Crayons and Paper:

Children’s Art in the Darfur Crisis

By

Bruce David Janu

Advisor: Professor John MacAloon

A Thesis

Submitted to the University of Chicago in partial fulfillment

of the requirement for the degree of

Master of Liberal Arts

Graham School of General Studies

November 2008
 ABSTRACT

All across the world, children are potent symbols of war. Children’s drawings, in

particular, are used by aid organizations to not only highlight the situation in war zones,

but also to raise awareness by creating an emotional urgency aimed at increasing political

pressure to end such conflicts. The drawings are powerful in that they are directly related

to the observer’s cultural attitudes towards children and the nature of childhood.

Nonetheless, the drawings also reflect other cultural traits and can be useful in examining

not only the cultural realities of the children, but also demonstrate the complex

relationship between cultural symbols both in and out of the young artists’ world. This

paper examines hundreds of children’s drawings brought back from a camp for internally

displaced people in Darfur in 2004. The drawings demonstrate that the children’s

artwork can be powerful tools in examining the realities of the crisis in Darfur, while at

the same time illustrating the limits of interpretation without thorough ethnographic

fieldwork.


 2

 1.

Hamza* was a child soldier, originally born in Rwanda. He came to the United

States in early 2003 around the age of 8 and eventually settled with a cousin in New

Orleans.1 Shortly after hurricane Katrina, Hamza and his cousin moved to Chicago and

Hamza began a correspondence with a teacher at John Hersey High School in suburban

Arlington Heights. Despite his background, Hamza was an articulate and mature little

boy. He could speak several languages and often expressed distain for American culture.

“I don’t like American media,” he wrote. “It all involves skinny women either drunk,

smoking, high or the[y] have mental issues.” On the other hand, he expressed an affinity

for movies such as Blood Diamond and Juice. He spoke about his experience as a soldier

and expressed concern for what war was doing to him and his older brother, who was still

in Africa, his fate unknown. “Once me and my brother both got shot,” he wrote. “His

blood was black and mine was deep red. That’s how you know someone’s corrupt and

evil. Their blood is black and their eyes get darker. I don’t like to see that happen to

people.”

In the rebel camp, Hamza was forced to have sex with a girl named Mary.

Afterwards, Hamza said that his commander announced to the entire camp, “Our young

Rwandan has finally become a tru[e] man.” Hamza looked forward to the day when he

would marry her. He wrote fondly of Mary, describing her as “my first friend” and “the

only person I cared about.” But when he found another boy attacking Mary, Hamza

responded with rage. He punched and pushed. A gun was pulled and Hamza was shot

twice in the upper right arm. “I hated him,” he wrote. “I wanted him dead.” Taking a

























































*
Names
of
the
people
in
this
section
have
been
changed
to
protect
the
identity
of
these
individuals.



 3

rock, Hamza was able to knock the boy to the ground. “I kept hitting and hitting,” he

said and soon the boy was rendered immobile. Hamza then took a stick and pushed it

into the boy’s right eye. The struggle then ended and the boy was dead. Hamza looked

down at his wound and remarked that his arm was “bleeding black.” “You bleed the

hate that your brother duz,” Mary said and Hamza remarked that she started to look at

him as if he were “a ghost.” “I was corrupt,” Hamza wrote in his journal. “And the only

person I cared about wouldn’t even glance in my direction.”

After being discovered by an aid organization, Hamza went first to Canada and

then was united with his cousin, Peter, in New Orleans in 2003. Just prior to his 10th

birthday in October 2007, Hamza traveled back to New Orleans to visit relatives and

friends. He would never return.

No one knows for sure what happened to Hamza. According to his cousin, they

were attacked on the street and Hamza was shot several times and died in a local hospital.

However, there is no record of this. There is no death certificate, there is no body. His

cousin has since fled the country and is currently in Africa.

