Sudan

Jill said, "I have another 'Sudan' book to add to our list - and this one packs a powerful punch. It's called The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari (my review). This book will be released in the U.S. on March 18, 2008, and I highly recommend it.

"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."

Daoud Hari – his friends call him David – is a living witness to the brutal genocide under way in Darfur. The Translator is a 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, 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 destroyed, his 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.
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Wendy, who has also reviewed this book, says it could count for the country of Chad as well, though that country isn't mentioned in her review or Jill's either. Wendy, could you tell us more, please?