My english essay wants you!
_____Darfur is a three-sectioned region in Sudan, a country where Arab rule is very oppressive to non-Arabs. The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) are two rebel groups in Sudan who sparked the conflict by attacking government facilities in early 2003, claiming the government was oppressing non-Arabs and favoring Arabs. The government responded by deploying an Arab militia called the Janjaweed for counter-insurgency purposes. This turned into something much worse, however, as the Report of the Internal Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the United Nations Secretary General states, “Government forces and militias conducted indiscriminate attacks, including killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement, throughout Darfur.” Also in the UN report, “it is clear […] that most attacks were deliberately and indiscriminately directed against civilians. Moreover, even if rebels […] were present in some of the villages -- which the commission considers likely in only a very small number of instances -- the attackers did not take precautions to enable civilians to leave the villages or otherwise be shielded from attack” (3) As a result of the attacks, a large humanitarian crisis has formed, and several hundreds of thousands have died. A massacre is defined as a cruel and/or atrocious killing of helpless or unresisting people. The massacre in Darfur has remained mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. However, it is through the media and news that one most often finds out about these horrific events, and in particular, photography and textual representation. These media also change the way we view massacres based on their varying methods and messages.
_____One such message a representation can have is a political one. Massacres often stem from a political cause. In Verlyn Klinkenborg’s essay on the Sand Creek massacre, he writes “political ambition and intractable moral ferocity drove Chivington.” (327) In the massacre, Colonel Chivington slaughtered a peaceful village of Arapahos and Cheyennes. Great acts of civil injustice often become the political fuel for a group of people that either unites them or compels them to react. For example, after the 911 attack, the United States was truly united against the terrorists. Darfur is no different, the stem of the massacre is a political revolt. Just as easily as they arise from political means, massacres can be twisted for a political gain. Robert Atwan’s introduction to his book of essays entitled Convergences, he defines medium as “various channels of communication by which expression is transmitted,” (11) message as “something to do with content and meaning,” (3) and method as “how [media] goes about saying [the message].” (6) Textual representations and photographs are two different media that may (or may not) portray the same message about a massacre, but they have very different methods, and in the case of a massacre, two very different points of view. Textual representation can use it’s point of view to skew or bias the message it sends about a massacre. A newspaper journal, no matter how much it tries to objectively show something, can easily change one’s opinion of something by changing the wording, as it is written from the perspective of another person. Text can be censored or altered and is capable of showing an altered truth. A newspaper article on a president’s speech might be biased against him by the writer, and if the reader had not heard the speech, it is quite possible that the reader might get a different impression of the speech than they would if they had based the speech off of their own opinion. Such is also true with a massacre, it can be downplayed (textually) as something it is not. For example, the massacre of My Lai in Vietnam didn’t receive public condemnation until the photographs and video recordings of the massacre was played in the States, mostly because textual representation by the media was biased to the viewpoint of the journalist. In Thomas R. Partsch’s journal of March 16, 1968, he writes “We started to move slowly through the village shooting everything in sight children men and women and animals. Some was sickening. There legs were shot off and they were still moving it was just hanging there. I think there bodies were made of rubber.” (401) Such a horrifying account of a massacre was hardly ever written in the news, and still is.
_____The situation in Darfur has been downplayed in textual representations similarly to the My Lai massacre, even by the United Nations. The Commission’s letter stated that, “these incidents are reported to have occurred without any military justification in relation to any specific activity of the Rebel forces. […] the civilian population has been knowingly and deliberately targeted to achieve common or specific objectives of the Government and the Janjaweed.” (55) While both the Government and the rebel forces have committed acts against the civilian population, (International Commission 54) it is important to realize that neither have shown any real reason to other than to wipe out the civilians, which is a crime against humanity called genocide. The UN Commission later explains that this want to murder the tribes of villages in the Darfur regions lacks genocidal intent, stating that the attacks did not intend to murder all of the existing civilian population. (132) This statement disregards the earlier statement that genocidal intent may be inferred from “the general context, the perpetration of other culpable acts systematically directed against the same group, the scale of atrocities committed, the systematic targeting of victims on account of their membership of a particular group, or the repetition of destructive and discriminatory acts.” (International Commission 128) An act of genocide, the killing of an entire population of people, has not occurred in Darfur, but it is not acceptable to rule out the intent of genocide because the attackers did not kill the entire population. In other words, the UN Commission has stated that genocidal intent is not apparent unless a complete act of genocide has occurred, disregarding the fact that the attacks are repeatedly directed against the same groups of people (the civilian population) for belonging to a specific group (the villages they attacked) under the general context that they would achieve common or specific objectives of the Government or Janjaweed. To say this in relation to the situation in Darfur is to skew the reality of the massacre. Perhaps the UN Security Council does not wish to get directly involved, evidence of this is shown in their recommendations that the UN Security Council report the situation in Darfur to the UN-started International Criminal Court and the recommendations that the government of Sudan cease in the attacks and allow protective measures for the victims, yet only goes as far to recommend, and not declare any measures to be taken in case the government does not. (International Commission 162-164) It is safe to state that the UN has downplayed the situation in Darfur due to political reasons. What makes textual representations of massacres effective (or ineffective) for informing others is that they may be stretched due to political ulterior motives.