All that remains of Hamza is a very short stack of letters and a few pages of a

journal. In that stack of papers, however, is a drawing. Completed a couple of weeks

before his death and given to the teacher in Arlington Heights, the drawing is entitled,

“This is the last of what I saw of my village” (Figure 1). It is a crude drawing, typical of

a young child and could have been made by a child anywhere. It is mainly in black

marker, punctuated by bright, almost jarring scribbles of red. There are two burning

houses, red flames sputtering from the tops. They have flat roofs, a single door and one

window, typical of those found in Rwandan villages, but not unlike western style houses


 4

with door knobs and window panes. Three men are shooting guns. The figures are in

simple stick formation. One victim is lying on the ground, red color pouring from his

head and body. His eyes are simply two x’s, not unlike cartoon depictions of death. The

female figures have long hair and one, part of a family of four near the bottom of the

drawing, is clearly pregnant, a large black circle representing her swollen belly. Her

entire body is covered in red. Only one figure is not bleeding, a young child in the

foursome at the bottom of the page.

The soldiers are straight-mouthed with triangles over their eyes. Interesting, the

soldiers also have hints of red. Each hand is a red dot, representing not wounds per se,

but perhaps symbolic marks of guilt.

To a western observer, the drawing is shocking in its portrayal of violence. The

emotional quality of the drawing is enhanced by the disconnect that most people in the

West have to real situations of such violence and war. And the fact that it was made by a

child who experienced such scenes only adds to the intensity, as cultural attitudes toward

the nature of childhood compounds the observer’s interpretation of the images and

increases the emotional response.

It is impossible to truly know the meaning of the drawing. Likewise, it is

impossible to determine its accuracy. Did Hamza draw an accurate depiction of what he

experienced in his village, or was the drawing more influenced by a perception of what

he thought others wanted or expected to see?

Drawings like the one Hamza left are used often to highlight the plight of children

in war zones. Children’s drawings offer a glimpse into war from the perspective of a

child and help ignite an emotional response. That emotional response is directly


 5

 

Figure
1


Drawing
by
Hamza,
a
Rwandan
child
soldier,
c.
September
2007







 6

related to the cultural attitudes toward childhood and violence inherent within the 


observer. Consequently, in the West, drawings like this can be effective tools for aid

organizations trying to raise awareness about a particular conflict or situation. Children’s

drawings have been used over the last hundred years or so to do just that. But questions

remain: to what extent do these drawings reflect the realities of the situation? How much

of the subject matter is influenced by a perception of the child as to what the purpose of

the drawing is? 


The fact is these drawings are not created in a vacuum, but are the culmination of

a variety of cultural forces working both on the artist and reflected in the perceptions of

the viewers. To some extent, the children may draw what they think others want to see.

In spite of that initial bias, the drawings do offer a depiction of the world to which the

child once belonged and present scenes that only can be expressed by those who

experienced it.

Clifford Geertz wrote that “man is an animal suspended in webs of significance

that he himself has spun.”2 The meanings found in the drawings are based not just on the

culture of those who created it, but are “spun” from a multitude of factors. When

interpreting children’s drawings from war zones, one must take into account not only the

conflict to which the child was a witness or participant, but also the realities of their

current situations and the influences of those around them. The drawings reflect all of

those influences and, although they can effectively highlight the plights of children in

war, they may also be valuable tools for assessing culture and the transmission of cultural

artifacts between different cultural groups.


 7

 In examining drawings made by children in the current crisis in Darfur, for

example, one can find elements of culture expressed exclusively from the empirical

world of the child, but also cultural attitudes and artifacts reflected from the aid workers

and doctors with whom they came into contact in the refugee camps. Therefore, the

drawings not only offer a look at war from a child’s perspective, but also demonstrate a

complex relationship between cultural symbols in and out of the artist’s world. The

drawings serve not just as a looking glass into the world of the child, but also reflect the

values and perceptions of those non-participants looking upon the images.

2.

In early 2004, Dr. Jerry Ehrlich, a pediatrician from Cherry Hill, New Jersey,

received a call from Doctors Without Borders inquiring about the possibility of

completing a mission in Darfur, as they were in desperate need of pediatricians. Dr.

