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unclear "Size Unknown about 8 average (less than 25,000 est.)" - I don't know what that could mean. -- 84.149.185.154 ( talk) 22:39, 24 December 2017 (UTC)
The second paragraph begins, "Although the Darfur conflict has also been framed as a battle between Arabs and black Africans, everyone in Darfur is black and Muslim" [emphasis added]. Everyone? If this is true (and it seems unlikely and unverifiable), backing it up with a source would be useful. Otherwise, it should be rephrased. Toddmatic 00:52, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
In the USA total media-history, everything is totally what the media says.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_dilemma
I know this was changed, but the person who wrote the paragraph made a quite racial remark without even knowing it (in the real paragraph). It says that "Although the Darfur conflict has also been framed as a battle between Arabs and black Africans, "everyone in Darfur is black and Muslim". This may not sound that wrong to some, but the person refers to Muslims and Arabic people as people of the same descent, as if they are all the same. Arabic people are a people from an old tribe, whereas Muslims are Islamic, which is a religion. im not saying the dude who wrote it is a racist, he just needs to get his facts straight. The next paragraph is made for the one above.
'You haven't checked your facts. This is what the Washington Post Foreign Service Reported in 2004 as a direct quote from a verified eye witness (victim) "They grabbed my donkey and my straw and said, 'Black girl, you are too dark. You are like a dog. We want to make a light baby,' " said Sawela Suliman, 22, showing slashes from where a whip had struck her thighs as her father held up a police and health report with details of the attack. "They said, 'You get out of this area and leave the child when it's made.' " [EthnicRapeWar 1]
This photographer actually was a militia man. No one "framed" this as being between Arabs and black Africans, the Arabs in Darfur themselves said it was against black Africans, the rest of us just decided that over these dead bodies and rape victims it was no moral reason to twist the janjaweed's own words to make them look better.
'It is true that both the Janjaweed and Darfur Liberation Front are black and Muslim. See Gerard Prunier's "Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide" (2005)or Amir Idris "Conflict and Politics of Identity in Sudan" (2005) or numerous other writings on the subject. I agree it should be cited though.
Also, in the first paragraph it talks about attacks on non-Muslim which is not true because the vast majority of people in Darfur are Islamic.
Janeh Jaweed is a Penis title for the Persian especially trained warriors who came to this Part of the African continent during the expansion of Persian empire. It simple means "immortal". Jan means life and jaweed means eternal or forever. This history indicates that some 50,000 memebrs of Persian army disappear in a sand storm in this part of the world. According to an npr news article ( http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5358216), Janjaweed is "loosely translated" "devils on horseback." Someone, please edit this story and do not be afraid to set the record straight on the absolutely horrific atrocities that are being committed each day (even as we discuss this very issue). Who these janjaweed riders are exactly and who is being persecuted exactly I do not know. I know it involves Muslims, Christians, and tribal peoples and politicians. I think the article is too nice, too politically correct, and needs to be revised with the truth in mind. I wish I was qualified to edit this article, but I at this point, I am not. I am calling those who are qualified, those who do know the history, as well as the current events, particularly in the Darfur region, to speak up and rewrite this article! We Americans need to be correctly and adequately informed about what is happening around the world, and hopefully with this information, we will take action!
