Darfur Now Lesson One: Introduction to Darfur Now

Overview

This lesson introduces students to concepts and information that will help them better understand the film Darfur Now. The warm-up activity reminds students of the universal capacity we have to act, and to act in extraordinary ways, with the appropriate inspiration and determination. As students watch Darfur Now during Lesson Two [1], they will identify the sources of motivation for the six individuals profiled in the film.

In the main activity of the lesson, students are introduced to the tragic events in Darfur when they watch the first nine minutes of the film. If you want to supplement the information provided in the film by presenting a brief lecture, for example, or by having students do independent research or reading, we have included the handouts "Ten Basic Facts about Darfur" and "Timeline: Crisis in Darfur." The introduction of this unit suggests Web resources that you or your students can review for additional information. Moreover, chapters three and four of Not on Our Watch describe the history of Sudan and the conflict in Darfur, as well as the current state of events as of 2007, when the book was published.

Knowing the basic facts of historical and current events is not the same as understanding the significance of these events. The follow-through section of this lesson provides an opportunity for students to reflect on the material presented in the film. After being exposed to examples of violence and injustice depicted in the beginning of Darfur Now, students need to have a safe space to process this information. If they move on too quickly to the next class or activity, they might miss the depth of this tragedy. Additionally, the images and other material in this film might provoke strong emotions in students; they might feel uncomfortable, sad, confused, or enraged after witnessing the violence humans can inflict on each other.

In the follow-through section, we first recommend giving students an open-ended opportunity for reflection. Then we suggest asking them to consider their own relationship to the situation in Darfur covered in the beginning of Darfur Now. Raphael Lemkin, the lawyer who coined the term "genocide" in the 1940s, was concerned that people did not feel connected or personally responsible when horrible human rights abuses occurred far away. He remarked, "If women, children, and old people were to be murdered one hundred miles from here, wouldn't you run to help? Then why do you stop this decision of your heart when the distance is three thousand miles instead of one hundred miles?" As Lemkin theorized, some students, understandably, may watch the film as if it is unrelated to their life and their world. Others might feel connected to the people suffering in Darfur and want to take immediate action to help them. The purpose of asking students to consider how events in Darfur relate to their lives and decisions is not to pressure them to give a specific "right" answer, but to provide a space for them to reflect honestly on their own relationship to events in the world around them. As students continue watching the film, they can compare their own reaction to the violence in Darfur to the responses of others, including the six individuals profiled in Darfur Now. Furthermore, in the book Not on Our Watch, John Prendergast describes his own reaction as he became increasingly aware of the atrocities in Darfur. We have excerpted a section of this book, "Not on Our Watch Excerpt 1", which can be assigned for homework or used as the basis for a class discussion.

Finally, we suggest two areas for discussions designed to deepen students' appreciation of the depth and scale of the crimes being committed in Darfur. First, students may not comprehend why creating millions of refugees and IDPs is considered to be a war crime. They might not grasp why people living in refugee camps must depend solely on humanitarian aid or what it means to live in such a state of uncertainty and vulnerability. What if the World Food Programme runs out of money? What if foreigners who work for the agency cannot safely work in the region? What if the aid stops coming? Unable to return to their homes and left with virtually no resources of their own, the 2.5 million displaced people have been rendered completely powerless by their own government. The questions in the follow-through section help students to understand this point.

Second, students may not understand why the conflict in Darfur has been termed a genocide by human rights organizations and the United States government. According to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (see Handout 3), because these attacks are carried out "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group," the conflict qualifies as genocide, and international intervention is warranted. The adoption of the Genocide Convention was based on the premise that when innocent civilians cannot rely on their own government to protect them, and particularly if their own government is the perpetrator of crimes against them, then the only way to save them is through international action. An appreciation of the meaning, gravity, and implications of genocide will help students understand why the individuals in the film, and thousands of others, are working to end the violence in Darfur.

This lesson is part of the Darfur Now Unit [2]

Learning Outcomes

The purpose of this lesson is to help students:

Identify factors that motivate people to act or to sustain their action.
Define the term "genocide".
Understand why events in Darfur are being called a genocide.
Recognize and process their own reactions (questions, emotions, thoughts, and ideas) to the genocide in Darfur.

Duration of Activity

At least one hour

Resources

Darfur Now DVD, Introduction (0:46 - 6:10)

The following materials are optional:

Six handouts. [3] You may copy and paste content from this page in order to make edits to it.
Map of Sudan and Darfur published by the U.S. Department of State [4]
Note: Another way to help students develop an awareness of the geography of the Darfur region is through the Google Earth [5] program, [6]which can be downloaded free of charge.

Activity

Warm up

Ask students to identify a time when they have cared about something to the extent that it motivated them to act, especially in a manner above and beyond what they typically might do. Examples might include a school assignment, an athletic or artistic event, a special experience in one's family, a friend in need, or a situation in the community, nation, or world.
In pairs, have students talk about this moment. Instruct students that their job is to help their partner identify one word that describes what inspired, motivated, and/or sustained this "above and beyond" action. Students might recognize that feelings such as pride, anger, love, or loyalty inspired their action. Or, they might identify a value that drove their commitment to act, such as justice or compassion.
Have students report their words to the whole class and record these as a list on a large piece of paper. Save this list because it will be used again during Lesson Four [7].
Briefly introduce Darfur Now, explaining that students will be watching a film about six individuals who were motivated to respond to extraordinary violence in Darfur.