Ehrlich had worked with the organization before, completing three missions during the

1990s to Sri Lanka. In addition, Dr. Ehrlich had completed humanitarian missions in the

Republic of Georgia and Haiti with other organizations. At 72 years of age, Dr. Ehrlich

had no plans on retiring anytime in the near future and didn’t think twice about answering

the call in the affirmative. “All I had to do,” he said, “was to show up at Newark airport

and get on a plane.”3

After two days of briefings in Khartoum, Dr. Ehrlich was sent to Kalma Camp in

Southern Darfur, a refuge for Sudanese people displaced from the civil war that had been

raging for over a year. Kalma Camp is located to the southeast of the city of Nyala, the

capital of South Darfur. When he arrived, the camp had approximately 45,000 displaced


 8

people, mostly from the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit peoples. Two months later when he

left, the camp was estimated to have over 75,000. A year later, the population

skyrocketed to over 160,000. Today, Kalma camp is home to over 29 different ethnic

and sub-ethnic groups and the population fluctuates around the 100,000 mark. The camp

is often the focus of attacks by Sudanese government forces. One such attack in August,

2008, killed 33 people and wounded over 108. The majority of the victims were women

and children.4

For Dr. Ehrlich, Darfur was like nothing he had ever seen. “Huge amounts of

patients just all on mats and so many of them so sick,” he remembers. “All had

complications of malnutrition; a fair number came in with pneumonia.” On any given

day, there were approximately 200 patients in his medical center, which was merely a

tent with a dirt floor, covered in colorful blankets. There, without the benefit of proper

equipment or facilities, Dr. Ehrlich treated his patients. Although he was the only

pediatrician in the entire camp, one internist from Australia and four western nurses aided

him. In addition, he helped train several Sudanese doctors.

Before making his journey to that remote area of Darfur, Dr. Ehrlich stocked up

on a supply of two items he knew he would need: crayons and paper. After viewing

many years prior an exhibit of children’s drawing created in the Terezin death camp near

Prague during World War II, Dr. Ehrlich decided to start documenting the lives of his

patients through art. He first did this in 1991 in Sri Lanka. Those drawings ended up

being part of a traveling exhibit entitled, “Rice and Honey.” He did the same thing in the

Caucuses and did not think twice about continuing his tradition in Darfur. “Being a


 9

pediatrician,” he says, “I just wanted to document what their life was through the [eyes]

of a child.”

When a patient was able to leave the medical center, Dr. Ehrlich handed him or

her several sheets of paper and a box of crayons. Through his translator, the children

would be told to draw something and bring one or two back because he wanted to take

some home as souvenirs. This was done very discreetly, as Sudanese government

officials were very suspicious of the Western doctors and aid workers in Darfur. Dr.

Jerry wasn’t even sure how many would come back. But, slowly, over the next two

months, the drawings began trickling back to the center. He would immediately hide

them in his daypack when they were returned and then, at night back in his dormitory

room in Nyala, he would quickly place the drawings between the pages of a Sunday

edition of The New York Times. “That’s how I got them out of the country,” he says

with a grin.

In total, Dr. Ehrlich brought back 173 drawings. As the drawings were created

outside of the center and beyond the observation of Dr. Ehrlich and the other western

nurses, the circumstances surrounding their creations are not know. In fact, Dr. Ehrlich

did not study the drawings until he was back in the United States. But the purpose for

the drawings was clear to Dr. Ehrlich from the onset. He expected to use the drawings to

help document the atrocities in Sudan and to raise awareness among Americans once he

returned home. Based on his experiences in Sri Lanka, he knew that some of the

drawings were going to be scenes of violence and war. And, as an advocate for children,

he knew that those drawing could be used effectively to stir emotions. “You can learn

what these children are growing up with,” he says. “You can learn what these children


 10

have been exposed to… And this is what’s going to impact on their life. And what’s it

going to create? I don’t know. Is it going to create hatred? Animosity? I hope not. I

hope not.”

