For Americans concerned about the conflicts and atrocities that continue to ravage Sudan, Jok Madut Jok suggested a way to help: Learn more about the situation.
Jok, an associate professor of history at Loyola Marymount University, spoke Wednesday as the first lecturer in the Baobab Lecture series, presented by the University African Studies Committee.
Born and raised in southern Sudan, Jok has spent considerable time researching and working with the people in Sudanese refugee camps.
“They usually gave me the message: ‘If people around the world know we are suffering, we aren’t alone anymore,’” Jok said.
Sudan has been divided by Civil War since 1983, but it has received significantly more international attention over the past two years as the world has watched government-sponsored militias attack the villages of tribal African populations in Darfur.
Approximately 200,000 people have been killed and more than 1 million have been displaced in Darfur since 2003, Jok said.
Jok traced the conflict in Sudan to three political and cultural currents.
First, the rise of militant Islam in northern Sudan has radicalized Muslims who want to institute a theocratic state, he said.
Second, the ruling elite in Sudan has attempted to “homogenize” Sudan as an Arab country, Jok said, even though Sudan is composed of ethnically diverse population groups.
These steps have outraged Sudanese who do not identify as Arab or embrace radical Islam. To marginalize opposition groups, the Sudanese government has undertaken a policy of silencing dissent.
“The response of the state has been to arrest, to maim, to torture and to exile,” Jok said.
Jok began his lecture with a photographic slide show that illustrated how the violence has influenced all spheres of Sudanese life.
The slide show included a photo of an African Sudanese woman carrying a baby on her back while tucking an AK-47 assault rifle under her arm.
Jok criticized the international community for its unwillingness to intervene.
“It was the United States government that acknowledged genocide in Darfur, but why the hell isn’t it doing anything?” said Jok, referring to a U.S. congressional resolution passed in Sept. 2004 that explicitly labeled the atrocities in Darfur as “genocide.”
Jok also criticized European nations for continuing to do business with the Sudanese government and said that the African Union, an organization of 53 African countries, had done little to aid the victims of Darfur.
Rwanda was the only African country that volunteered to send soldiers to Sudan, but the African Union was unable to pay for the soldiers to travel to Darfur, even though most African leaders have personal yachts, Jok said.
Jok believes peace remains possible in Sudan even without much international involvement.
The shift in international politics following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has made the Sudanese government uncertain, leaving the door open to negotiating peace, Jok said.
Jok said Sudan’s fragmented identity, the product of colonialism and years of war, would make a unified state nearly impossible.
“Every ethnic group is a nation but not a nation-state,” he said. “I don’t see Sudan ever remaining a single country.”
In order to resolve the situation, Jok said, greater international involvement will be necessary.
Stephen Wooten, the director of the African Studies Program at the University and professor of anthropology and international studies, appreciated that Jok challenged his audience to become more aware of and involved with African issues.
The African Studies Program has created the Baobab Lecture series with funding from a U.S. Department of Education Title VI program grant, in order to bring students and faculty together to learn about Africa and become resources to the community on African-related issues.
The Baobab Lecture series gets its name from the Baobab tree, a tree found in many parts of Africa that often serves as a gathering place for villagers.

[email protected]