The Janjaweed referred to as Arabs, Muslims or Baggara. In Arabic Janjaweed means "Devil on Horseback" My experience in South Kordofan (Nuba Mountains) showed that Baggara were massacred but NOGs never go to their camps to report massacres assuming that they are on the goverment side or they are the culprit since they are Arabs (Arabs and Terrorism are synonymous). This article should be considered carefully, for any story the other point of the story is missing. -
What's in a name Janjaweed? Dr. Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim The media reporting about the Janjaweed, the allegedly Arab militia wreaking havoc in Darfur, puts in perspective the distinction made by James (Scotty) Reston between news and sociology. News, he says, is only news at the receiving end; the other end is sociology. Today in Darfur there is a lot of news, but very little sociology. The on-going discussions about the etymology of the catchword, Janjaweed, itself illustrate how news echoes a tragedy but fails to reveal its sociology. The media's use of the name makes it sound vile and draconian. But it has a simple explanation in the culture of Darfur. The commonly held view is that "Janjaweed" combines "jan" the Arabic for "evil jinni, ghoul" and "jawad," the Arabic for "horse": horsemen bent on wickedness. To emphasize the evil, some people would embellish it to make it mean "a jinni riding a horse armed with a G/J3 attack weapon. But this embellishment adds another "j" to the word that is not actually there. Mark Lacy of the New York Times, who was counting, pointed out this discrepancy to a Sudanese journalist. Ma'awia Abu Grun, a reporter with Khartoum al-Sahafa daily, investigated the Janjaweed practice. What emerged in his story is that the Janjaweed belongs to a recognized tradition of banditry of camel thievery in Darfur. These bandits, who come from all ethnicities, are rebellious young men. Unable to conform to the prescribed rules of achievement in their societies, they drop out of their tribes to form a group of their own. These misfits undergo two phases before becoming Janjaweed. First, they become "Abu Bazaras," roughly translated as the "black bag" stage. In this period a misfit begins a life of voluntarily homelessness characterized by carrying an "abu bazra," black bag, where he keeps all his belongings. This loafer then becomes an "um bolty," that is, a trouble maker leading a life of mischief. Shunned and jealous of the success of his peers in their migration to various work sites in Sudan and the Gulf area, the misfit would join follow drop-outs and take to banditry. He would find no difficulty obtaining equipment for his new business. The thirty years war in Chad (1962-1992), a Cold War battle that pitted Libya (supported by the Soviets against various Chadian rebels supported by the USA, Egypt, and Sudan), overflowed into Sudan, dumped billions of dollars worth of arms in both Chad and Sudan, and attracted "mercenaries" particularly among the well-funded, Libyan Islamic Legionnaires who operated against Chad from bases in Sudan. The ideal season for Janjaweed activity is when inter-tribal wars take place like the ones raging in Darfur. Camel thievery has been long romanticized in pre-Islamic Arabia and Sudanese pastoral regions. The tradition has had something of a Robinhood quality. Thieves would seize the camels of rich land owners and drive them home in broad daylight. They would butcher some of them at bars for their lovers and friends. The poetic tradition emerging from this banditry evokes a belligerent loneliness and insights on the worth of life, money, women, courage, and the company of fellow bandits. Janjaweedism turned this poetic tradition of thievery into thuggery. Considering the complex political economy of Darfur, one is inclined to take seriously the Sudan government's denial of having control over the Janjaweed. Historically it should be remembered that central governments in Sudan have had a tenuous control over a country approximately one third of the size of the USA. Darfur alone is the size of France. Measuring their limited reach, the central governments have been in the habit of using selected local communities to fight a proxy. To bring Darfur into the fold of Sudan in 1874 and 1916, the Turkish regime (1821-1885) and the British administration (1989-1956) both had to mobilize local forces to achieve their goals. Furthermore, post independence governments allied with local communities in Southern Sudan to destroy the rebels of the region from within. Hence it is logical to assume that the current regime might have occasionally set the Janjaweed loose against the two rebel movements in Darfur. The regime especially abhors one of these movements for its suspected subjection to the control of Dr. Hasan al-Turabi, the godfather of the Sudan government before the famous fallout in 1999. It remains to be seen if this is the case. This government co-option of the Janjaweed, however, is a far cry from saying that it created it or even that it can break it. Sudanese government officials may have promised the international community something beyond its capacity when they committed the government to subdue the Janjaweed within a month ending September 2. While it protested that a month was not enough, the government succumbed under pressure, and the broken promise is haunting it. The report presented by the UN envoy to monitor the compliance of the government was critical of the Sudanese authorities for not restraining the Janjaweed after the passage of the month. And now international intervention in Sudan is being seriously considered. The international community may be right to intervene in timely fashion to protect a population at risk. But this intervention should take into consideration the long-term interests of the nation-building process in a country as raw as Sudan. Salman Rushdie said it best when he advised that the West should respond to 9/11 in a deft and measured way lest a random attack lead to bombing another Sudanese aspirin factory as the Clinton Administration did in 1998 to punish Sudan for its alleged role in destroying the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. But this intervention should be short and sweet. No Kosovo, please. After five long years of the intervention of the international community to save the Kosvars from Belgrade, the province is in limbo: the mobish, bloody outbreak last March is weighing heavily on the interventionist. The international community has to take the statistics of Darfur death victims with a grain of salt. Forensic teams estimate now that the Serbs and Kosvars who died as a result of ethnic confrontations before the war as a few thousand. Although enough to warrant an intervention, the number is way below the estimated 100.000 to 200.000 that mobilized people to support the Clinton war.
Dr.Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim teaches African history and Islam at the University Of Missouri-Columbia. His book Manichaean Delirium: Decolonizing the Judiciary and Islamic Renewal in Sudan, 1898-1885 is forthcoming from Brill.
