The Activist

by Nick McDonell

I've been trying to get caught up on magazines that have piled up on me, so I grabbed this today, and serendipitously found another article on Sudan and Darfur, which, when read back-to-back with the New Yorker article I wrote about below, gives a much more complete picture of the conflict.

This article is about Alex de Waal, a British professor at Harvard who is most likely the world expert on Sudan. The article is written by a former student of his, who accompanies him on a trip to Ethiopia and Sudan, including a visit into Darfur.

De Waal meets with people involved at all levels of the conflict, and this article is barely able to scratch the surface of the complexities of the situation in Sudan, made all the more complicated by the International Criminal Courts recent request for a warrant for the arrest of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the president of Sudan.

This article is an essential primer for anyone wanting to learn more about this issue.