And He will judge between the nations,
And will render decisions for many peoples;
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.
--Isaiah 2:4

We should seek God’s peace in Darfur. Man’s peace is laden with self-interest agendas, often hidden, and self-deception. God’s peace has its own value, is justice-filled, and comprises part of His ultimate plan.

Darfur is the northwestern portion of Sudan. Sudan is the country with the largest land area in Africa. Three years ago, black-skinned Muslims who inhabit Darfur rebelled against the Sudanese central government, complaining that the brown-skinned Muslims who run Sudan oppress them. The central government responded by encouraging Arab militias, called the Janjaweed, to attack the tribes from which the rebels came.

What passes for Arab in Sudan would not pass for white in America. Sudanese “Arabs” speak Arabic, but their complexion is what many African Americans call “brown-skinned” – not even “high yellow”. Sudan’s “Arabs” look like Muhammad Ali, not like Saddam Hussein. Their Arabic differs significantly from Saudi Arabic. So what we have in Sudan are violent struggles between black folks with differing shades and identity issues.

Janjaweed militia attacks on darker-skinned Africans resulted in raping of women, pillaging of property, and burning of villages. Ultimately millions of black-skinned Darfurians were displaced into refugee camps in the adjoining Chad.

Chad has its own history of civil war and its own problems with Sudan. Rebels this year attacked the Chadian capital city. The Chad government accuses Sudan of supporting the Chadian rebels. All are part of the cauldron of turmoil that churns in northeastern Africa, including Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, as well as Sudan. May God judge between this region’s nations and render decisions for its peoples. May all factions prioritize farming, herding, and food-production over violence.

The African Union (AU) is striving to bring about peace. It has peacekeeping troops on the ground and has brokered a peace deal between the Sudanese government and the largest Darfurian rebel group.

Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) has pressured the AU and Sudan to allow the UN to replace the AU as peacekeeper. Earlier this year, the AU, strapped for funds to support its peacekeeping force, agreed to eventually turn over peacekeeping responsibility to the UN. After striking the peace deal, however, both the AU and the Sudanese government have appeared more amenable to transferring peacekeeping efforts to the UN more soon than later.

It is best that African people implement African peace. Such a peace will likely be more deeply rooted and longer lasting than peace imposed from the outside. Moreover, given the self-interests of outsiders, peace imposed by outside forces could lead to increased neocolonialism or outright re-colonization of oil-rich Sudan, setting a precedent for re-colonization of other African countries. It is therefore good that the AU brokered the Darfur peace deal and has had the will to maintain a peacekeeping force despite economic hardships.

Peace on paper, however, has not translated into peace on the ground for the people of Darfur. At this writing, early June 2006, the Janjaweed continue to kill and rape Darfurians. We must guard against allowing politics, even our own, to block the enhancement of safety for ordinary people. If a UN force can truly enforce peace – and that is a big “if” given the UN’s shaky peacekeeping performance in other world trouble spots – then we should allow the UN to protect the people.

Some groups within the United States that sympathize with Dafur’s victims are calling for United States intervention. I consider this call misguided, if not surreptitious. Given the suffering that Bush regime intervention has caused in Iraq, it is naïve or foolish to think that American troops would make life better for people in Darfur. Moreover, throughout its history, America has oppressed black people through slavery, segregation, lynching, discrimination, and racial profiling. Currently, the U.S. is accused of assisting the Chad government against rebels, and of encouraging a particular faction within Somalia’s fratricidal violence. It is therefore illogical to expect the United States, especially under the Bush regime, to selflessly protect black people in Africa.
We as African people need to remove the plank from our own eye. We must take prime responsibility for peace in Africa. The AU has begun that process. African descendents throughout the Diaspora should support the process however we can, all the while seeking God’s guidance.