(moved from user talk pages) Hi, you have put the Janjaweed under Category:Islamist groups. While most people seem to agree that the Sudanese government (which supports them) can be called islamist, I haven't been able to google more than one reference which labels the Janjaweed islamists, rather than, say, more secular Arab nationalists. You seem to have more information about the group's ideology, why not add it to the article? For now I have removed the category. regards, High on a tree 18:51, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)
Arabs range from the Arabian peninsula, to the Levant, to NW and NE Africa. They do not all decend from an Arabian population. Many Arabic speakers have been such since the expansion of an Arab empire after the founding of Islam, but it dates back earlier as well. Centuries before Mohammed, southern Arabian tribes moved further North and assimilated cultures to the North of them. What I'm getting at is that the reason Syrian Arabs, Moroccan Arabs, Sudanese Arabs, and Omani Arabs look different is because their ancestries are different. Genetic studies have show that in the Maghreb region, most "Arab" individuals are actually Berbers genetically, or so-called "racially." However, the people in these countries known as Berbers are those who continue to keep Berber languages and cultural practices. The same is true for Sudan. The Arabs in Sudan are Black. There's no getting around that. That is because they are Arabized. Their ancestry is African in vastly predominant part, not Asian. They merely speak an Asian language. Simply compare Saddam Hussein to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Saddam Hussein looks like the typical American perception of what an Arab looks like, al-Assad could easily pass as White in America, and Omar al-Bashir would immediately be considered Black in America. So, again, the primary distinction between Baggara Arabs (as those in the Janjaweed) and the so-called "Black Africans" is language, and more generally ethnic affiliation. 69.254.201.64 22:41, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
athe article contradicts itself, two meanings for janjaweed, how's that?
Obviously adding all these variants to the list of spellings is unwise, so I'm going to take the top five. (There are probably more.)
-- babbage 00:23, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)
The original etymology I was looking at was one I found here:
http://www.islamonline.net/English/ArtCulture/2004/08/article06.shtml:
The term janjaweed, originally borrowed from Chad, consists of three syllables: jan means ?man?; je means ?G-3 machine gun,? very popular in Darfur; wid means ?horse.? The whole word therefore means ?the man who rides a horse and carries a G-3 machine gun.?
Here's another (with dubious English):
http://www.darfournews.net/Darfournews_EN/Janjawed.htm
Janjaweed is A Darfurian local slang ? composed of three words, Dijin Jawad ( horse ) and Gim3 ( Gun ) it means in Sudanese collocial [sic] " A dijin [sic], that is holding a Gim3 gun and riding a horse " The term goes to those youth, who came for looting, raping away from government, local or central eyes ( Supervision ) .
And here's one more, from Al-Ahram:
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/701/re11.htm
Those tribe members who excel in horseback riding and hunting call themselves Janjaweed, an appellation said to blend three words: jinn (spirit), the English word "gun", and jawad (horse). Janjaweed, therefore, can be translated as a gun-toting, horse-riding fiend, so to speak.
Is there some way we could sort out the actual etymology of this word?
Just found this thread on the Arabic Linguist List:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0409C&L=arabic-l&P=R288&D=1&H=0&O=T&T=1
Maybe I should just let it go :)
-- babbage 09:06, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Take it as far as you want/can, is my attitude. If you can come up with the definitive answer, and a source we can point to, that would be an INVALUABLE service. BTW, reading that thread I find "al-janjaweed" (which I've added as a redirect, maybe I will add "al-" to the beginning of those other words on your list, and do those...), I'm not sure of our best arabic language resource... I'll put "seeking an expert in Arabic language issues" in my edit summary, and see if that brings help. I'm off, I'm going to see if there's some help at the wiki embassy... Pedant 21:54, 2004 Nov 9 (UTC)
My suspicion is that it's actually from some Darfurian language like Fur - it sure doesn't sound Arabic... - Mustafaa 15:59, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)
i'm a saudi arab and we have black muslims here who do well. i don't see any kind of miss treatment because of theor dark skin, so why is this an issue in sudan who look no different from other black africans? and arab is an ethnic term, so who ever said arabs are those who speak it only is incorrect. arabs are semitic in race and and black are negro in race. i don't know why people act as if they know about arabs and. arabs from syria to yemen are of the same blood. north africa has about half arab and half berber population. the funny thing is, next the same people who say a person is arab only if he speaks the language will tell us italians are anyone who speaks italian and germans are any one who speaks germany, even if that person is from china. it ridiculous. all you're trying to do is weaken the ARABS and that won't work!
