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| Qty | Store | Section |
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| 1 | Beaverton | World History- Africa |
| 5 | Burnside | Africa- Sudan |
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The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur
by Daoud Hari
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About This Book
ISBN13: 9781400067442 |
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
"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 destroyed his 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.
Review:
"'Unique,' a word avoided by most journalists, is just the first to describe this heart-stopping memoir, written by a native Darfuri translator who, after escaping the massacre of his village by the genocidal Janjaweed, returned to work with reporters and UN investigators in the riskiest of situations. Taking readers far from their comfort zones, Hari charts the horrific landscape of genocide in the stories of refugee camp survivors: 'It is interesting how many ways there are for people to be hurt and killed, and for villages to be terrorized and burned... I would say that these ways to die and suffer are unspeakable, and yet they were spoken: we interviewed 1,134 human beings over the next weeks.' Danger is rampant, especially at border crossings, and the effect on outsiders is profound: 'Some of the BBC people had to return to Chad, where they were in a medical clinic for three days to recover from what they saw, and smelled, and learned.' Homey facts about the loyalty of camels, the pecking order in villages and vast family networks bring respite from more dire tales, including Hari's long, multi-site imprisonment with a U.S. journalist and their Chadian driver. The captives' endurance through uncertainty and torture is unbelievable, and their eventual rescue reads like James Bond by way of boldface politicos like recent presidential contender Bill Richardson. Throughout, Hari demonstrates almost incomprehensible decency; those with the courage to join Hari's odyssey may find this a life-changing read. A helpful appendix provides a primer on the Darfur situation." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Book News Annotation:
Hari is a Zaghawa tribesman who grew up in a village in the Darfur
region of Sudan. When the most recent Darfur conflict erupted in
2003, Hari escaped to refugee camps in Chad, where he became a
translator for major news organizations and aid groups, including the
The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, NBC, BBC, and the United
Nations. Now a resident of Boston, he is one of only four Darfuris
who has reportedly been granted refugee status in the U.S. in the
past four years. His memoir offers general readers an inside look at
the conflict in Darfur and will further increase global awareness
about the ongoing atrocities in the Sudan. Included in the appendices
are a primer on the history of the Darfur region and current
situation, and the text of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. No subject index.
Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Review:
"A book of unusually humane power and astounding moral clarity: evenhanded but pointing a reproachful finger at all the right targets." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis:
This tribesman's memoir of Darfur tells the remarkable story of a man who came face-to-face with genocide, often risking his own life to fight injustice and save his people.
About the Author
Daoud Hari was born in the Darfur region of Sudan. After escaping an attack on his village, he entered the refugee camps in Chad and began serving as a translator for major news organizations including The New York Times, NBC, and the BBC, as well as the United Nations and other aid groups. He now lives in the United States and was part of SaveDarfur.org's Voices from Darfur tour.
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
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susanj627, June 26, 2008 (view all comments by susanj627)
I was profoundly moved by the life that Daoud has b een forced to live as a result of the war in his own country. I am a teacher and have spoken to children whose parents escaped from Sudan, but their own children did not know the background of their country. I think the world needs to understand the suffering that is taking place in Africa (and especially in Sudan), and that peace should be restored. I do not understand war at all...and even worse so when it seems based on both greed and religious beliefs.
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desertflower1, February 26, 2008 (view all comments by desertflower1)
The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari, as told to Dennis Burke and Megan M. McKenna, 2008, Random House.
If The Translator simply reported firsthand on the situation in Sudan, it would already be an excellent, highly recommended book, but Daoud Hari’s uniquely penetrating, concise eyewitness account puts this book in an even higher category: this is a necessary book. If you read no other book this year, at least read this one; if you read 100 other books, read this one first.
The descriptions of horror can make you weep or wretch, yet the book is infused with humanity, dignity, and even humor--a testimony to the worst and best humanity 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 which engulfed everyone and everything he knew. Armed with his 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 outrage, we develop a deep connection to the author and feel motivated to do something to help, starting by recommending this book to everyone.
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April Dauenhauer, February 23, 2008 (view all comments by April Dauenhauer)
Daoud, a man born into the Zaghawa tribe of Darfur, has a story to tell. It is such an important story that he has walked with death as his companion, over and over again, to be able to tell it.
"I am dead, I am dead, this is how I died, it is not so bad, I was thinking, afraid to look down at my body because too many bullets were flying around for me still to be okay." (Page 56)
I have no story to tell here, only to convey to you if I can, why reading Daoud's story may be the most important thing you can do today, or this year. You may ask yourself, as I did, how could anyone possibly live with imminent death, and scenes of death around them. Hari gives a hint of it:
"The gun muzzle was hot against my temple. Had he fired it recently, or was it just hot from the sun? I decided that if these were about to be my last thoughts, I should try some better ones instead. So I though about my family and how I loved them..." (Page 8)
Daoud has an exceptional gift for showing the reader his world as though they were walking in his shoes. His simple words struck so deeply into my heart, that I could only travel with him a few pages at a time. He committed himself to fight for the lives of his people with words at a time when his peers were trading their possessions for guns and joining a militia.
Daoud explains his motivation to keep on working to show the world what is happening in Darfur in the introduction to his book:
"If the world allows the people of Darfur to be removed forever from their land and their way of life, then genocide will happen elsewhere because it will be seen as something that works. It must not be allowed to work." (Page x)
Let Daoud explain in his own words why the atrocities in Darfur matter to you. He cannot fulfill his mission without you, his reader. Once I read The Translator, A Tribesman's Memoir, I saw that it is not happening "to them" "over there". It is happening here, to us.
We are all Zaghawa now.
View all 3 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9781400067442
- Subtitle:
- A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur
- Author:
- McKenna, Megan M.:
- As Told to
- Burke, Dennis Michael:
- As Told to
- Publisher:
- Random House
- Subject:
- History
- Subject:
- Translators
- Subject:
- Personal Memoirs
- Publication Date:
- March 2008
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 204
- Dimensions:
- 8.28x5.82x.95 in. .90 lbs.
