The Darfur crisis: blood, hunger and oil
New on www.michelcollon.info - Investig'Action
Mohamed Hassan
"Understanding the Muslim world" (2)
Interview : Grégoire Lalieu and Michel Collon
Is the first genocide of the 21st century happening now in Darfur?
This Sudanese province is the theater of a conflict on which the international
opinion is rallying. As for any struggle on the African ground, we receive the
same images of misery: men are tearing, children are crying and blood is
flowing. Africa is however the richest continent in the world. In this new
chapter of our series « Understanding the Muslim world », Mohamed
Hassan unveils the origins of the African paradox and remembers us that if
Sudan shelters different ethnics and religions, it has above all an abundance
of oil.
What are the origins of the Darfur crisis? The American actor
Georges Clooney is a member of the association “Save Darfur” and
denounces the massacre of Africans by Arabic militias. On the other hand, the
philosopher Bernard-Henry Levy also tries to mobilize the international opinion
but pretends it is a conflict between radical and moderate Islam. Is the Darfur
crisis ethnical or religious? People saying that the Darfur crisis
comes from an ethnic or religious conflict do not have a really good knowledge
of that area. In fact, this war is economical. The colonial powers of yesterday
and the imperialist powers of today are responsible of the African misfortunes.
That big area, going from Sudan to Senegal, had in the past the same cultural
background and extremely good resources. It could have been united and
developed if the colonialism in the 19th century didn’t have put fake
borders in this area. I say this borders are fake because they have been built
according to the power struggle between the great powers and not according the
reality on the ground or the wishes of the African people. In Sudan, the
British colonialists, who applied the “divide-and-rule” policy,
have thrown the basis of the conflicts that will tear the country.
Read more : Darfur:
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