OH PLEASE SPARE ME B.S. HAFIZ AL-ASSAD OF SYRIA LOOKS TYPICAL FOR AN ARAB. YOU SEE WE ARABS COME IN DIFFERENT COLORS JUST LIKE BLACK PEOPLE DO. FOR EXAMPLE HALLE BERRY WHO IS HALF WHITE AND BY THE WAY HAS WHITE FEATURES IS SEEN AS BLACK, IF SO WHY CAN'T AN ARAB COME IN A DIFFERENT COLOR? MUST WE ALL HAVE THE SAME SKIN TONE? I THINK NOT. ALTHOUGH ARABS COME IN A VERIETY OF COLORS FROM DARK SKINNED BEDOUINS TO THE LIGHT SKINNED URBAN ARABS WHO SEEK SHADE, WE ALL SHARE THE SAME RACIAL FEATURES. JUST LIKE IN AFRICA, YOU HAVE PEOPLE WHO COME IN THE DARKEST BLACK TO THE PYGIMES WHO ARE YELLOW IN COLOR ARE OF THE SAME RACE, LOOK AT THEIR FACIAL FEATURES. THE SUN CAN CHANGE THE COLOR OF ONE'S SKIN. BUT IT DOESN'T AFFECT THE BONE STRUCTURE OF A PERSON'S FACE. EVEN IF THE BERBERS ARE NOT ARAB, THEY CERTAINLY RESEMBLE ARABS ALOT MORE CLOSER THAN THEY WOULD ANY NATIVE AFRICAN. WITH THIS BEING SAID ... I AM A PROUD ARAB, BUT I DON'T FEEL AS A HUMAN THAT AN ARAB IS BETTER THAN A BLACK AFRICAN. AS HUMANS WE ARE ALL THE SAME. WE CAN ONLY BE JUGDED AS INDIVIDUALS AND NOT AS A WHOLE.
I am getting rid of the NPOV dispute as there have been no major edits to this article since November and nothing on the talk page since December. — Trilobite (Talk) 22:53, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)
"Characterising the Darfur war as 'Arabs' versus 'Africans' obscures the reality. Darfur's Arabs are black, indigenous, African and Muslim - just like Darfur's non-Arabs, who hail from the Fur, Masalit, Zaghawa and a dozen smaller tribes."
Editors need to be more careful and diligent about characterizing this group. According to most academic and historical sources, designating the Janjaweed as "Arab" (by race) is careless. The Janjaweed identify as Arabs, but are racially black African. I'll work on incorporating more sources to back this up. I've already put a few up.-- Kitrus 08:17, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
Due to the plethora of discussion about the racial identify this article is only reflecting one opinion, it thus is factually inaccurate. Arab is not a race see Arab. Until balance of opinion is written into this article the dispute tag is needed to warn readers. Darfurs Arabs are lingusitic Arabs not Arabs in the western sense of the word. Also there is a serious lack of any African sources and last time i checked Sudan was in Africa.-- HalaTruth(ሐላቃህ) 09:42, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
How do you pronounce Janjaweed?14:02, 18 April 2007 (UTC) ) Pretty much the way it's spelled. Both J's are pronounced as soft G's, and the A's are short. The first syllable is the same as the name John; the second is juh (jə); the third, whether spelled "wid" or "weed," is pronounced like the weed in your garden. Accent on the first syllable, secondary accent on the last syllable.
So is the etymology established or unproven? That is all. - Gilgamesh 04:51, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
I think the nomenclature janjaweed militia, as used by savedarfur.org is correct.
145.253.2.236 22:15, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
Who cares? The janjaweed are just a bunch of murderers anyway! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.102.175.102 ( talk) 03:43, 8 June 2008 (UTC)
We're doomed. [ 1] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.4.171.9 ( talk) 23:08, 30 August 2009 (UTC)
here i am writing my first view point of Dar fur crisis which contain a graet deal of suffering and bitterness specially of those who lack the fire of war and those who an instabiltity and the persueing of thr regim of sudan government.