Like the “Rice and Honey” drawings from Sri Lanka, the Darfur drawings are

currently touring the United States and Canada. In fact, Dr. Ehrlich is not even sure

where the originals are located. He regularly speaks about his experience in Darfur,

often several times a week during the school year to schools up and down the east coast.

He brings a slide projector and talks about the children and the drawings, while

displaying some of the more violent images. Due to the media attention that the drawings

have received, including two documentary films and numerous press reports, the

Sudanese government contacted Dr. Ehrlich in 2007 and asked him to stop displaying the

images.

He has politely refused.

3.

The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation

Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), rose up against the

government in Khartoum, protesting several decades of neglect and demanding greater

representation in Sudan’s government. The conflict was preceded by decades of civil war

between government forces and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the

South, which ended in a cease-fire in 2002. Rebels in Darfur hoped to gain a similar deal

that was worked out with the South Sudanese. However, the government in Khartoum


 11

responded with excessive force in Darfur, attacking villages and arming and supporting

an Arab-aligned militia, known as the “Janjaweed.”

The situation in Darfur is complex and is based on hundreds of years of

relationships between the various ethnic groups in the area. Most of the people in Darfur

are Muslim, however the degree to which they have adopted Arab culture varies.

Although the western media tends to cloak the conflict along skin color, it is not that

clear. Those tribes who have been targeted by the Sudanese government are tribes that

cling to elements of their traditional culture, such as language and land use.

Environmental issues, such as desertification, have increased tensions as the various

groups struggle for control over the land.

The Sudanese government and its allied militias overwhelmingly targeted three

ethnic groups: the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit. Although other groups have now been

drawn into the conflict, in the summer of 2004 these groups made up the majority of

those in Kalma Camp.

Many of the drawings brought back by Dr. Ehrlich reveal similar scenes: burning

villages, soldiers on horseback and on camels attacking villagers, helicopters and planes

dropping bombs. In fact, over 1/3 of the drawings depict scenes of violence and war.

And it is these images that are most referenced by Dr. Ehrlich and others when discussing

the situation in Darfur.

But that is not the whole story, as the children in that refugee camp that summer

produced images representing other aspects of their lives and culture. What is striking

when looking at the images as a whole is the fact that so many of them are not at all

related to war, but represent slices of pastoral life, animals in the region, people gathering


 12

wood, and many abstract designs. The drawings collected by Dr. Ehrlich can generally

be categorized as follows:

Category Number of Drawings Percentage

WAR 60 35%

PEOPLE/NON-WAR 42 24%

ABSTRACT 28 16%

OBJECTS/MISC 26 15%

NATURE/LANDSCAPE 17 10%

One must remember when looking at those figures is that the war was a little over

a year old at the time of Dr. Ehrlich’s arrival in Kalma camp. In the months and years

following, the war will escalate and casualty figures will increase. Currently, the war is

nearing its sixth year and, according to Human Rights Watch, most of the 2 million

people who were displaced by war in 2004 have been repeatedly displaced again when

trying to return to their homes.5 To put it another way, a child from one of the targeted

ethnic groups who is six years old now in Darfur would not have a memory of peace and

in all likelihood could not draw much of anything beyond war, violence or camps for the

displaced.

The degree of violence contained in those 60 drawings of war is striking. There

are over 103 individual images of soldiers, many of whom are shooting guns at people

and homes. There are 23 pictures with burning villages; 39 planes, 22 helicopters and 30

military vehicles are depicted in the 60 drawings. There are six pictures with a random


 13

gun image, such in figure 2. Here is a happy boy playing soccer and a gun lies on the

ground at his feet, demonstrating the ubiquitous nature of guns and violence in Darfur.

The gun images are often very accurate depictions of the most common assault weapon

available in Darfur: the Russian AK-47.

Figure
2
 Figure
3


There are 15 representations of dead or dying bodies contained in the images.

Figure 3 shows a man with his arms up being shot by a soldier, a steady stream of red

pooling on the ground by his feet. Figure 4 shows a man being hit in the head by a large

projectile shot from the back of a moving military vehicle. Some of the soldier figures

are prominent (Figure 5) and many more soldiers blend in with the chaos (Figure 6).

