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A Time for Grieving

In his memoir, translator Daoud Hari recounts the pain of his native Darfur.

Olivier Laban-Mattei / AFP-Getty Images
Waste Land: Sudan's blighted Darfur region has become a land of refugees, chaos and killing
 

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It was not the homecoming I had longed for after these years away, working in restaurants in Libya and Egypt. I was not returning to my village in Darfur with gifts and money for everyone. "Daoud is returned," I heard some men say as I walked by. I nodded to them, but it did not seem time for smiles and joyful greetings.

I walked into the family enclosure where a donkey, several goats and some chickens watched my arrival. I saw my mother under the shade roof attached to the cooking hut; she was with my sister Aysha and with several other women of the village; they were all in mourning. Mother looked very old now. Her hair was matted with the earth of grieving. She wore dark clothing, a dark shawl over her old head. She saw me and wept into her hands, as if it were even sadder for her to think that my homecoming had to be at such a time.

"Fatah," she managed to say, which is what you say when you greet someone in a time of grieving.

We had lost perhaps 20 cousins in the previous days, and each was like a son or daughter to her. In this tiny village three children and their mother were killed when the white Antonov bomber came. Six of the 50 houses were burned. This news, which I already knew, was told to me again by the women as I stood with my head bowed a little to my mother.

I heard running and then saw my brother Ahmed come into the enclosure. He was, against the mourning custom and his own intentions, smiling somewhat as he grasped my arm in a great handshake.

"Daoud," he said. "Fatah. So it's all true—you have come back."

"Fatah," I replied, trying not to smile.

"It's very, very good to see you, Daoud," he said several times. I told him that the sheik had sent his regards and had warned of an attack soon. "Yes, an attack I think will come in a few days," Ahmed said. "Not tomorrow, but maybe soon after that." Ahmed told me that some of the old people were refusing to leave. They were intent on dying where they had always lived. Some would point and say, "We have our great-grandfathers buried over here, and our children buried over there, and so why would this not be a good place for us to die also?" You could not argue with that.

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  • Posted By: getzel @ 03/18/2008 9:03:36 AM

    It is the same thing in India, Thailand, Darfur, Kosovo, Chechnya: wherever Islam meets another culture: Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Jew, African tribal villages, secular, religious; Islamic terror is the only response the Mohammedans use: convert or die. If Israel goes America will be on the Mohammedans front line of attack: your wife and daughter in burqas or dead

    Mohammedan governments are all apartheid governments. No Christians, Sikhs, Buddha, or any other allowed to live there as citizens or prey there or anything else.

    Just as in Kosovo 1997-2008 where Moslem hordes kill rape and murder Christians and run them out of town and now few Christians live there.

    So the Moslems rape and pillage and murder, and it is all legal under Sharia law to do that to non-Moslems, and after murdering and expelling the Christians, the Moslems then come say: look today, we have a majority of the population!

    Sharia people are at war with The West because Arabs, Persians, & Sharia people believe Islam can not survive against a free market, free speech, republic with: womens rights & no honor killing: murdering women is legal in Sharia. No more dhimmi: second class citizens, non-Muslims, that have no rights and may be killed, raped, & plundered & under Sharia it is legal: a Moslem can not be punished for this offensive behavior.

    Yes, Sharia people believe Islam is doomed to the trash heap unless freedom of speech and democracy are eliminated. That is why they send suicide murderers and attack the West. Propaganda, the big lie, murder: that is the practice of Islam today.

    Arab, if only Israel: is only an excuse, propaganda, for Islamic terror; as we see that wherever the Mohammedans bump against another culture the Mohammedans say the same thing they say about Israel. In India: same thing, in Kosovo: same thing, In Israel: same thing. In Darfur: same thing. In Thailand: same thing, the Philippines: same thing. Wherever the Moslems are contiguous with another people: The Moslems say the same thing they say about Israel: If only: Sharia and no freedom of speech to criticize Islam???

    Intelligence analyst: Getzel

    Which part of their statements: we only want an Islamic terror state dedicated to the destruction of the West do you not understand?

  • Posted By: getzel @ 03/18/2008 8:50:07 AM

    It is the same thing in India, Thailand, Darfur, Kosovo, Chechnya: wherever Islam meets another culture: Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Jew, African tribal villages, secular, religious; Islamic terror is the only response the Mohammedans use: convert or die. If Israel goes America will be on the Mohammedans front line of attack: your wife and daughter in burqas or dead

    Mohammedan governments are all apartheid governments. No Christians, Sikhs, Buddha, or any other allowed to live there as citizens or prey there or anything else.

    Just as in Kosovo 1997-2008 where Moslem hordes kill rape and murder Christians and run them out of town and now few Christians live there.

    So the Moslems rape and pillage and murder, and it is all legal under Sharia law to do that to non-Moslems, and after murdering and expelling Moslems then come say: look today, we have a majority of the population!

    Sharia people are at war with The West because Arabs and Persian Sharia people believe Islam can not survive against a free market, free speech, republic with women???s rights & no honor killing: murdering women is legal in Sharia. No more dhimmi: second class citizens, non-muslims, that have no rights and may be killed, raped, plundered under Sharia and it is legal: a Moslem can not be punished for this offensive behavior. Yes, Arabs and Persian Sharia people believe Islam is doomed to the trash heap unless freedom and democracy are eliminated. That is why they send suicide murderers and attack the West. Propaganda, the big lie, murder: that is the practice of Islam today.

    Arab, if only Israel???is only an excuse, propaganda, for Islamic terror; as we see that wherever the Mohammedans bump against another culture the Mohammedans say the same thing they say about Israel. In India: same thing???in Kosovo: same thing???In Israel: same thing. In Darfur: same thing. In Thailand: same thing, the Philippines: same thing. Wherever the Moslems are contiguous with another people: The Moslems say the same thing they say about Israel: If only???Sharia???and no freedom of speech to criticize Islam???

    Intelligence analyst: Getzel

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