we are always thinking and asking a bout the united nations role of this confillicts it took more than six years but till now no solutions for the region people . —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.64.25.157 ( talk) 08:46, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
Is there such a thing as an unarmed gunman? J.M. Archer ( talk) 16:56, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
I like this article. It also makes a point of mentioning "armed partisans." They are armed and they carry weapons. Yes they are. :) J.M. Archer ( talk) 16:57, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
I removed the statement regarding the accuracy of the UN definition of the Janjaweed, because it didn't contradict that information. There could be 100 more ethnic groups with members in the Janjaweed and it could still be true that the militia's core is principally constituted of members of the two ethnic groups stated. 50.147.26.108 ( talk) 15:37, 9 April 2014 (UTC)
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unclear "Size Unknown about 8 average (less than 25,000 est.)" - I don't know what that could mean. -- 84.149.185.154 ( talk) 22:39, 24 December 2017 (UTC)
The second paragraph begins, "Although the Darfur conflict has also been framed as a battle between Arabs and black Africans, everyone in Darfur is black and Muslim" [emphasis added]. Everyone? If this is true (and it seems unlikely and unverifiable), backing it up with a source would be useful. Otherwise, it should be rephrased. Toddmatic 00:52, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
In the USA total media-history, everything is totally what the media says.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_dilemma
I know this was changed, but the person who wrote the paragraph made a quite racial remark without even knowing it (in the real paragraph). It says that "Although the Darfur conflict has also been framed as a battle between Arabs and black Africans, "everyone in Darfur is black and Muslim". This may not sound that wrong to some, but the person refers to Muslims and Arabic people as people of the same descent, as if they are all the same. Arabic people are a people from an old tribe, whereas Muslims are Islamic, which is a religion. im not saying the dude who wrote it is a racist, he just needs to get his facts straight. The next paragraph is made for the one above.
'You haven't checked your facts. This is what the Washington Post Foreign Service Reported in 2004 as a direct quote from a verified eye witness (victim) "They grabbed my donkey and my straw and said, 'Black girl, you are too dark. You are like a dog. We want to make a light baby,' " said Sawela Suliman, 22, showing slashes from where a whip had struck her thighs as her father held up a police and health report with details of the attack. "They said, 'You get out of this area and leave the child when it's made.' " [EthnicRapeWar 1]
This photographer actually was a militia man. No one "framed" this as being between Arabs and black Africans, the Arabs in Darfur themselves said it was against black Africans, the rest of us just decided that over these dead bodies and rape victims it was no moral reason to twist the janjaweed's own words to make them look better.
'It is true that both the Janjaweed and Darfur Liberation Front are black and Muslim. See Gerard Prunier's "Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide" (2005)or Amir Idris "Conflict and Politics of Identity in Sudan" (2005) or numerous other writings on the subject. I agree it should be cited though.
Also, in the first paragraph it talks about attacks on non-Muslim which is not true because the vast majority of people in Darfur are Islamic.
Janeh Jaweed is a Penis title for the Persian especially trained warriors who came to this Part of the African continent during the expansion of Persian empire. It simple means "immortal". Jan means life and jaweed means eternal or forever. This history indicates that some 50,000 memebrs of Persian army disappear in a sand storm in this part of the world. According to an npr news article ( http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5358216), Janjaweed is "loosely translated" "devils on horseback." Someone, please edit this story and do not be afraid to set the record straight on the absolutely horrific atrocities that are being committed each day (even as we discuss this very issue). Who these janjaweed riders are exactly and who is being persecuted exactly I do not know. I know it involves Muslims, Christians, and tribal peoples and politicians. I think the article is too nice, too politically correct, and needs to be revised with the truth in mind. I wish I was qualified to edit this article, but I at this point, I am not. I am calling those who are qualified, those who do know the history, as well as the current events, particularly in the Darfur region, to speak up and rewrite this article! We Americans need to be correctly and adequately informed about what is happening around the world, and hopefully with this information, we will take action!
