Lynsey Addario

Soldiers with the Sudanese Liberation Army sit by their track while stuck in the mud in Darfur, Sudan. This and other images from DARFUR/DARFUR will be projected on the wall of the Glenbow Museum beginning March 14

The UN numbers are staggering: more than 200,000 people have been killed, and more than two million more have been displaced in the Darfur region of Sudan over the last five years. Tunde Dawodu, artistic director of the Afrikadey festival, calls it a “genocide in the making,” and he hopes a travelling photo exhibition about Darfur arriving at the Glenbow Museum March 14 will make Calgarians more aware of the crisis.

“Somehow, we don’t understand how we are implicated in some of these things that are happening all over the world,” says Dawodu, whose festival is partnering with the Glenbow to bring the DARFUR/DARFUR exhibit to Calgary. “There’s an African proverb that says: ‘The world is like a mirror. The more you look at it, the more it reflects your image.’” The DARFUR/DARFUR exhibit, says Dawodu, reveals this truth. “It will reflect your image as a human being. It will make you say that, ‘no, this is not right,’ and therefore you can do something about it.”

The DARFUR/DARFUR exhibition consists of 150 photographs that will be projected on three 2.4-by-four-metre screens on the north wall of the Glenbow every evening until Good Friday, March 21. “That is very much part of the idea that the originating curator, Leslie Thomas, has in mind,” says Glenbow senior curator Lorain Lounsberry, referring to the Chicago architect who started the exhibit in New York in 2006. “That it be public. That it be oversized. That it be very visible because this is something we should become aware of and not hide from…. It is meant to be a call to action.” The photo exhibit is also accompanied by an exhibit of drawings by Darfuri children who lived through attacks. “It’s quite moving,” says Lounsberry.

The Darfur conflict began in 2003, when conflict broke out between rebel groups and Arab militias allied with the Sudanese government in Khartoum. The militias, known as the janjaweed, have left a trail of murder and rape in their wake. While attacks have reportedly been less vicious in the past few years, earlier this month the New York Times reported that the conflict “is entering a new and deadly phase” in which the janjaweed, accompanied by government bombers and the Sudanese army, are using a scorched-earth strategy similar to the one they used at the start of the conflict.

“The suffering is still going on, because the militia and the government is still intimidating the people,” says Mustafa Mousa, 37, a Darfuri immigrant who’s lived in Calgary for almost three years. Mousa’s parents and other relatives are still in Darfur, and many of them are living in refugee camps. “We hope that the situation will improve,” says Mousa, who will be speaking about his experience at the exhibit launch March 14.

In January, the UN launched a hybrid UN-African Union mission in Darfur. The UN authorized 26,000 troops for deployment, but as of the end of January, fewer than 10,000 troops were reportedly on the ground because of obstacles from the Sudanese government, as well as an equipment shortage. Canada has declined to send troops for the mission, citing its priorities in Afghanistan, but Dawodu says there are other ways Canada could help. “They need helicopters,” he says. “They need equipment. Canada can help that way…. We always say ‘never again,’ but then it’s always ‘yet again.’”

The DARFUR/DARFUR exhibit is particularly relevant to Calgary, as the city has one of the largest Sudanese populations in Canada. About 20,000 Sudanese immigrants live in southern Alberta. “When they come, we tend to want them to just integrate into our community without understanding why they came here, or the effect of what they have experienced,” says Dawodu, who is from Nigeria. “So in that sense, this exhibition is to actually let people know that some of the immigrants… are refugees in a way.”

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DARFUR IN CALGARY

The DARFUR/DARFUR photo exhibit at the Glenbow Museum has spawned other Darfur-themed events around town during March. Here are a few. (For a full listing, visit www.afrikadey.com.) All of the events except the Romeo Dallaire lecture are free.

Saturday, March 15: Walk For Darfur

STAND (Students Taking Action Now for Darfur) is leading a walk to show solidarity with displaced Darfuris fleeing to refugee camps. The walk starts at Shaw Millennium Park at 5 p.m. and will move east on Eighth Avenue to the Glenbow exhibit.

Sunday, March 16: Film series

From 1 p.m. To 4 p.m., the Glenbow will screen several documentaries about Darfur including The Long Journey Home of James Nguen by Calgary filmmaker Rick Castiglione and CTV Calgary photojournalist Kevin Green, as well as Paul Freedman’s Sand and Sorrow, which is narrated by George Clooney.

Sunday, March 16: Romeo Dallaire

At 5 p.m., Canadian Senator Romeo Dallaire will speak at the Jack Singer Concert Hall in the Epcor Centre as part of an Engineers Without Borders conference. Dallaire led the failed UN mission in Rwanda in 1994, and has urged the world not to forget Darfur. Dallaire will visit the Glenbow exhibit after his lecture.

Thursday, March 20: Film screening

At 7 p.m., the Calgary Public Library will screen The Devil Came by Horseback, a documentary about Darfur, in the John Dutton Theatre. Afterwards, there will be a discussion with members of Calgary’s Darfuri community.

Tuesday, March 25: Genocide forum

A panel of local and national speakers will host a forum on genocide at 7 p.m. in the Glenbow theatre. Panelists include CBC journalist Carol Off, Montreal author Gil Courtemanche, Sheldon Chumir Foundation president Janet Keeping and U of C Africa expert Wisdom Tettey.