I recently ask students in a graduate class I teach on ‘media, culture and international affairs’ to do an experiment: take a camera, go outside (really downstairs on the New School ‘campus’) and test people’s knowledge of Darfur and Eastern Congo. Quick context: We had been reading and discussing Mahmood Mamdani’s Saviors and Survivors as well as viewing the film, “Darfur Now.” (The contrast between the two texts could not be more obvious of course. Mamdani’s book is a takedown of Save Darfur, while the film is essentially a fundraising and recruiting tool for the American activist group and its supporters.)
Anyway, we figured we should target students about their knowledge about Darfur (and Congo) since organizations like Safe Darfur (and the Enough Project) claim to have had the most success with young people. It also made practical sense.
