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I am the translator who has taken journalists into dangerous Darfur. It is my intention now to take you there in this book, if you have the courage to come with me.
The young life of Daoud Hari–his friends call him David–has been one of bravery and mesmerizing adventure. He is a living witness to the brutal genocide under way in Darfur.
The Translator is a suspenseful, harrowing, and deeply moving memoir of how one person has made a difference in the world–an on-the-ground account of one of the biggest stories of our time. Using his high school knowledge of languages as his weapon–while others around him were taking up arms–Daoud Hari has helped inform the world about Darfur.
Hari, a Zaghawa tribesman, grew up in a village in the Darfur region of Sudan. As a child he saw colorful weddings, raced his camels across the desert, and played games in the moonlight after his work was done. In 2003, this traditional life was shattered when helicopter gunships appeared over Darfur’s villages, followed by Sudanese-government-backed militia groups attacking on horseback, raping and murdering citizens and burning villages. Ancient hatreds and greed for natural resources had collided, and the conflagration spread.
Though Hari’s village was attacked and destroyedhis family decimated and dispersed, he himself escaped. Roaming the battlefield deserts on camels, he and a group of his friends helped survivors find food, water, and the way to safety. When international aid groups and reporters arrived, Hari offered his services as a translator and guide. In doing so, he risked his life again and again, for the government of Sudan had outlawed journalists in the region, and death was the punishment for those who aided the “foreign spies.” And then, inevitably, his luck ran out and he was captured. . . .
The Translator tells the remarkable story of a man who came face-to-face with genocide– time and again risking his own life to fight injustice and save his people.
Stark Reality - Hard to Believe
| Customer Rating:   | | This book is mesmerizing in it's simplicity. The story is told so matter of factly that it is chilling. I have read several books about Darfur, yet this one really made me understand the historical and geographical reasons for its brutal upside-down reality. |
I couldn't put it down!
| Customer Rating: | | Normally "I couldn't put it down" is something I say about a novel. This true account of the author's life in the Sudan, Darfur, was spellbinding. I've been concerned about Darfur for such a long time - concerned and confused. I just didn't understand all the nuances. This personal account helped clear up a lot of that confusion as well as connect me with the real people and the heartbreaking realities. Please read this book! |
Daoud's Personal Account Sheds Light on Situation in Darfur
| Customer Rating: | I just finished Hari's book and must say that I believe it deserves no less than seven out of five stars! Although Hari is responsible for helping dozens of journalists write the articles they needed to get the story of Darfur to the world, I don't believe anyone can come close to Hari's first hand account. In Hari's book we learn of the culture and lifestyle of the Zaghawa (those natives of Darfur who are targeted by the government of Sudan)--a complex people with ancient traditions and a keen knowledge of survival. We learn of their rich family tradition, hospitality, generosity and wisdom. This introduction to the Zaghawa makes their situation real and urgent to the Western reader and is most important if one is to understand the consequence of the genocide. Hari is a master at subtle and poignant prose. He writes in a simple manner that is as keen to letting the reader in on the details that make the landscape of Darfur come alive as he is at keeping together the big picture. His humanity is magnetic and his recounting of violence and tragedy unforgettable. I would recommend this book as required reading for any political or history classroom. It is easily read and its message is profoundly communicated.
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Eyewitness accounts of unspeakable horror and unbelievable kindness...
| Customer Rating: | Daoud Hari's powerful, penetrating, concise eyewitness account brings the life-or-death struggles of his people into our minds and hearts.
His descriptions of horror can make you weep or retch, yet the book is infused with humanity, dignity, and even humor--a testimony to the worst and best humankind has to offer. Daoud Hari has witnessed utmost cruelties and survived unspeakable crimes which struck down his family, his village, the region of Darfur, and which continue to corrupt and cripple the nation of Sudan, as its tribal citizens are wiped off the face of the earth or turned into unwelcome refugees.
Overwhelmed by the senseless loss of his brother, the escape of his aged mother into the wilderness to hide, the dangerous roaming of his aged, noble father, the author sought to do something meaningful in the wake of madness that engulfed everyone and everything he knew. Armed with the ability to speak Zaghawa, Arabic, and English, and with intimate knowledge of Darfur's geography, Hari became useful to aid organizations and journalists. He became determined to help bring to the outside world the stories of those who died, who killed them, how, and why. The courage and humanity of journalists and other individuals who gathered eyewitness accounts of the genocide in Sudan comprise an essential part of his story. He also supplies significant insights into the historic and cultural contexts of the strife in his country.
In a growing field of compelling books on the urgent, deplorable, confusing situation of war and genocide in Sudan, Daoud Hari's _The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur_ stands out in its ability to pervade the reader's conscience. Moving us beyond feeling outraged and overwhelmed by man's inhumanity to man, we develop a deep connection to the author and feel moved to do something to help.
Related readings: _They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan_ by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak, with Judy A. Bernstein (PublicAffairs, a member of the Perseus Books Group 2005, 311 pp) _What is the What, The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, A Novel_ by Dave Eggars, 2006 (Vintage 2007, 339 pp) _Emma's War, A True Story_ by Deborah Scroggins, 2002, (Vintage 392 pp) |
An Incredible Individual
| Customer Rating: | Daoud Hari has written a painful, unglossed but also celebratory novel of the Darfur region of Western Sudan, and with his understated approach, genuine character, and very unexpected humor, reminds us that Darfur was a place well before it was a tragedy.
This approach allows Hari to engage his readers on a personal level: he asks them to consider their response to losing their cities and their children; he reminds them of the simple connecting power of cellular telephones, and the vital necessity of friendship. Few individuals presented in Hari's narrative escape as caricatures of evil. Instead, their histories are contemplated, their motivations explored, and the Sudanese government's pitting tribe against tribe is revealed as a manipulative orchestration that will make a man a soldier one week and an enemy the next.
But what makes The Translator most remarkable is that its author exists. Hari does not take credit for much, but his grace, his honesty, and his willingness to learn the individual stories in the murderous epidemic that dominates his land, demonstrates him to be of a completely singular character and a person whose love and friendship will, for some, hold back a end that we might wrongly feel to be inescapable and, for Sudan, inevitable.
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