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Crayons and Paper:Children’s Art in the Darfur Crisis
ByBruce David JanuAdvisor: Professor John MacAloonA ThesisSubmitted to the University of Chicago in partial fulfillmentof the requirement for the degree of Master of Liberal ArtsGraham School of General Studies November 2008
 
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ABSTRACTAll 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 relatedto 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 examiningnot only the cultural realities of the children, but also demonstrate the complexrelationship 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 internallydisplaced people in Darfur in 2004. The drawings demonstrate that the children’sartwork can be powerful tools in examining the realities of the crisis in Darfur, while atthe same time illustrating the limits of interpretation without thorough ethnographicfieldwork.
 
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 1.Hamza
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was a child soldier, originally born in Rwanda. He came to the UnitedStates in early 2003 around the age of 8 and eventually settled with a cousin in NewOrleans.
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Shortly after hurricane Katrina, Hamza and his cousin moved to Chicago andHamza began a correspondence with a teacher at John Hersey High School in suburbanArlington 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 affinityfor 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 stillin 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 andevil. 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 youngRwandan has finally become a tru[e] man.” Hamza looked forward to the day when hewould marry her. He wrote fondly of Mary, describing her as “my first friend” and “theonly person I cared about.” But when he found another boy attacking Mary, Hamzaresponded with rage. He punched and pushed. A gun was pulled and Hamza was shottwice in the upper right arm. “I hated him,” he wrote. “I wanted him dead.” Taking a
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Namesofthepeopleinthissectionhavebeenchangedtoprotecttheidentityoftheseindividuals.
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