Death often comes from the sky, as planes and helicopters drop their munitions on

the villages below (Figure 7). In fact, in almost every drawing with a burning home,


 14

there is an image of either a plane or a helicopter. Like what had occurred for decades

in the South, villages are often attacked first from the air, by either attack helicopters

such as the Russian-made MI-24 or by large cargo planes. The Russian-made Antonov is

the most commonly used plane, as crude explosives made from 55-gallon drums can

easily be rolled out the back cargo bay.

Figure
5


Figure
4


Figure
6



 15



Figure
7

These crude drawing have captured the senseless slaughter that plagues Darfur.

In almost every drawing of violence, the soldiers are attacking without any resistance.

The people are defenseless. Only one drawing depicts an actual battle with two clear

sides exchanging fire (Figure 8). In this drawing, the government soldiers have hats and

very large weapons, one with a magazine belt that is fed into the gun. The defenders in

Figure
8



 16

this case are on horseback, but are diminutive in the face of the very largely drawn

attackers. A lone civilian, probably a woman, cries out behind the front lines.

Much has been made in the western media about the militia known as the

“Janjaweed” and it’s role in the Darfur conflict. The Janjaweed was pieced together in

the 1980s from a loose patchwork of young men from smaller tribes, common criminals

and demobilized soldiers. They were involved in sporadic inter-tribal conflicts, at times

tolerated by the Sudanese government and at other times suppressed.6 Not at all a

popular expression of those Arab peoples in Darfur, the Janjaweed did gain a “modicum”

of support from the Sudanese administration in later years due to their insistence on

spreading what they called “Arabism.”7 As a result, these “devils on horseback” became

the means by which the Sudanese government responded to the uprising in 2003. They

are paid monthly and have been armed by the government, sometimes even given regular

army uniforms and an insignia of rank. Many have a patch showing an armed horseman.8

The Janjaweed have been blamed for the majority of the atrocities committed in

Darfur, including the rapes of women and girls, the burning and looting of villages and

the destruction of livestock. Their presence in the conflict has spread fear among the

civilian populations. Both UNICEF and Human Rights Watch have noted that the

Janjaweed militia is the most frequently cited source of widespread fear in the region. In

a 2005 UNICEF report, it was noted that “children talk of the violent events they

witnessed and their
continuing
fear
of
armed
men
on
horseback
who
often
remain
on


the
outskirts
of
camps
and
settlements.”9




Mohammed,
a
young
8‐year‐old
child


interviewed
by
Human
Rights
Watch
in
2003
said,
“I
am
still
scared
of
the


Janjaweed.

I
remember
the
guns
and
the
planes.”
10



 17

 Likewise,
the
Janjaweed
figure
prominently
in
the
drawings
brought
back
by


Dr.
Ehrlich.


Many
of
the
soldiers
firing
their
weapons
upon
people
and
homes
are


either
riding
horses
or
camels
(Figures
9
and
10).


Some
are
obviously
chasing


down
unarmed
civilians
and
engaging
in
the
burnings
of
homes.




Figure
9
 Figure
10


Dr.
Ehrlich
recognizes
the
significance
of
the
drawings
and
uses
them
to


highlight
the
situation
in
Darfur.

Doctors
working
with
Human
Rights
Watch
did
the


same
thing
in
2005
and
those
drawings
are
a
part
of
a
traveling
exhibit
entitled,


“The
Smallest
Witnesses.”

For
Human
Rights
Watch,
the
images
represent
a
“visual


vocabulary”
that
documents
violations
of
international
law
and
human
rights


abuses.


The
drawings,
they
say,
“corroborate
unerringly
what
we
know
of
the


crimes”
and
make
a
“compelling
case
against
the
government
of
Sudan.”11



 18

 4.


The
drawings
provide
a
glimpse
to
the
human
toll
of
the
crisis
in
Darfur.