Just as a newspaper article is an argument from the viewpoint of a writer, a photograph is an objective recording from the viewpoint of the photographer. Photography is ultimately harder to skew because it shows what happened more objectively than a textual representation does. A photographer could bias what he takes photos of, but ultimately, a photograph that isn’t staged shows what actually happened. To censor or skew a photograph would mean to simply not show it¾it is much harder to edit it and show something that is false; nowadays many a person are involved in determining whether or not a photograph was doctored or modified. Paraphrased from Regarding the Pain of Others, a photograph produces a copy of a moment in reality and in interpretation of that moment, ultimately making a photograph an objective record and personal testimony. (Sontag 26) Because of these simultaneous interactions that photographs contain, they are one of the most real of all media. A photograph bears witness as frankly as possible to the real. Photographs of massacres are especially powerful, as they are capable of showing the pain of one and the brutality of another with no words attached. Sontag writes in her essay Watching Suffering From A Distance, “The images say: This is what human beings are capable of doing -- may volunteer to do, enthusiastically self-righteously. Don’t forget.” (391) Photographs expose the true nature of a massacre, from the unresisting or helpless victims to the cruel and atrocious slaughterer. Because of this baring of truth that text cannot obtain, it is often much easier for a person to react to an image rather than a written sentence. How many times have we seen the two airliners hit the twin towers on the infamous day of September 11? How much more ‘real’ was it to see the pain of others--to the point where news broadcasting channels removed the scenes of the planes hitting the towers and only showed the towers with smoke spilling out? (This is an example of censoring photography by not showing it, as it is too real or too true to edit into falseness.) Photographs make a much deeper mental image of a massacre than textual representation does because of their objectivity.
_____Unfortunately, the objectivity of photography in the Darfur massacre still misrepresents the actual event: photos are only available of the aftermath of the destruction, leaving the identity of the attacker sill unknown. This leaves a void in the event, which in the end leaves room for interpretation of what actually happened. This leaves the viewer with the option to decide who they think committed the crime; and as so, it is a viable tool for propaganda for any side, as anyone can claim anyone did it. There are no photographs (or at least, none shown) picturing the moment of attack on the villages, and until such photographs are shown, photographs will still misrepresent the massacre in Darfur. A news article is written with the personality of the journalist, and that personality disables the reader from making a personal connection. A photograph is taken by a machine and lacks such a personality, and that lack of personality enables the reader to make a personal connection. This is still true of the photographs of Darfur, however; regardless of whenever they are taken (during the attack or after) one is still able to make a personal connection to the victims pictured.
_____It must also be noted that at some point in time photography numbs us and that personal connection becomes void. People do not wish to see injustice and the pain of others, so they choose to disregard it. Perhaps they do think about it for a while, but eventually, they forget. The same has occurred with textual representations of massacres, after reading about the injustice in the world so often we tend to drown it out. Darfur falls between the cracks not only due to this numbness we have subconsciously produced when viewing media, but also due to it’s poor representation in picture and text media.
Supposing such a numbness does not occur when viewing media representing the massacre in Darfur, and as much as Darfur has been neglected in the news, the photographs and news stories about it can only go so far. A reader’s interpretation and response all depend on familiarity with the subjects. The Sand Creek massacre seems relatively unnoticed by the majority of the American population because there is a poor representation of it in text and photography. However, even if more text and photography of the event existed, there would still be a lack of interest because very few people in our nation are of Cheyenne or Arapaho descent, and very few people in our nation likewise are affected. The 9/11 attacks were considered more “real” because they attacked our nation as a whole, and not a specific race or gender. (The World Trade Center is, after all, one of the symbols of the “cultural melting pot” view of our culture.) The 9/11 attacks had a more personal connection because we were more familiar with the World Trade Center and the people who worked there. Darfur falls into this trap: we are in no way whatsoever involved with the well-being with Sudan. Even if Darfur had a better representation in our media, it would fall in suit with Sand Creek--in the end, few care because it is so uninvolved in our (the society of America’s) lives.
_____In the end, that is the truth for why Darfur is so unnoticed by the American population. The lack of interest stems from the lack of familiarity with Sudan, and less with the lack of representation in the media in text and photography. Because the media has not only misrepresented the massacre but also numbed us to it, our view of the massacre is drastically different from what it should be¾a massacre is a violation against human rights, and in the end, it is treated like the rest of the injustices in our world and postponed for more “pressing” matters. Estimated from www.savedarfur.org, there have been about 400,000 deaths since the start of the conflict in 2003. The estimated fatalities from the 9/11 attacks are around 3000 deaths. One hundred and thirty-three times the people have died in Darfur, yet the United States of America does not take the initiative to even respond to the humanitarian crisis occurring there. The massacre in Darfur has had a considerably larger impact on the world than the 9/11 attacks, so why is it that they still remain unnoticed? Is there more “value” in an American life than in a Sudanese life? The United States believes in the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, do the Sudanese deserve these things any less than we do? The answer is that the American people subconsciously value American lives more than Sudanese lives because they are closer to home. Darfur is unnoticed because we, the American people, subconsciously value American lives more than the lives of others because there’s the slim possibility that it could be us, the American people, dying instead of someone else.
Works Cited
Atwan, Robert. “Introduction.” Convergences. NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2nd ed. 2005.
Klinkenborg, Verlyn. “Sand Creek.” Convergences. Ed. Robert Atwan. NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2nd ed. 2005.
Sontag, Susan. “Watching Suffering From A Distance.” Convergences. Ed. Robert Atwan. NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2nd ed. 2005.
Partsch, Thomas R. “March 16-18, 1968.” Convergences. Ed. Robert Atwan. NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2nd ed. 2005.
Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003.
Save Darfur.org. 2005. The Save Darfur Coalition. 27 Nov. 2005. {www.savedarfur.org}
International Commission of Inquiry. Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the United Nations Secretary-General. 25 Jan. 2005. Retrieved 27 Nov. 2005. {http://www.un.org/News/dh/sudan/com_inq_darfur.pdf}