The Janjaweed referred to as Arabs, Muslims or Baggara. In Arabic Janjaweed means "Devil on Horseback" My experience in South Kordofan (Nuba Mountains) showed that Baggara were massacred but NOGs never go to their camps to report massacres assuming that they are on the goverment side or they are the culprit since they are Arabs (Arabs and Terrorism are synonymous). This article should be considered carefully, for any story the other point of the story is missing. -
What's in a name Janjaweed? Dr. Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim The media reporting about the Janjaweed, the allegedly Arab militia wreaking havoc in Darfur, puts in perspective the distinction made by James (Scotty) Reston between news and sociology. News, he says, is only news at the receiving end; the other end is sociology. Today in Darfur there is a lot of news, but very little sociology. The on-going discussions about the etymology of the catchword, Janjaweed, itself illustrate how news echoes a tragedy but fails to reveal its sociology. The media's use of the name makes it sound vile and draconian. But it has a simple explanation in the culture of Darfur. The commonly held view is that "Janjaweed" combines "jan" the Arabic for "evil jinni, ghoul" and "jawad," the Arabic for "horse": horsemen bent on wickedness. To emphasize the evil, some people would embellish it to make it mean "a jinni riding a horse armed with a G/J3 attack weapon. But this embellishment adds another "j" to the word that is not actually there. Mark Lacy of the New York Times, who was counting, pointed out this discrepancy to a Sudanese journalist. Ma'awia Abu Grun, a reporter with Khartoum al-Sahafa daily, investigated the Janjaweed practice. What emerged in his story is that the Janjaweed belongs to a recognized tradition of banditry of camel thievery in Darfur. These bandits, who come from all ethnicities, are rebellious young men. Unable to conform to the prescribed rules of achievement in their societies, they drop out of their tribes to form a group of their own. These misfits undergo two phases before becoming Janjaweed. First, they become "Abu Bazaras," roughly translated as the "black bag" stage. In this period a misfit begins a life of voluntarily homelessness characterized by carrying an "abu bazra," black bag, where he keeps all his belongings. This loafer then becomes an "um bolty," that is, a trouble maker leading a life of mischief. Shunned and jealous of the success of his peers in their migration to various work sites in Sudan and the Gulf area, the misfit would join follow drop-outs and take to banditry. He would find no difficulty obtaining equipment for his new business. The thirty years war in Chad (1962-1992), a Cold War battle that pitted Libya (supported by the Soviets against various Chadian rebels supported by the USA, Egypt, and Sudan), overflowed into Sudan, dumped billions of dollars worth of arms in both Chad and Sudan, and attracted "mercenaries" particularly among the well-funded, Libyan Islamic Legionnaires who operated against Chad from bases in Sudan. The ideal season for Janjaweed activity is when inter-tribal wars take place like the ones raging in Darfur. Camel thievery has been long romanticized in pre-Islamic Arabia and Sudanese pastoral regions. The tradition has had something of a Robinhood quality. Thieves would seize the camels of rich land owners and drive them home in broad daylight. They would butcher some of them at bars for their lovers and friends. The poetic tradition emerging from this banditry evokes a belligerent loneliness and insights on the worth of life, money, women, courage, and the company of fellow bandits. Janjaweedism turned this poetic tradition of thievery into thuggery. Considering the complex political economy of Darfur, one is inclined to take seriously the Sudan government's denial of having control over the Janjaweed. Historically it should be remembered that central governments in Sudan have had a tenuous control over a country approximately one third of the size of the USA. Darfur alone is the size of France. Measuring their limited reach, the central governments have been in the habit of using selected local communities to fight a proxy. To bring Darfur into the fold of Sudan in 1874 and 1916, the Turkish regime (1821-1885) and the British administration (1989-1956) both had to mobilize local forces to achieve their goals. Furthermore, post independence governments allied with local communities in Southern Sudan to destroy the rebels of the region from within. Hence it is logical to assume that the current regime might have occasionally set the Janjaweed loose against the two rebel movements in Darfur. The regime especially abhors one of these movements for its suspected subjection to the control of Dr. Hasan al-Turabi, the godfather of the Sudan government before the famous fallout in 1999. It remains to be seen if this is the case. This government co-option of the Janjaweed, however, is a far cry from saying that it created it or even that it can break it. Sudanese government officials may have promised the international community something beyond its capacity when they committed the government to subdue the Janjaweed within a month ending September 2. While it protested that a month was not enough, the government succumbed under pressure, and the broken promise is haunting it. The report presented by the UN envoy to monitor the compliance of the government was critical of the Sudanese authorities for not restraining the Janjaweed after the passage of the month. And now international intervention in Sudan is being seriously considered. The international community may be right to intervene in timely fashion to protect a population at risk. But this intervention should take into consideration the long-term interests of the nation-building process in a country as raw as Sudan. Salman Rushdie said it best when he advised that the West should respond to 9/11 in a deft and measured way lest a random attack lead to bombing another Sudanese aspirin factory as the Clinton Administration did in 1998 to punish Sudan for its alleged role in destroying the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. But this intervention should be short and sweet. No Kosovo, please. After five long years of the intervention of the international community to save the Kosvars from Belgrade, the province is in limbo: the mobish, bloody outbreak last March is weighing heavily on the interventionist. The international community has to take the statistics of Darfur death victims with a grain of salt. Forensic teams estimate now that the Serbs and Kosvars who died as a result of ethnic confrontations before the war as a few thousand. Although enough to warrant an intervention, the number is way below the estimated 100.000 to 200.000 that mobilized people to support the Clinton war.
Dr.Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim teaches African history and Islam at the University Of Missouri-Columbia. His book Manichaean Delirium: Decolonizing the Judiciary and Islamic Renewal in Sudan, 1898-1885 is forthcoming from Brill.
