doing so, he risked his life again and again, for the government of Sudan had outlawed journalists in the region, and death was the punishment for those who aided the “foreign spies.” And then, inevitably, his luck ran out and he was captured. . . . The Translator tells the remarkable story of a man who came face-to-face with genocide– time and again risking his own life to fight injustice and save his people. [close]
date added	01-08-08 edit book

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Jeanette rated it:

06/25/08

In late August, 2006, the National Geographic submitted this press release to news organizations: Paul Salopek, who was traveling in Africa to report on the culture and history of the Sahel [a semi-arid region between the Sahara Desert to the north and tropical forests to the south:] for National Geographic magazine, was detained by Sudanese authorities and on Aug. 26 charged with espionage in a North Darfur court in El Fashir, Sudan. National Geographic magazine vigorously protests this accu...more In late August, 2006, the National Geographic submitted this press release to news organizations: Paul Salopek, who was traveling in Africa to report on the culture and history of the Sahel [a semi-arid region between the Sahara Desert to the north and tropical forests to the south:] for National Geographic magazine, was detained by Sudanese authorities and on Aug. 26 charged with espionage in a North Darfur court in El Fashir, Sudan. National Geographic magazine vigorously protests this accusation and appeals to Sudan for his immediate release and the release of two Chadians assisting him. [return:][return:]The Translator is the memoir of Daoud Hari, one of the two Chadians assisting Salopek. Salopek knew Hari at that time by the Arabic name Suleyman Abakar Moussa. Hari is, in fact, a non-Arabic African from the Darfur region of Sudan where the Arabic Sudanese government is systematically killing off non-Arab Africans to take over their more fertile land as northern Sudan turns more and more to desert. Hari, who knows three languages -- Zaghawa, the language of his people, Arabic, and English -- risked his life working as a translator for English-language news organizations because he knew he had to do what he could to spread the word to the outside world about the genocide going on in his homeland. [return:][return:]Hari wants to show that he and others from Darfur are not very different from those reading his book. Yes, he had looked forward to his first camel rather than to his first car, and his childhood games had to be played at night because of the desert heat in the day, but he uses cell phones and some of his favorite books are Jane Eyre, Treasure Island and Animal Farm. He loves his family as we love our families. [return:][return:]Because I am ignorant of African history, geography and politics, I was uncertain as to why this genocide was taking place, why Hari feared for his freedom in Chad if he were exposed as Sudanese, why he was imprisoned in Egypt, and why he so feared for his life when he would cross the border between Chad and into Sudan. In his narrative, Hari explains briefly what the problems are, but the politics are so foreign to me as an American that I wasn t able to grasp it all on first reading. The history and politics of the genocide in Sudan are more clearly described in an Appendix in this advance reader s edition. Readers would benefit to have the history and politics woven more intricately into the narrative, and it would be helpful if the published edition includes a map or two of the region. [return:][return:]It is disheartening to know that sixty years after the ratification of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights a copy of which is included in the back of Hari s book -- the systematic stripping of these basic human rights by governments throughout the world continues.[return:]I hope Random House will make a big production of the release of Hari Daoud s memoir. Americans declare Never again! when we talk about the genocide of the Jews and others in Europe last century, but we are virtually ignorant of contemporary genocides. While some people are aware that something unpleasant is going on in Darfur, others are entirely ignorant. [return:][return:]Hari s memoir has the potential to become a best-seller, if well marketed. Then, perhaps, more people will see the humanity that Hari brings to the African faces we see in newscasts, and will become sensitive enough to the ongoing genocide that we pressure leaders to help our fellow humans....less

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The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur

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