Halima Bashir

Set in the Darfur region of Sudan, this memoir follows Halima Bashir from her relatively privileged childhood (although she was already bullied and looked down upon by certain Arab teachers and students even then), to er becoming a doctor, studying medicine and eventually fleeing from the war after she is targeted for healing black people injured in the conflict.

If you are interested in the pain and struggles that come to those who live in a war zone, particularly women and children, I can definitely recommend this book, although it is horrifying at times. Some parts (especially the chapters that deal with rape victims and dying families) were incredibly harrowing so prepare yourself before going in.

I really enjoyed the parts about Bashir's childhood. I loved getting to know about her community and enjoyed seeing what school was like for her. There was definitely an essence of isolation in both her very different worlds due to her two very different lives and sets of experiences. Despite dealing with some rather unkind people, I'm glad she also met some good ones through her education and that she managed to follow her dreams (although things definitely didn't end up going quite how she hoped due to the rising conflict).

I appreciate that she didn't shy away from some of the horrors she saw as a doctor, even if she doesn't always go into graphic derail (probably good for the reader!). I can only imagine how traumatising it all was. Most people don't understand the kinds of atrocities people in these situations face and books that discuss them are so important, especially in a world that is becoming increasingly hostile. Although awareness of war and genocide is spreading, I rarely see it focus on the experiences of African people - voices that desperately need to be heard.

I don't know if it was intentional or even if it's just something just read into, but I found the change of tone as the book went on rather interesting. Even at its darkest times, I felt like there was a kind of warmth when she was writing about Sudan that wasn't there when she wrote about her experiences in the UK. She does talk about the cultural differences and the contrast between greater individualism and a tight knit community, but I could also almost feel it. How alone she felt and longed for those she loved.

Although not an easy read by any stretch (not because of the writing but the contents) I would definitely recommend this book to those who wish to understand the true impact of conflict. I hope the author managed to find her family and friends again one day (or at the very least learns what happened to them) and that all the people of Sudan will finally know the peace they deserve.… (meer)

So sad .... the author is a medical doctor who received her degree in Sudan just as the conflicts were getting bad. She tells of the good times in her village before the genocide began and her personal story of caring for victims of the conflict. Her personal narrative of female circumcision was excruciatingly painful to read - I can't imagine the pain experienced by the girls. But that pales with the stories of her own ordeal at the hands of the janjaweed, the Arab fighters who terrorized the villages of Sudan. How do such people survive??? After reading this book, I immediately signed an online petition to Obama, asking that he live up to campaign promises to aid Darfur.… (meer)

If you are a pc sort of person, this book is going to piss you off no end.

No nation or religious group is allowed to be blamed for anything its members might do unless the national or religious designation is qualified with the words, "fundamentalist", "extremist" or similar, so that we all may know that the other nationals or co-religionists are not themselves terrorists and do not support such actions). This applies even when we know they do by their attendance at rallies, their votes for politicians who do support terrorism and their vast donations to 'the cause' whatever that might be. No, we want to be seen as fair, even if that will cause us to be mocked, that attitude exploited and will ultimately be to our own detriment.

An example of a pc person: someone who agrees that there must be no racial-profiling allowed in security screenings at airports. That the security companies do not search people with Muslim names and Middle-Eastern or African appearance more than anyone else despite the fact that people with, for instance, Swedish names and of Nordic appearance do not actually figure in the present statistics of those who do blow up planes (and take credit for it). If you agree with this policy, then this book will press all your buttons.

Everyone in the book is a Muslim. It's the Arab Government and its supporters versus the Black Africans who are the victims. There are other victims in Sudan and Chad, especially in Darfur, who are Christians or Animists who suffer equally but they do not figure in Tears in the Desert. It does prove however that this civil war, this policy of enslavement and removal from ancestral lands is an entirely racially-based aggression.

For those who think that pc-doublespeak does us any favours at all, a rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but calling shit, 'excreta', 'night soil', 'waste products' or even 'faeces' might take the offence away of the unacceptable word SHIT, but it doesn't stop it stinking or - uncontained - spreading disease. And Halima Bashir has no hesitation in saying it is the Arabs who are ordering the rape of children, the burning of babies, the destruction of villages of the Black Africans, purely because they are Africans and in possession of the land and livestock the Arabs want.

Financing this serious attempt at genocide are the Chinese. They are quite impartial ignorers of human rights at home and abroad, all they want to do is buy the oil and sell weapons and this gives the Arab government of Sudan the ability to ignore international and UN censure. The British Government do support the UN on this in theory, but the book is very scathing about their policy towards Black Sudanese asylum seekers (see Mende Nazer's Slave for more on that).

The book doesn't deserve five-stars for writing, it does rather go on in parts about the idyllic childhood existence of pastoral life, but this is common to almost all the books on this subject - the aforementioned book, Slave, or the model Alek Wek's equally amazing autobiography as well as Francis Bok's "Escape from Slavery". What is does deserve 5 stars for is content. Its not an intellectual or political book but one of an educated woman (the author is a doctor) who has sadly, lived through the most terrible circumstances that could befall anyone, genital mutilations, gang rape, torture, murder, loss of her entire family and right until the end, no safe place of asylum.

Its a book worth reading, at times its too gripping to put down, its not at all heavy, but could never be described as 'enjoyable'. A book to learn from.… (meer)

Halima grew up in a Darfur village with her mother, father, grandmother, 2 bothers and 1 sister. She shares the ups and horrific downs of her life beginning with her childhood. The customs of her people are explained and described - some of which were fascinating and others that were unbelievably atrocious. Eventually, Halima brings the harrowing event of genocide to the forefront, while sharing her heart and determination to live. Her story is remarkable and one that I will not soon forget.

Originally posted on: Thoughts of Joy… (meer)