(moved from user talk pages) Hi, you have put the Janjaweed under Category:Islamist groups. While most people seem to agree that the Sudanese government (which supports them) can be called islamist, I haven't been able to google more than one reference which labels the Janjaweed islamists, rather than, say, more secular Arab nationalists. You seem to have more information about the group's ideology, why not add it to the article? For now I have removed the category. regards, High on a tree 18:51, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)
Arabs range from the Arabian peninsula, to the Levant, to NW and NE Africa. They do not all decend from an Arabian population. Many Arabic speakers have been such since the expansion of an Arab empire after the founding of Islam, but it dates back earlier as well. Centuries before Mohammed, southern Arabian tribes moved further North and assimilated cultures to the North of them. What I'm getting at is that the reason Syrian Arabs, Moroccan Arabs, Sudanese Arabs, and Omani Arabs look different is because their ancestries are different. Genetic studies have show that in the Maghreb region, most "Arab" individuals are actually Berbers genetically, or so-called "racially." However, the people in these countries known as Berbers are those who continue to keep Berber languages and cultural practices. The same is true for Sudan. The Arabs in Sudan are Black. There's no getting around that. That is because they are Arabized. Their ancestry is African in vastly predominant part, not Asian. They merely speak an Asian language. Simply compare Saddam Hussein to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Saddam Hussein looks like the typical American perception of what an Arab looks like, al-Assad could easily pass as White in America, and Omar al-Bashir would immediately be considered Black in America. So, again, the primary distinction between Baggara Arabs (as those in the Janjaweed) and the so-called "Black Africans" is language, and more generally ethnic affiliation. 69.254.201.64 22:41, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
athe article contradicts itself, two meanings for janjaweed, how's that?
Obviously adding all these variants to the list of spellings is unwise, so I'm going to take the top five. (There are probably more.)
-- babbage 00:23, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)
The original etymology I was looking at was one I found here:
http://www.islamonline.net/English/ArtCulture/2004/08/article06.shtml:
The term janjaweed, originally borrowed from Chad, consists of three syllables: jan means ?man?; je means ?G-3 machine gun,? very popular in Darfur; wid means ?horse.? The whole word therefore means ?the man who rides a horse and carries a G-3 machine gun.?
Here's another (with dubious English):
http://www.darfournews.net/Darfournews_EN/Janjawed.htm
Janjaweed is A Darfurian local slang ? composed of three words, Dijin Jawad ( horse ) and Gim3 ( Gun ) it means in Sudanese collocial [sic] " A dijin [sic], that is holding a Gim3 gun and riding a horse " The term goes to those youth, who came for looting, raping away from government, local or central eyes ( Supervision ) .
And here's one more, from Al-Ahram:
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/701/re11.htm
Those tribe members who excel in horseback riding and hunting call themselves Janjaweed, an appellation said to blend three words: jinn (spirit), the English word "gun", and jawad (horse). Janjaweed, therefore, can be translated as a gun-toting, horse-riding fiend, so to speak.
Is there some way we could sort out the actual etymology of this word?
Just found this thread on the Arabic Linguist List:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0409C&L=arabic-l&P=R288&D=1&H=0&O=T&T=1
Maybe I should just let it go :)
-- babbage 09:06, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Take it as far as you want/can, is my attitude. If you can come up with the definitive answer, and a source we can point to, that would be an INVALUABLE service. BTW, reading that thread I find "al-janjaweed" (which I've added as a redirect, maybe I will add "al-" to the beginning of those other words on your list, and do those...), I'm not sure of our best arabic language resource... I'll put "seeking an expert in Arabic language issues" in my edit summary, and see if that brings help. I'm off, I'm going to see if there's some help at the wiki embassy... Pedant 21:54, 2004 Nov 9 (UTC)
My suspicion is that it's actually from some Darfurian language like Fur - it sure doesn't sound Arabic... - Mustafaa 15:59, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)
i'm a saudi arab and we have black muslims here who do well. i don't see any kind of miss treatment because of theor dark skin, so why is this an issue in sudan who look no different from other black africans? and arab is an ethnic term, so who ever said arabs are those who speak it only is incorrect. arabs are semitic in race and and black are negro in race. i don't know why people act as if they know about arabs and. arabs from syria to yemen are of the same blood. north africa has about half arab and half berber population. the funny thing is, next the same people who say a person is arab only if he speaks the language will tell us italians are anyone who speaks italian and germans are any one who speaks germany, even if that person is from china. it ridiculous. all you're trying to do is weaken the ARABS and that won't work!