The


more
violent
images
are
being
used
to
document
the
enormous
amounts
of


destruction
there.

Lack
of
photographic
evidence
of
abuses
makes
the
drawings
all


the
more
significant.

However,
the
drawings
also
reveal
other
aspects
of
life
in


Darfur.

One
must
remember
that
the
majority
of
images
produced
by
children
in


Kalma
camp
in
2004
and
brought
back
by
Dr.
Jerry
Ehrlich
were
not
war‐related.

In


fact,
some
of
the
drawings
are
peaceful
recreations
of
village
life
that
do
not
disclose


any
of
the
atrocities
besieging
the
region.

This
is
significant
in
that
these
drawings


were
created
in
a
camp
for
internally
displaced
people
by
children
who
were
forced


to
flee
their
homes
and,
for
one
reason
or
another,
found
themselves
in
a
medical


tent
in
one
of
the
fastest
growing
IDP
camps
in
Darfur.




There
are
drawings
of
the
various
dwellings
found
in
Darfur,
from
the
large


huts
characteristic
of
the
Zaghawa
people
(Figure
10)
to
square
brick
buildings
of


storefronts
found
in
the
center
of
some
of
the
larger
towns
(Figure
11).

The
brightly


colored
clothes
worn
by
people
in
this
desert
region
are
mimicked
in
the
bright


colors
chosen
by
the
children
to
draw
their
lives.

Wristwatches
are
shown
in
every


color
of
the
rainbow
(Figure
12).

Even
military
vehicles,
painted
mostly
drab
tan


and
gray
in
reality,
are
brought
to
vivid
life
with
bright
colors
at
the
hands
of
the


children
(Figure
13).


Villagers
can
be
seen
walking
with
bundles
on
their
heads.

Women
with
axes


are
walking
no
doubt
to
collect
the
firewood
for
the
day’s
cooking
duties.

There
are


pictures
of
animals
and
birds
native
to
the
region.


Colorful
flowers
and
plants
dot




 19

 


Figure
10


Figure
11


Figure
13


Figure
12


landscapes
and
outlines
of
brightly
colored
hands
are
central
to
several
drawings.




There
are
scenes
of
children
playing
soccer
and
of
people
sitting
at
tables.

One


beautiful
drawing
depicts
a
sun
setting
(or
rising)
over
a
body
of
water
(Figure
14).



 20

Another
shows
a
bright
sun
with
eyes
and
with
radiant
rays
shining
brightly
over
a


smiling
woman
(Figure
15).

In
other
pictures,
there
are
designs
that
denote
an


arabesque
quality,
typical
of
art
in
the
Islamic
world
(Figure
16).


Figure
14


Figure
15



 21

 Figure
16


Life in the camp is also documented and the influence of western aid

organizations is apparent. The International Red Cross, UNICEF and OXFAM provided

early services to Kalma, which included the establishment of programs exclusively for

children. Volleyball and soccer tournaments are common occurrences in the camp. In

addition, Oxfam uses theater, games and song to teach sanitation and health practices to

the children. In one of the children’s drawings, there is a building with “UNICEF”

printed clearly under the flag on the exterior (Figure 17). Children huddle in a circle on

the street, playing a game. A volleyball net can be seen in the corner, with two children

hitting a ball back and forth. In another drawing, a volleyball game is being played by

four children. A tank truck is at the center of another, with “UNICEF” printed on it’s

side. There is also a drawing of a western woman, most likely an aid worker in the camp.

She has bright red lips and long, curly black hair (Figure 18). The flag of Sudan is also

featured prominently in several drawings and adorns the antennae of several vehicles.


 22

One child, who signed the paper as “Zakia,” even drew a map of Sudan (Figure 19),

perhaps as a way to teach something to the doctor in the medical tent about her country.

Figure
18

Figure
17
 


Figure
19



 23

 5.

