Black Voices

Issue date: 2/28/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Divinity Barkley Students participate in the Darfur event

Media Credit: Divinity Barkley Member of NAACP at one of many SAve Darfur events

On Monday, January 29, 2007, USC's chapter of the NAACP held a solemn Darfur Day of Recognition in Hahn Plaza. With several dozen students in attendance and the presence of other activism groups such as USC's Political Student Assembly, Cal Pers, and Students Taking Action Now on Darfur (STAND) there to show there support, the "Save Darfur" event was held to raise awareness on USC's campus about the genocide currently taking place in Sudan. Another objective of the event was to continue encouraging USC's Board of Trustees to take responsibility for the university's involvement with companies who have been linked to financially backing those who continue the genocide in Darfur.



Adeola Olagunju, Junior Political Science and French Double major and one of the organizers of the event as NAACP's Secretary, believes that a series of these events will begin to put pressure on the school's administration into taking action. "NAACP and other organizations are trying to make this a sustained event, and we will be in people's faces until USC divests completely. They have divested from the bottom five companies but not the big four which are assisting those who are committing these crimes."



During the event, students were read in call-and-response form the facts surrounding the turmoil plaguing the people in the northeast corner of Africa. According to the provided information, Sudanese civilians are being persecuted by Arab militias known as the Janjaweed and the Sudan government in what the U.S. and United Nations have officially recognized as genocide. This has resulted in more than 400,000 deaths since 2003. UNICEF has further reported that 3 million people in the region require humanitarian aid, with 10,000 people still dying each month as a result of the escalating violence, substandard living conditions due to displacement, and lack of readily available resources.



There was also a reading of a poem written by one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, the reading of the NAACP and USC Political Student Assembly's Resolution regarding the genocide in Sudan, and a moment of silence where the attendees encircled around Tommy Trojan in memory of the victims.



Though lacking in bodies, attendees felt that the event was a great starting point into bringing awareness about the situation in Sudan. Kathy Schmidt, a junior Psychology and International Relations double major, came to the event as a supporting member of STAND and expressed, "I was impressed that other organizations are standing and taking action. It's small groups and organizations giving their voice in demonstrations like these that spark activism and challenge the conscience of an apathetic larger body." Senior Communication and Creative Writing double major Angela Flournoy felt that the event served even larger social implications in regards to students' social consciousness. "I was happy there was a diverse crowd, and it was good seeing how many black people were concerned about the different parts of the black Diaspora. It can only get bigger and better."



On Monday, February 26th, NAACP and other organizations plan on holding a candlelight vigil to serve as a symbolic representation of those killed in the genocide, as well as a letter writing campaign to President Sample and the Board of Trustees calling them to action to divest completely from the companies who play a financial part in this conflict. For more information on how to be come involved, email NAACP at naacp@usc.edu or ournaacp@yahoo.com, or check out the following websites:

www.savedarfur.org

www.lostboys.org

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