The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur

Description

I am the translator who has taken journalists into dangerous Darfur. It is my intention now to take you there in this book, when you’ve got 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 on this planet–an on-the-ground account of some of the biggest stories of our time. The use of his high school knowledge of languages as his weapon–at the same time as 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 once done. In 2003, this traditional life was once 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 once 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 and products as a translator and guide. In doing so, he risked his life time and again, for the government of Sudan had outlawed journalists in the region, and death was once the punishment for many who aided the “foreign spies.” And then, inevitably, his luck ran out and he was once captured. . . .

The Translator tells the remarkable story of a man who came face-to-face with genocide– over and over again risking his own life to fight injustice and save his people.

From the Hardcover edition.
I am the translator who has taken journalists into dangerous Darfur. It is my intention now to take you there in this book, when you’ve got 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 on this planet–an on-the-ground account of some of the biggest stories of our time. The use of his high school knowledge of languages as his weapon–at the same time as 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 once done. In 2003, this traditional life was once 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 once 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 and products as a translator and guide. In doing so, he risked his life time and again, for the government of Sudan had outlawed journalists in the region, and death was once the punishment for many who aided the “foreign spies.” And then, inevitably, his luck ran out and he was once captured. . . .

The Translator tells the remarkable story of a man who came face-to-face with genocide– over and over again risking his own life to fight injustice and save his people.

From the Hardcover edition.