Shadows

Shadows

In the shadows of Jebel Marra,
in the province of Darfur,
from Nyala to El Geneina
there’s barely a building left standing.
The schools and the mosques of the tribal Fur,
the homes of the Masalit farmers,
are smashed and looted beyond repair
in violence past all comprehending.
Their women raped, their men folk dead,
from villages in the thousands they’ve fled
across the boarder to camps in Chad
where their suffering knows no ending.
The vast destruction is systematic
carried out with ruthless military logic.
With people left hungry or terminally sick
it smacks of ethnic cleansing.
No one remains to sow the seed
and fast behind the Janjaweed
the Arab shepherds bring camels to feed
among the orchards and fields.
Just coincidence? or was it planned
to give these nomads the upper hand
in the African farmer’s ancestral land.
The question, no answer yields.
Khartoum and the Arab Alliance protest
that they do not support the current unrest.
It’s not what the evidence would suggest.
El Bashir and his men are lying.
In the shadows of Jebel Marra,
in the province of Darfur,
from Nyala to El Geneina
a land and its people are dying.


Sandy Wetton                                                            Cape Town, August 2004