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Dancing for Darfur in Boone |
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Thursday, 30 November 2006 |
by LILLIAN HOGAN
News Editor
Boone is doing its part to try and stop the 21st century’s first named genocide in Darfur, a region in Sudan.
Appalachian State University hosts “Dancing for Darfur,” a benefit concert Dec. 2 to raise money to aid war-torn Sudan.
The event is at Legends with tickets costing $5 in advance and $7 at the door. Doors open at 9 p.m.
Toubab Krewe, a band fusing West African music with rock ‘n’ roll, will headline.
The band’s members are Asheville natives and developed their
African-infused jam music sound after spending time studying music in
West Africa.
African Student Association representative and sophomore political
science major Evan C. Davies developed the idea for a Darfur benefit
concert along with Appalachian Popular Programming Society and
Appalachian Honors Association.
Appalachian students are coming together to raise money for Darfurians
because the Sudanese government, using Arab Janjaweed militias, air
force bombings and organized starvation tactics, is systematically
killing the black Sudanese of Darfur.
Dr. James F. Barnes, interim chairperson for the political science and
criminal justice department, lived and taught in Africa in the 1980s.
He also visited Khartoum, Sudan.
He described the Arab Janjaweed as death squads commissioned by the Sudan government.
“The central government in Sudan is responsible for the displacement
and death of tens of thousands of people,” he said. Sudan is home to
the “longest ongoing civil war of modern times.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports at least
400,000 people have died as a result of the Sudanese government’s
actions.
More than 2.5 million Darfurians are displaced within Sudan and neighboring Chad, according to The Boston Globe.
The situation in Darfur is complex and involves race, religious, regional and governmental tensions, Barnes said.
The conflict has been named the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, according to the U.S. State Department.
Of the donations collected from Saturday’s concert, 100 percent will go
to Care International, a humanitarian group that uses 94 percent of its
collections directly for aid programs, Davies said.
APPS president Courtney E. Cooper, a senior graphic arts and imaging
technology major, said Care International has been a leading
organization in helping needy areas for over 20 years.
Sudan is Africa’s largest country. An official census has not been
performed in many years; however, experts estimate the population to be
around 38 million, according to the International Crisis Group.
“I consider it our duty to help others who are suffering, including
those living in foreign countries,” Katrina M. Benton, vice president
of AHA and sophomore English major, said.
She encourages students who cannot attend the concert to stop by
Plemmons Student Union contact tables Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m.
to 2 p.m. to donate money to the Darfur crisis.
Cooper said additional donations will be accepted at the concert.
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