Darfur

by Lucian Niemeyer (Photographer), Bill Richardson (Foreword)

Darfur, located in westernmost Sudan, is that nation's largest region, situated on the border with Chad. For centuries, northern Sudan has been predominantly Arab Muslim and the south, black African. Ruled as a colonial state by, primarily, Egypt and Britain, Sudan was granted independence in 1956 with Khartoum, in the northern Arab Muslim territory, as its seat of power.

In 1983, the Sudanese government announced that all of Sudan would officially be a Muslim country. The "sharia," the Muslim code of laws, became the rule: those not Muslim are deemed unclean and infidels. Southern Sudan began resisting the genocide waged by the Muslim north. This resistance led to the 1992 announcement of a holy jihad by the Sudanese government, leading to today's humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

"Lucian Niemeyer understands that to truly tell the story of the turmoil in Darfur and Sudan one must understand the history and root causes that brought the Sudan and its people to this situation. His breathtaking photographs and compelling narrative tell the definitive story of the conflict and will help the readers across the globe to understand the true nature of the genocide and the people caught up in it every day. . . . I applaud him for this wonderful book and join him in his urgent cry for help for those oppressed in Sudan who cannot speak for themselves."--Governor Bill Richardson, from the Foreword

104 pages, Hardcover

First published May 16, 2009

Reviews

[TheThirdLie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The opening of the book talks about how the rest of the world doesn't know about the tragedy of Darfur and what it's people have to go through every day. The aim of the book was to open eyes to those of us who don't know a lot about the situation. I was interested in reading a bit about the place and seeing what they had to go through, but what I got was face shots and simple explanations of the pictures like:

Woman selling goods at market.
A woman selling items at the market.
Women have to get up early to get to the market.
Children ready to go to school.

It just didn't open up my eyes to the situation there. It just showed me random face shots, of happy people, and simple captions.


The forward was neat though because it taught me a bit more about my governor.