Documentary should lift Americans' ignorance

We all know that genocide is taking place in Darfur, but we do not all know where Darfur is. Africa, yes, vaguely, we realize. Something to do with Sudan. But where or what is Sudan?

If it accomplishes nothing else, "Darfur Now" locates Sudan on the map (10th largest nation on Earth, just below Egypt) and tells us Darfur is its western region, almost the size of France. The region is landlocked in central Africa, bordered by Libya, Chad and the Central African Republic. More than that, the film provides faces for the people of the region.

One of them is Hejewa Adam, who wears an automatic rifle over her shoulder. She was a peaceful villager until government-backed Janjaweed (Arab fighters on horseback) killed her 3-month-old son. Now she is a fighter who sees no other option. Another person on the ground is Ahmed Mohammed Abakar, a farmer forced off his land, who has become a refugee leader. And we meet Pablo Recalde, in charge of distributing food from the world to Darfur, where much of it is stolen by the Janjaweed.

It would appear that the function of the Janjaweed is to destroy the villages of Darfur, remove the people from their (subsistence-level) agriculture and starve them. That is because they are not the same as other Sudanese.

It is instructive that Darfur and the Sudan were independent entities living in relative peace before they were arbitrarily cobbled together by the 19th-century British-dominated Egyptian government, one of many African "nations" created by European colonial powers with no regard to local history, languages or tribal identity.

Outside Darfur, a key player is Luis Moreno-Ocampo, a prosecutor for the International Criminal Court at The Hague, who seeks to prosecute the Sudan for genocidal crimes, but finds opposition because many important nations, China included, value their oil trade with the Sudan and care little about impoverished Darfur. Meanwhile, a quarter of a million have starved and perhaps 2 million or 3 million have lost their homes or lands.

"Darfur Now" is not a compelling documentary (too much exposition, not enough on-the-spot reality), but it is instructive and disturbing.

Review by Robert Ebert / Universal Press Syndicate