Mia Farrow Documents Darfur Traditions

Published March 01, 2009 @ 08:20PM PT

Actress and activist Mia Farrow recently returned from the Chad-Darfur border, where she spent a number of weeks documenting Darfuri traditions.

I have visited this camp many times—they know I care, they know that I have been fighting for them—for their protection, for justice. For their safe return home. They know I come here in solidarity, and in respect. So, as we talked, and I said if we do not preserve the old traditions, the songs and stories and the ways of their grandparents, they will be lost forever. Omer Al-Bashir and co will have destroyed everything. But we cannot allow this. Let us do this together, for their children, and their children’s children. For the children of Darfur who do not know their homeland and their heritage. We will operate the camera, but this is for them. The museum will be theirs. Whatever they feel is important, they can bring it to us and we will preserve it.

I'm fascinated to see what comes from the project, but in the meantime, check out some of the beautiful photographs Farrow took while there:

Lemon necklaces

Woman wearing hijabs - protective amulets

Masalit woman dancing

Women singer/dancers at Goz Amir

These colorful portraits of strong women tell such hopeful stories in these small photos. To learn more about the challenges and dangers faced by women in Darfur, watch Save Darfur's short video, "Violence Against Women and the Darfur Genocide" and check out Physicians for Human Rights' "Darfuri Women" site.

(The lemon necklaces remind me of the beautiful yellow colors in the Darfur Relief Beads bracelets, made from African sand and the profits of which go to a Darfur women's center.)

All photos from Mia Farrow, who graciously gives permission to all who visit her site to use her photos.

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Comments (1)

This is wonderful. Thank you for posting this. So often, people forget that it is not just the biological fact of human life that is attacked in these crises, but the cultural life of a community, the traditions that sustain biological life and give it meaning, and to support those traditions is vital to a people's survival (and can often provide useful tools for survival, if aid workers and activists are senstive enough to harness indigenous ideas and power)

Posted by Charles London on 03/26/2009 @ 08:21AM PT
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Martha is the campaign manager at the Save Darfur Coalition. She has worked with a number of organizations and institutions advocating against genocide, including Team Darfur, STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition and Voices for Sudan. The views expressed here are her own.