The impetus behind Dr. Ehrlich’s drawings was not ethnographical. The

motivation was to simply document the atrocities occurring in Darfur. Doing it through

the eyes of children, Dr. Ehrlich reasoned, would increase the emotional response in

those back in the United Stated viewing the images. Consequently, the urgency for

action to end the crisis in Darfur could be made with greater intensity. Although the

conflict has not abated, the media attention given to the drawings and the large

membership in advocacy organizations here in the United States and in other western

countries gives support to that fact. Cultural attitudes about the nature of childhood in the

West make the drawings all the more significant to the Western viewer. In other words,

children have become part of the “meaning “ of war and that meaning is directly related

to the ways in which “societies use children as symbols of virtue, sacrifice, patriotism and

any number of characteristics.”12 In a child-centered West, where childhood not only

represents innocence but where childhood itself is extended longer than in other cultures,

these images are all the more horrifying.

Although children’s drawings have been used over the last one hundred years to

document the affects of war on children, the situation in Darfur has brought the subject of

children’s drawings into the realm of law. Last year, some 500 drawings made by

Darfuri refugees in Chad were submitted to the International Criminal Court as evidence

of atrocities being committed in Darfur against civilian populations by the Sudanese

government. 13 The ICC has named two individuals in the Sudanese government as the

masterminds behind ethnic cleansing in Darfur. In July, 2007, the chief prosecutor at the

ICC accused Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir as being directly responsible for what is


 24

happening in Darfur, advocating for the indictment of the president on ten counts of

genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.14 The Court is expected to issue a

ruling on whether or not to issue an arrest warrant for the president early next year.

The drawings do corroborate much of the stories being told by victims in Darfur.

The eyewitness accounts of Janjaweed attacks on villages bear a chilling resemblance to

the simply sketched images by the children. The accuracy of the planes, tactics and even

the weapons used are strong indicators that the children were, in fact, drawing what they

saw. The fact that these children were in a camp for displaced people give those small

voices a certain authority. One can imagine, however, that even a small child, thrown

into the chaos of an IDP camp, could interpret the simple instructions given by Dr.

Ehrlich through a translator in such a way as to be more inclined to focus on the reasons

that brought him or her into the camp in the first place. Indeed, the Sudanese government

has downplayed the validity of the drawings by saying that the drawings were merely

made by children given clear instructions and guidance by the Western forces within the

camp. However, the role that the Sudanese government has played in the situation in

Darfur makes such protestations irrelevant. The fact that so many of the drawing that Dr.

Ehrlich returned from Darfur were not war related, supports the idea that the children

were not guided or told what to draw.

As ethnographical tools, however, the drawings are limited. The instructions for

the drawings were made through a translator, so one cannot be sure as to what the exact

instructions were or the questions that might have come up with the children. In addition,

the drawings were not made under the supervision of Dr. Ehrlich or others. The children

simply brought the crayons and paper back to their dwellings and the circumstances of


 25

their creations are not known. Due to the volatile nature of the situation in the camp, the

drawings were collected very discreetly and post interviews with the children were not

conducted and questions were not asked of the children in regard to the images contained

in the drawings. Indeed, the name, gender and ethnicity of each child were not recorded.

Therefore, some of the cultural subtleties contained in the drawings are not clear.

When Human Rights Watch used drawing with children in refugee camps in

Chad, the children were interviewed during the entire process and asked to explain the

drawings. Those drawings bear many similarities to the drawings brought back by Dr.

Ehrlich, especially the use of bright and vivid colors. In one case, Dr. Annie Sparrow,

the researcher behind the study, asked a child about the brightly colored mass at the

center of the page. The mass was red, blue, yellow and green and resembled a flower.

The child replied that the image was her “hut burning after being hit by a bomb.”15 To

the casual observer, however, that image did not at all resemble fire or an explosion.

Unfortunately, similarly interpreted images may also be in Dr. Ehrlich’s drawings, but

the true meaning is difficult, if not impossible to interpret. This is very much apparent in

the several drawings depicting colorful wristwatches. Why the children drew watches

and what it meant to them is unknown. Dr. Ehrlich noticed those watches upon his

return. “I have no idea why they drew them,” he admitted. Further observations needed

to have been made at the source, thus demonstrating that there are limits to “thick

description” done after the fact.

