News
Briefly
Calendar of Events
Commentary
Opinions
Sports
Diversions
World News
Classifieds
Login
Letter Submission
Search
Archive
Publishing Policy
Mail Subscriptions
St. Cloud State University
College Publisher
Home
>
News
Speaker gives Sudan lesson
Nyssa Dahlberg
Published:
Friday, September 24, 2004
Media Credit: Ashley Preste
Jesse Benjamin, a professor of human relations and multicultural education at SCSU spoke to students Tuesday in the Miller Center Auditorium about the human rights violations in Sudan.
In honor of the U.N. Day of Peace, Amnesty International informed students about the present controversy in Sudan with a presentation called "Teach-in on Sudan"�at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Miller Center auditorium.
Amnesty International is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending human rights. Sara Harris, president of the SCSU chapter of Amnesty International, began the "Teach-in on Sudan" talk by asking students to write down things they would take with them if they had 10 minutes to flee their home and only one bag.
Three people volunteered their information and were told they would be denied asylum and would not be able to leave. Harris said that many people were not allowed to leave Sudan unless they had documented proof that they were in danger.
Sudan's history
Harris then introduced Jesse Benjamin, a professor of human relations and multicultural education at SCSU. Benjamin gave some background information about what is happening in Sudan.
"Most Americans don't know what's going on and now we are hearing there is a terrible humanitarian crisis," Benjamin said. "The U.S. media isn't covering this crisis almost at all, and it's very hard to find information on what's really happening."
He said a common misconception among Americans is that these kinds of things happen all the time in African nations.
"We see in Africa, Sudan in particular, images of poverty, images of war, images of genocide," Benjamin said. "I think a lot of Americans think those are natural things that always occur in Africa and that's really the farthest possible thing from the truth."
Benjamin went on to explain that Sudan is one of the most ancient places in the world and one of the birthplaces of civilization. He said Sudan is where we first had domestic plants, writing and schools. Sudan was one of the first hierarchical civilizations where large cities with priests and leaders developed for the first time.
"It's important to think of Sudan as one of the richest places in the world both culturally and economically," he said. "This is an incredible contrast to what we are seeing in the present."
Up until about 200 years ago Sudan was on the cutting edge of society and economic development, Benjamin said. Then, the British moved in to try and colonize the area.
Civil War
"For the last 150 to 200 years there has been outside people coming into Sudan and trying to take over," Benjamin said. "This has created many problems within Sudan."
These problems include creating massive tensions between the north and the south regions of the nation. In the past, most everyone in Sudan were Muslim, Benjamin said. Then the British sent missionaries to the south converting many people to Christianity. This created a religious divide between the north and south. Soon after, the north started calling themselves Arab while the south was black African, which created a race tension.
"To be black African you are at the bottom of a hierarchy on a global scale of civilization and you can be captured as a slave and be mistreated anywhere in the world but especially in Africa," Benjamin said.
Since Sudan became independent from the British the nation has had many leaders. These leaders have been favoring the north, because they are Muslim, and have been extremely oppressive to the people in the south, Benjamin said.
"Since 1972 or so there has been a civil war between the north and south. There is very little development (in the south), very few roads, very few bridges, very little electricity," Benjamin said. "Where the north has things like jet planes and paved roads and some railroads and industry."
Problems in Darfar
Benjamin explained that in the last 20 years people have been ignoring what has been going on in Sudan. However, recently people have begun to talk about the situation there.
"They have started talking about a place called Darfar and Dafar definitely deserves our attention," Benjamin said.
Currently Darfar is at a crisis because a paramilitary, hired by the government, is going through raping and killing the people of Darfar, Benjamin said. Fifty thousand people or more have died already, and millions have become refugees in their own country or have moved to Chad, the neighboring country.�
"If western nations or African nations intervene it would be fairly easy to stop the violence," Benjamin said. "But the problem is, countries in the modern world don't want to intervene in other people's business. We should approach Sudan with concern and I do believe the first step is education."
Putting faces with facts
A slide show was presented in hopes of putting faces to the disasters in Darfar. Pictures showed refugee camps in the middle of the desert where people lived in houses made of sticks and tarps. Other photographs showed empty villages with burned-down houses.
"(The slide show) put it on a human connection and the pictures put it on a level where one can see first hand the terrors happening in Darfar," said Mary Loe, a St. Cloud community member who attended the presentation.
Some students had never heard the information presented before.
Third-year student Deirdre Mulvey expressed the frustration she felt by not knowing what to do to help the Sudanese situation.
"I didn't even know anything about this. All the western government cares about is power and money (so they don't help). The people who really care were in there (at the presentation)."
Go to www.amnestyusa.org�to learn more about Darfar and the crisis happening in Sudan. �
Forum:
No comments have been posted for this story.
Post a comment
