The Lecture/seminar Daoud Hari – a Short Review on His Book, and His Visit to Our College.
The Translator:
The lecture/seminar Daoud Hari gave about his experiences living in Darfur prior to wartime, in his country, was not only insightful but also inspirational. His internal struggle and his suffering as a war criminal were both source of universal human anguish and profound heroics.
Daoud Hari’s chronological depiction of his accounts during the initial raid on his country was all but heart wrenching. The tale of Hari and his family starving, burning alive in the desert sun, and barely making the two week journey into Chad would be a sorrowful tale read about, but becomes horrific when told live and you hear the anguish in his broken English. There is a certain level of depression you attain from Daoud’s book the Translator, but Hari’s tale is one that needs to be told by spoken word. It’s the medium to which one gains a certain universal truth of the way the world really works.
I expected Hari would be a simple storyteller before I arrived to hear his lecture. Instead I became completely involved as he talked about his arrival to the United States and how it led him home to Darfur and into another chain of unfortunate events. Hari spoke in a remorseful monotone about coming to the U.S. and meeting his reporter friend. They made a business accord to return to war-torn Darfur for journalistic benefit.
Once they reached Darfur, they were captured by rebels (rebels were once friends to Daoud) and taken to the government. When they arrived at the “new” Darfurian government they were placed in jail. Trying to get information out of Hari and his colleagues, the Darfurian government beat the trio, tortured them and constantly withheld food and water. It took the stepping-in from the American Government to stop the dehumanization of Daoud and his compatriots. The impact of the story was greatly enhanced when heard in person due to Hari’s tonalities and gestures. When Hari spoke of