Blacks MIA at Darfur Rally

Black leaders were vocal, yet their followers were hardly visible.

Radio talk show host Joe Madison, who has been arrested with other Black activists for protesting the Sudanese government’s support of militias in Darfur, served as the rally emcee. Illinois Junior Senator Barack Obama (D), co-sponsor of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act that pushes for sanctions against perpetrators of the genocide, said, “I know that if we care, the world will care.”

It appeared, however, that most Blacks took a rain check on caring, calling into question whether or not Darfur is a priority for African Americans, West Indians, and others in the African Diaspora. In a display of irony, images of Black Darfurians on a large projector screen were juxtaposed with mostly White protesters.

One of a few hundred Black people in the wave of more than 10,000 bodies, Haitian-American Marie Auguste was there. She had taken a train from New York to participate in the rally. Holding a sign with the message “President Bush You Said Not On Your Watch…It Is Happening, Do Something About It,” Auguste bumped into Prisca Doh, a native of Ivory Coast in West Africa, who had been using the poster as shade from the smoldering sun. They became engrossed in conversation about the lack of Black faces in the lines of protesters.

“There’s a very thin line between us here and Blacks on the African continent. Katrina taught us that they react to us the same way—with inaction,” said Auguste, alluding to the importance of solidarity amongst Africans on the continent and Africans of the Diaspora. She continued, “If we can’t be like the Jewish people and demand things for people that look like us, we’re never going to progress.”

Auguste was moved to action by the countless images of women and children who suffer most. “Because these are Black people, the world has looked the other way,” said the New Yorker about the three year genocide that started when rebels in Darfur sought political independence by challenging the Khartoum government.

The size of Texas, Sudan is a telling example of the 19 th century “Scramble for Africa” by European colonialists that meshed together semi-autonomous groups—like Darfurians—into arbitrarily formed nation states.

Spilling into neighboring Chad with an influx of refugees, the Darfur genocide has left 200,000 dead and hundreds displaced. The U.N. World Food Programme announced on Monday that it was cutting food rations. Responding to the magnitude of the situation, Auguste encouraged her friends in New York to attend the rally but heard only excuses.

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