Main activity

Before viewing the beginning of the film, activate students' existing knowledge of Darfur. Can they locate it on a map? Have they heard about it on the news? You could have students create a concept web of their prior knowledge of the situation in Darfur. You could also distribute the handout "Introduction to Darfur Now: The Basic Facts." Students may be able to answer some of the questions on the handout before viewing the beginning of the film. By the end of this lesson, students should be able to answer all of these questions.
Show the first 6 minutes of Darfur Now (0:46-6:10). Before viewing the film, caution students that this clip includes testimonies of the victims of violent crimes. You can invite students to record their reactions to the film in their journal or notebook as they watch.
After this segment, give students a few minutes of silent writing time to reflect on what they have viewed. No specific prompt is needed. Students should just record what is on their minds after learning about the crimes being committed in Darfur. They should feel free to record any feelings, questions, and thoughts that the content of the film has provoked.
Once students have had an opportunity for personal reflection, ask them to share one phrase, image, word, or question that stands out to them or is on their mind. In one possible approach to this exercise, after one student presents, he or she calls on the next student to present. This continues until all students have contributed one brief thought about the film.
Before proceeding to a deeper discussion about the film, you may want to check the students' basic understanding of key facts about Darfur. One method is to review the students' answers to the questions on Handout 2 "Introduction to Darfur Now: Comprehension Questions." The information on Handout Basic Facts could help you form questions to pose to the students as a comprehension check.

Follow-through
The students' initial reactions to the film will likely lead naturally to a discussion about specific events in Darfur or about what these events reveal about human behavior. In addition to the students' own questions and ideas, the following prompts may be used to guide a class discussion:

As a segue to the main focus of the film (the responses of six individuals to the violence in Darfur), ask students to respond to the following prompt in their journal: Describe your relationship to the events in Darfur. In what ways, if any, are events there related to your own life and your own choices? Students could discuss their responses in small groups. You might also have them respond to this same question after viewing the entire film.
Depending on students' prior knowledge about refugees and genocide, you might want to spend some time helping them view the introduction of Darfur Now through the lens of international law. Below are two options you can pursue:
Facilitate a class discussion about the implications of being a refugee or internally displaced person (IDP). Questions that can help students understand why driving people from their homes, though it may not kill them immediately or directly, is a violent act include the following: What resources do refugees have if they are forced to leave their village on foot, often without any warning? How can refugees feed themselves? How can they earn a living? How might it affect someone to have a family, a home, a job, and a community one day and to be completely without social or economic resources the next day? As the class discusses the implications of becoming a refugee, you might have them record a definition of the term refugee, as well as the term IDP.

Refugee: A person who leaves his or her country when threatened by unsafe living conditions, typically brought on by violence or by natural disaster. There are approximately 250,000 refugees from the Darfur region, most of them living in Chad.

Internally displaced person (IDP): A person who is forced to relocate within his or her own country when threatened by unsafe living conditions, typically brought on by violence or by natural disaster. Approximately 2.2 million IDPs have been created by the violence in Darfur. Most of these people are living in camps and surviving on humanitarian aid provided by over 75 nonprofit organizations, such as the United Nations World Food Programme. In the case of Darfur, the Sudanese government has make it difficult for food and other aid to reach IDPs by blocking the entry of humanitarian workers and by contributing to attacks on convoys carrying humanitarian aid.

Source: http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/SD_DAR.htm [8], statistics from 2007

Distribute the definition of genocide as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Handout 5). Have students review their film notes and/or Handout 1: 10 Basic Facts about Darfur in order to find evidence to answer this question: Why are many people and international organizations, including the US government, referring to events in Darfur as genocide? Students should be able to identify the reasons, such as:

People are being targeted because they belong to a specific ethnic group, namely the Fur, Massalit, or Zaghawa tribes.
The crimes are intentional, not accidental.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed.
At least 2.5 million people have been displaced, and this displacement has made it impossible for them to survive without assistance.
Rape and sexual assault of victims as a systematic weapon of ethnic cleansing is rampant (The following article provides more information why human rights organizations, such as Refugees International, classify rape and sexual assault as a crime associated with genocide: Nora Boustany."Janjaweed using rape as ‘integral' weapon in Darfur, aid group says."Washington Post Foreign Service [9]. July 3, 2007, A9. (accessed on June 5, 2008).

Possible homework assignments:

Assign Handout 4: Not on Our Watch Excerpt One
Students can read the timeline "Crisis in Darfur" (Handout 5). They can write three questions that could be used on a quiz. At the beginning of the next class, students can quiz each other to review their understanding of the information on the timeline.
Students can be assigned the task of defining the terms on Handout 6: Darfur Now Key Terms. At the beginning of the next class, students can review their definitions in small groups. A basic awareness of the terms on this handout will help students understand the film Darfur Now, which they view during Lesson Two [10].
It can be difficult to contemplate large numbers such as 200,000 or 2.5 million. To help students grasp how many people have been affected by the conflict in Darfur, ask them to do research that helps put these numbers in perspective. For example, you might ask students to locate cities that have a population of approximately 2.5 million, the same number of Darfurians who have been driven from their homes. (Note: Chicago and Paris (proper) are two examples of cities with approximately 2.5 million residents.) Students could also find out how many people their local football stadium holds and calculate how many times over it would have to be filled in order to represent 200,000 people, the conservative estimate of the number of people who have been killed by violence in Darfur since 2003.

DOWNLOAD THE PDF OF ALL LESSONS [1MB] [11]