Nonetheless, rudimentary elements of culture can be identified within the

drawings. Cultural artifacts such as clothing and dwellings are clearly displayed, as are

the animals important to the groups and the gender roles ascribed by the society. Islamic


 26

art and design are clearly evident in the drawings. Ideas about patriotism are also

reflected in the images. The fact that some kids drew maps of Sudan and displayed the

Sudanese flag reflects certain ideas about identity in Darfur that may go beyond ethnic or

tribal lines. However, due to the lack of inquiry about the images with the kids at the

time of their creation leaves such notions to conjecture.

There is no doubt that the war-related images provide us the most useful

information in analyzing the conflict in Darfur. The situation is clearly highlighted in the

drawings, giving us a certain glimpse of a conflict that, for the most part, lacks other

photographic evidence. Indeed, this is the reason why the drawings were created in the

first place: to provide a first hand account of the atrocities experienced by children and

their families in Darfur. The emotional impact is apparent. Dr. Ehrlich himself admits

that the pictures do more to describe “the horrendous conditions” in Darfur than can his

words or stories. There is no doubt that the images elicit an emotional response—a

response that is directly related to the value western culture places on childhood. Like

Dr. Ehrlich, I too have shown these images to thousands of people across the country

through presentations and a documentary film. I have seen people brought to tears when

looking at these drawings. Dr. Ehrlich’s drawings have inspired action. Tom Flannery, a

critically acclaimed folk singer, was moved to write a song about the drawings,

personifying an unnamed child in Darfur. “Give me crayons and paper,” he sings. “I’ll

draw what I see/If I close my eyes/Can you still see me?” These drawings tell us a little

about the experiences of the children in Darfur and may give us some clues as to their

cultural traits, but perhaps they also may tell us more about ourselves.


 27



ENDNOTES

1
Hamza’s story is vague and is told through letters that he wrote to a teacher at John
Hersey High School and through interviews with a sophomore girl at Hersey who had
befriended Hamza in New Orleans and again in Chicago once they had both migrated
north following hurricane Katrina. No one knows for sure just how old Hamza was. His
diminutive frame may have caused those near to him to think he was younger than he
actually was; his high school friend thought he was only 8 in the Fall of 2007. However,
I believe that he was at least two years older, probably turning 11 that Fall (his birthday
was purportedly in October).
2
Clifford
Geertz,
“The
Interpretation
of
Cultures
(New
York:

Basic
Books,
1973),
5.

3
All quotes from Dr. Ehrlich are taken from a filmed interview conducted with the author
in July 2005 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
4
Louis Charbonneau, “Darfur violence caused 230,000 to flee in ’08:UN,” Reuters News
Service, October 22, 2008 . (http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnJOE49L014.html)
accessed 11.9.08
5
Human Rights Watch, “Darfur: Five Years On,” Human Rights Watch.
http://www.hrw.org/features/darfur/index.html.


6
Gerard
Prunier,
Darfur:

The
Ambiguous
Genocide
(New
York:

Cornel
University


Press,
2005),
97.

7
ibid.

8
Prunier,
98.

9
UNICEF,
“Child
Alert:

Darfur”
(New
York:

UNICEF,
2005),
17.

10
Human
Rights
Watch,
“The
Smallest
Witnesses:
The
Crisis
in
Darfur
Through


Children’s
Eyes”
(New
York:
Human
Right
Watch,
2005),
6.

11
Ibid.,
5.

12
James
Marten,
ed.,
Children
and
War:
A
Historical
Anthology
(New
York:

NYU


Press,
2002),
8.

13
Andrew
Grice,
“Darfur:
The
Evidence
of
War
Crimes,”

The
Independent
August
7,


2007,
lead
story.

14
Martin
Plaut,
“Judicial
noose
tightens
around
Bashir”

BBC
News

July
14,
2008



(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7498459.stm).

15
Human
Rights
Watch,
“The
Smallest
Witnesses,”

4.




























 28



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