Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide

by Rebecca Hamilton

Around the world, millions of people have added their voices to protest marches and demonstrations because they believe that, together, they can make a difference. When we failed to stop the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, we promised to never let such a thing happen again. But nine years later, as news began to trickle out of killings in western Sudan, an area known as Darfur, the international community again faced the problem of how the United Nations and the United States government could respond to mass atrocity.

Rebecca Hamilton passionately narrates the six-year grassroots campaign to draw global attention to the plight of Darfur's people. From college students who galvanized entire university campuses in the belief that their outcry could save millions of Darfuris still at risk, to celebrities such as Mia Farrow, who spurred politicians to act, to Steven Spielberg, who boycotted the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Hamilton details how advocacy for Darfur was an exuberant, multibillion-dollar effort. She then does what no one has done to date: she takes us into the corridors of power and the camps of Darfur, and reveals the impact of ordinary people's fierce determination to uphold the mantra of "never again." Fighting for Darfur weaves a gripping story that both dramatizes our moral dilemma and shows the promise and perils of citizen engagement in a new era of global compassion.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Africa, War

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2011

About the author

Rebecca Hamilton is a special correspondent for The Washington Post in Sudan with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and a fellow at the New America Foundation. In 2007 she was selected as a Global Young Leader on genocide Prevention for spearheading the campaign for Harvard University to divest from companies doing business with Sudan and working with internally displaced populations in Sudan. She worked for the prosecution at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, including work on their historic Darfur cases. Currently a resident of New York, Hamilton is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School, as a former Open Society fellow.

Reviews

[Ari · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The cautionary tale for the future is not to let the lessons of the Darfur story overdetermine advocacy efforts for the next crisis. Critical reflection on the past is essential, and lessons can and should be learned from the exercise. But the experience in Darfur also reminds us that such lessons must be applied thoughtfully, not dogmatically, and always modified in light of new content." 191

Pair this with Samantha Power's THE PROBLEM FROM HELL and you'll find yourself sucked into the worlds of international law, advocacy and politics. The author provides an interesting perspective on the Save Darfur movement (which I vaguely remember, I was in middle school at the time) as someone who helped lead Harvard's divestment campaign but she also manages to remain clear-eyed and objective about what did and did not work about the advocacy movement. She is not down on idealism nor is she a ruthless realist, she somehow manages to mix the two ideas in a way that explains how they can be effective policy. The book seems to be well-researched, not just looking at Darfur but the issues in Sudan as a whole and not reducing the political and humanitarian crisis to a simple 'ancient tribal conflict'. The author has a firm grasp of the many issues at hand and goes back and forth between the history of Sudan and the country's current state. I only wish the book had come out a bit later to see her thoughts on South Sudan's independence.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having spent much time and energy over the years organizing support for various progressive causes (some successful, some much less so) I am intrigued with Rebecca Hamilton’s experience and her analysis of it in "Fighting for Darfur".

Regarding her use of the term "genocide", naming is essential to disseminating one’s views about something. If one gets there first and is able to create or control the name it can be very powerful. For example, if one calls the conflict in Darfur genocide inflicted by the regime in Khartoum then not opposing Khartoum makes one implicit in genocide. Organized, large scale slaughter of civilians, while horrifying and immoral, may not call for military intervention that could result in more death and greater destruction. Genocide will always come under the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) so what we call it is important.

Years ago we used a lot of loaded terms, almost always inaccurately–fascism was the genocide of the day–and in doing so weakened the authority we had developed through organizing. Hamilton is an indefatigable advocate and a good organizer but the "Save Darfur" movement showed how limited first world political organizing can be in trying to deal with Third/Developing world issues.

[Kourtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this book for a class on International Social and Human Rights, Spring 2015. I will say that I originally did not know a lot about the issue. I was a bit younger when Darfur was at the forefront of the news, and nowadays I feel I never hear about this. The book chronicles the pursuit of US foreign policy on the situation in Darfur. I will give the author props for having a straight, chronological narrative on the events and the international community's response. However, I gave it the rating I did because as a book for class, I wasn't really interested in reading it for itself. I feel like the author blamed the administration (both Bush and Obama) for not going further in fighting for Darfur. However, I did like how she showed advocacy can really change a nation's stance on policy. That was pretty interesting to read. All in all, it was interesting in the fact that it gave me a broad account of the events in Sudan and how different people and countries tried to help or ignored the problem.

[Roxani]

A must-read, timely and relevant account of developments in Darfur, with an emphasis on the threats to international humanitarian law. Rebecca Hamilton brings her journalistic instincts to academia and it has made for formidable commentary on Sudan.

[Andy Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hamilton does a fantastic job of explaining what transnational advocacy can and cannot do on its own. A must-read for anyone who cares about human rights issues and/or foreign policy.

[Reverenddave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally had enough emotional distance to sit down and read this.