OH PLEASE SPARE ME B.S. HAFIZ AL-ASSAD OF SYRIA LOOKS TYPICAL FOR AN ARAB. YOU SEE WE ARABS COME IN DIFFERENT COLORS JUST LIKE BLACK PEOPLE DO. FOR EXAMPLE HALLE BERRY WHO IS HALF WHITE AND BY THE WAY HAS WHITE FEATURES IS SEEN AS BLACK, IF SO WHY CAN'T AN ARAB COME IN A DIFFERENT COLOR? MUST WE ALL HAVE THE SAME SKIN TONE? I THINK NOT. ALTHOUGH ARABS COME IN A VERIETY OF COLORS FROM DARK SKINNED BEDOUINS TO THE LIGHT SKINNED URBAN ARABS WHO SEEK SHADE, WE ALL SHARE THE SAME RACIAL FEATURES. JUST LIKE IN AFRICA, YOU HAVE PEOPLE WHO COME IN THE DARKEST BLACK TO THE PYGIMES WHO ARE YELLOW IN COLOR ARE OF THE SAME RACE, LOOK AT THEIR FACIAL FEATURES. THE SUN CAN CHANGE THE COLOR OF ONE'S SKIN. BUT IT DOESN'T AFFECT THE BONE STRUCTURE OF A PERSON'S FACE. EVEN IF THE BERBERS ARE NOT ARAB, THEY CERTAINLY RESEMBLE ARABS ALOT MORE CLOSER THAN THEY WOULD ANY NATIVE AFRICAN. WITH THIS BEING SAID ... I AM A PROUD ARAB, BUT I DON'T FEEL AS A HUMAN THAT AN ARAB IS BETTER THAN A BLACK AFRICAN. AS HUMANS WE ARE ALL THE SAME. WE CAN ONLY BE JUGDED AS INDIVIDUALS AND NOT AS A WHOLE.
I am getting rid of the NPOV dispute as there have been no major edits to this article since November and nothing on the talk page since December. — Trilobite (Talk) 22:53, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)
"Characterising the Darfur war as 'Arabs' versus 'Africans' obscures the reality. Darfur's Arabs are black, indigenous, African and Muslim - just like Darfur's non-Arabs, who hail from the Fur, Masalit, Zaghawa and a dozen smaller tribes."
Editors need to be more careful and diligent about characterizing this group. According to most academic and historical sources, designating the Janjaweed as "Arab" (by race) is careless. The Janjaweed identify as Arabs, but are racially black African. I'll work on incorporating more sources to back this up. I've already put a few up.-- Kitrus 08:17, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
Due to the plethora of discussion about the racial identify this article is only reflecting one opinion, it thus is factually inaccurate. Arab is not a race see Arab. Until balance of opinion is written into this article the dispute tag is needed to warn readers. Darfurs Arabs are lingusitic Arabs not Arabs in the western sense of the word. Also there is a serious lack of any African sources and last time i checked Sudan was in Africa.-- HalaTruth(ሐላቃህ) 09:42, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
How do you pronounce Janjaweed?14:02, 18 April 2007 (UTC) ) Pretty much the way it's spelled. Both J's are pronounced as soft G's, and the A's are short. The first syllable is the same as the name John; the second is juh (jə); the third, whether spelled "wid" or "weed," is pronounced like the weed in your garden. Accent on the first syllable, secondary accent on the last syllable.
So is the etymology established or unproven? That is all. - Gilgamesh 04:51, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
I think the nomenclature janjaweed militia, as used by savedarfur.org is correct.
145.253.2.236 22:15, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
Who cares? The janjaweed are just a bunch of murderers anyway! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.102.175.102 ( talk) 03:43, 8 June 2008 (UTC)
We're doomed. [ 1] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.4.171.9 ( talk) 23:08, 30 August 2009 (UTC)
here i am writing my first view point of Dar fur crisis which contain a graet deal of suffering and bitterness specially of those who lack the fire of war and those who an instabiltity and the persueing of thr regim of sudan government.
we are always thinking and asking a bout the united nations role of this confillicts it took more than six years but till now no solutions for the region people . —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.64.25.157 ( talk) 08:46, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
Is there such a thing as an unarmed gunman? J.M. Archer ( talk) 16:56, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
I like this article. It also makes a point of mentioning "armed partisans." They are armed and they carry weapons. Yes they are. :) J.M. Archer ( talk) 16:57, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
I removed the statement regarding the accuracy of the UN definition of the Janjaweed, because it didn't contradict that information. There could be 100 more ethnic groups with members in the Janjaweed and it could still be true that the militia's core is principally constituted of members of the two ethnic groups stated. 50.147.26.108 ( talk) 15:37, 9 April 2014 (UTC)
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