In 2003, a couple of major things happened. 50 Cent blew up and G-Unit took over the music industry, Jay-Z “retired,” and Eminem won an Oscar. It was a big year for Hip Hop. These things we remember vividly, as they were the subject of endless media fanfare (seriously, how many articles did you read about Hova claiming he was done with the rap game?).

Sadly, while you and I were bumpin’ “Dirt Off Your Shoulders” and “In Da Club” that year, a tragedy that has been dubbed the number one humanitarian crisis in the world began – the genocide in Darfur.

“What’s going on in Darfur?”

Darfur is a western region of Sudan, which is the largest country in Africa and borders the Central African Republic, Libya and Chad. Darfur has a complex history characterized by violence and manipulation. After being colonized and abandoned by Britain and surviving several civil wars, Sudan was plagued by tensions between the Arab and non-Arab peoples.

When atrocities against non-Arabs were allowed by the Sudanese government, non-Arab groups formed the SLA (Sudanese Liberation Army). The SLA launched attacks against the government; in response, the Sudanese government took advantage of its nation’s existing prejudices in a scheme to not only rid itself of the SLA, but all of the non-Arabs – including civilians.

In 2003, the government of Sudan cut a deal with the Janjaweed – a collection of thousands of mercenaries – in order to have them murder the non-Arab tribes of Darfur. In order to buff up their mercenary army, the Sudanese government released criminals from jails and paid money to anyone willing to kill.

The result? Over 400,000 people have died since 2003 from the violence. Let me do my best Rakim impression and drop some science on you all: that’s 100,000 people a year; 274 people a day; 11 people an hour. That means during the past four years, 11 people have died every single hour.

In addition to the deaths, over 2.5 million people have been forced to leave their homes, and are entirely dependant on international aid to keep them alive. To make matters worse, the International Criminal Court has alleged “mass rape of civilians who were known not to be participants in any armed combat.” Simply put, there’s a reason that Darfur ranks at the top of all current humanitarian crises in the world.

“So the United States/Nations is taking care of this, right?”

President Bush’s policy towards Sudan has produced similar results to Hurricane Katrina – lots of talk, little action. Though he declared the crisis in Darfur genocide in September of 2004, Bush hasn’t done much of anything except impose economic sanctions on the nation.

Even more disappointing than the United States’ response is the United Nations’. Rather than help the situation, United Nations members Russia and China have not only prevented the UN from taking a proactive stance in keeping peace, but they’ve sold weapons to the Sudanese government, resulting in profit from genocide (don’t believe that one? Check it for yourself – Amnesty International’s report on the matter can be read here).

“Why haven’t I heard about this before?”

How many of you can point out Darfur on a map? I’d be willing to bet more of you can name which rapper was most recently featured on BET’s 106 & Park – and no, I’m not dissin’ you or anyone else reading this article, because the media has played a big part in the information we have about the crisis in Darfur. A study by BeAWitness.org showed that in 2005, Michael Jackson’s trial, Tom Cruise, and the Runaway Bride were covered by ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC 65 times as much as the genocide in Sudan. Let that one sink in for a second.

With the media dictating what’s important to us, it’s no wonder most people care more about meaningless bullshit like the latest celebrity in rehab than people dying in some country they’ve never even heard of. Hell, the Hip Hop community’s just as guilty in its coverage, isn’t it? We stay reporting on lame-ass beefs (Timbaland vs. Scott Storch? Are you kidding me?), and bloggers stay blogging about Lil Wayne’s questionable heterosexuality, and the ignorant stay ignorant.

That leads us to our next and final question, ladies and gentlemen:

“What can I do?”

Like Nas wisely said on "I Can," “Read more, learn more, change the globe.” Get educated and learn your stuff. You’ve just been given the basics; now it’s time for you to seek out the real knowledge. Most importantly, never let someone tell you that this isn’t a fight worth fighting.

“I will never forget walking out of my house the first day of the killings. There were people in the streets who I had known for seven years, neighbors of mine who had come over to our place for regular Sunday cookouts. These people were wearing military uniforms that had been handed out by the militia. They were holding machetes and were trying to get inside the houses…of those who refused to go along with the murders.”
-- Paul Rusesabagina, An Ordinary Man

If this sounds too horrible to be true, you’re in for a rude wake up call. The words above were written about the genocide which occurred in Rwanda (a nation in east-central Africa) in 1994. Over the course of 100 days, 800,000 people were slaughtered because of their ethnic background, and during that time the United States and United Nations failed to act. However, while the Rwandan genocide was a case of “too little too late,” it was eventually stopped, and the world proclaimed “Never again!”

If those words sound familiar, it’s because they’re the same words we used after the Holocaust, during which Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime systematically murdered six million European Jews. It’s fair to say that Darfur is a horrifically perfect example of history repeating itself.

As citizens of the world, it is time for us to decide whether we will continue to allow the same mistakes made by our predecessors in Rwanda and Europe, or make a stand to give the words “never again” the meaning they deserve.

Check out the movie The Devil Came On Horseback for an in depth look at the conflict.