Enders Game: Genocide in Darfur

In the book Enders Game, by Orson Scott Card, Ender Wiggin is chosen by the milita

ry to stop the world from destruction. The adults believe that the buggers are trying to destroy the planet, and they start a child battle school to defend themselves. Ender learns that the buggers are highly evolved insects that communicate solely through their queen. The adults eventually trick Ender into committing xenocide, the extinction of an entire planet.

There are many times throughout history that we have heard of genocide, “the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group (Dictionary.com 1). One of the more recent events of genocide is in Darfur, Western Sudan. Darfur has a population of approximately six million, and of those people a little over 3 million are black Africans, the rest are Arabs. This region of the world has been plagued with severe neglect from the central government. Six years ago, in 2003, rebel groups began to address the government for their economic grievances, and asking for more political power. The Sudan government saw the rebels as a threat to the country. They believed that if word got out, everyone would want more autonomy. The government reacted by carrying out a deliberate attack on all of the African tribal people of Darfur.

(Picture by Wendy Stone)

Janjaweed, a large Arab military affiliation, are the main people the government hired to carry out the genocide in Sudan. The government arms the Janjaweed, and they are sent into different villages. While in the villages, the military is expected to kill Africans of all ages. They may do so by fire, destroying their food, mass executions, wide-scale rape, and kidnapping children. Approximately 400,000 villagers have been murdered, and 2.5 million have been displaced. The Sudan government denies any affiliation with the genocide, but there are records that reveal high ranking officers planning the murders. The government is going to great lengths to make sure no reporters get into the villages that are under attack in Darfur.

The United States has already officially proclaimed the deaths in Sudan as genocide. The United Nations are calling it “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today”. The Africans in Darfur have not been extinct yet, but the Janjaweed is still raiding the villages. In Ender’s Game, the children are similar to the Janjaweed, they are ordered to kill another race in order to keep their area intact.